Is road safety effective in promoting eco-driving? An experiment on how benefit framing affects eco-driving intentions among Montreal drivers

Abstract

In Quebec, Canada, the transportation sector is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Given the widespread use of personal cars, raising awareness about eco-driving—a set of fuel-saving behaviours—can help encourage the adoption of lower-carbon practices. Framing eco-driving in terms of its economic and environmental benefits is a promising communication technique to promote this practice, although evidence of its effectiveness remains mixed. Furthermore, while certain eco-driving behaviours contribute to road safety, the use of safety framing—particularly when presented as a community benefit—had yet to be empirically tested as an a priori strategy for promoting eco-driving. To fill this gap, we examined how three distinct goal frames—economic (egoistic-gain), environmental (biospheric-moral), and road safety (altruistic-moral)—influence intentions to adopt four eco-driving behaviours: avoiding hard braking and acceleration, removing bulky external objects, avoiding very high speeds, and choosing the shortest route. We conducted an online experimental survey with drivers (N = 620) from Montreal, Canada. Participants were equally divided into four groups and asked to indicate their intention to adopt the targeted eco-driving behaviours. Before rating their intention, the three experimental groups were presented with eco-driving advice framed in terms of environmental, economic, or road safety benefits, while the control group received no advice. Compared to the control condition, the road safety frame was the only one to generate significantly stronger intentions to adopt eco-driving. This effect was consistent across all four behaviours tested. Our findings highlight the importance of focusing on community benefits when promoting pro-environmental behaviours.