Behavioural policy design for a car-dependent transport regime Shifting to sustainable alternatives

Our experiences in an urban setting are driven by the choices we make and the perception we have about the urban-spaces. This paper is an attempt to illustrate the immediate need of putting personal experiences and community needs with respect to mobility in the forefront by prioritizing their travel behaviour models for city planning. The paper aims to present a deeper insight into how behavioural design when inculcated into traditional policy designs as ‘ behavioural nudges’ help i n reducing the level of car pride among residents, taking into consideration the learnings from global examples about factors that drive people towards car-pro attitude. This paper attempts to establish human-focused design as a driver for better transport policy outcomes by tapping onto the social values, past experiences and habits, and mental models. Lastly, the study outlines the application of behavioural sciences to facilitate a shift from a ‘car - dependent’ to a ‘sustainable’ transport regime, driven by gamified information systems and digital paradigms built for the people by using drivers that motivate the very same people. The question here is how people collectively make decisions about travel choices since the key to the behavioural design is to make these community-driven decisions simple, easy yet effective.