---
title: Carrots and Sticks
url: "https://www.systra.com/uk/expert_insights/carrots-and-sticks/"
type: expert_insights
date_published: 2021-08-23
date_modified: 2023-09-14
schema:
  @type: WebPage
language: en-GB
word_count: 1286
reading_time: 7 min
canonical: "https://www.systra.com/uk/expert_insights/carrots-and-sticks/"
featured_image: "https://www.systra.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2023/04/ev-charging-scaled.jpg"
type-insight:
  - Sustainable Transport
---

# Carrots and Sticks

![ev charging](https://www.systra.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2023/04/ev-charging-scaled.jpg)

**Mitigating climate change around the world requires collaboration from all countries to be effective.**

C02 emissions result in profit for some governments and the option to pollute
rather than ‘clean up’ is often the cheaper and easiest option. Game theory may
play a part in understanding how to tackle this enormous behavioural challenge.
If you see the earth’s resources as a pie in equal parts with every country
taking their piece; if a handful of countries take too much, then the system
collapses. How do you police this system throughout different countries with
different laws and attitudes? I spoke to Mike Scott and Alison Pickett about how
we can make incremental adjustments to behaviour within the UK and Ireland.

COVID-19 has temporarily led to fewer car trips, but road user charges could
still be a valid method for reducing traffic, despite its unpopularity. In April
2021, Baroness Brown suggested that “public attitudes have changed on this issue
and that road user charging would be a fair way to handle motoring taxation
after the phasing out of diesel and petrol vehicles”. SYSTRA’s Alison Pickett
considers that road charging should be on a case by case basis as you don’t want
to ‘punish’ people for using cars when it may be their only viable form of
transport.

As well as charging, there should be increased provision of viable active travel
options; particularly within rural areas. Mike Scott (SYSTRA) states that
breaking the cycle of public transport decline in these areas is hard; “fewer
people want to use the buses (especially post-COVID). So, there’s less fares and
money around. And inevitably, the response to that is to reduce the service,
thereby losing more passengers, thereby losing more money.” Public transport
should be considered as a public service, but there are far more business
decisions behind the cancelling of regular services.

Integrated transport may provide a practical short-term solution. Integrated
transport involves the combining of different modes of transport to maximise
ease and efficiency for the user in terms of time, cost, comfort, safety,
accessibility, and convenience. To be successful, transport interchanges need to
be made seamless; ensuring that park and ride facilities, stations, cycleways,
inner city bus stations all work in collaboration. Can this infrastructure be
implemented throughout Ireland and the UK successfully? Alison believes that it
would need to be with the leadership and backing of local councils and
stakeholders; but that implementation can prove controversial as people have
objected to measure such as the implementation of measures to provide
infrastructure such as bus priority and segregated cycle lanes, particularly if
it impacts on the availability of car parking/storage.

Mike states that transport systems are “too fragmented because of their
management over the last 40 years. However, the UK government has just issued a
new National Bus Strategy which is advocating more ‘partnership working’ and
more integration between travel modes. However, he added that the costs of
integrated travel tickets can put people off: “one of the real key constraints
is the availability of affordable and cheap and simple pricing and ticketing”.
As well as cost, the user needs to know that they can reach their destination
within their time boundaries, that the journey will be safe, comfortable, and
convenient, having all information accessible to them. Buses and trains also
need to be marketed as desirable forms of transport to encourage their use.

![](https://www.systra.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2023/06/bus-stop-button-shutterstock_23293462-1024x681.jpg)

As well as charging, there should be increased provision of viable active travel
options; particularly within rural areas. Mike Scott (SYSTRA) states that
breaking the cycle of public transport decline in these areas is hard;
_“fewer people want to use the buses (especially post-COVID). So, there’s less fares and money around. And inevitably, the response to that is to reduce the service, thereby losing more passengers, thereby losing more money.”_
Public transport should be considered as a public service, but there are far
more business decisions behind the cancelling of regular services.

Mike Scott, Director for Transport Planning Policy and Strategy, SYSTRA

The use of electric vehicles is one contributing factor to achieving net zero
carbon in transport. In the UK, infrastructure for electric vehicles is starting
to be put in place, but not to its fullest capacity. One way around this could
be to place electric charging within people’s homes if they want one. This is
not always practical or possible; 62% of households in the UK don’t have access
to a driveway where an electric vehicle charger could be installed. Mike states
“there’s a financial practicality barrier there.

You could attach two chargers to every street lamp in the country costing a lot
of money and that would probably satisfy some of the demand. But would you gain
recompense for that as a council?”. Alison suggests that in the future (and
pending legislation), electric scooters might be another alternative within
urban areas, particularly for “short trips and to provide that first mile/last
mile connectivity.” She concludes that “one of the biggest benefits of this mode
is social inclusion and providing flexible access to jobs and opportunities to
people who can’t afford cars.”

How do you create behavioural change within a populace away from the freedom of
car use and achieve the carrots and sticks approach? Mike believes that “public
transport and active travel is never going to offer the same level of simplicity
as a car, but it can move towards that level of simplicity”. Alison believes
that a ‘nudge’ approach is appropriate, like starting a diet: “Driving is a
habit and habits are hard to break. Moving house or starting a new job is a key
life change for some people, where there is an opportunity to break that habit
and consider other options such as using public transport to travel to that new
job.

The setup needs to be uncomplicated, “If the bus is delayed, there might be an
alert; whether it’s on your phone or at the bus stop itself. Ticketing payment
needs to be right, so it’s not just for people who use public transport all the
time; it needs to be easy to understand and seen as good value for money. If
you’re using a train station; how good is that integration with cycling; are
there cycle shelters there and are they secure? What are the cycle routes like?
All of these things need to be taken into consideration.”

The biggest obstacle is that what is best and easiest for the individual isn’t
always best for the group. Making things simpler seems to be the key to making
small changes to people’s ability to give up the freedoms they enjoyed in the
past to play a greater part in making positive steps towards zero carbon. More
drastic changes need to be made however; The CCC report 
[Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk](https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/independent-assessment-of-uk-climate-risk/)
, warned of heatwaves, extreme rainfall and greater flood risk across most of
the UK.

This also requires a combined, universal effort to make inroads into positive
change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), stated in 
[this article](https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210623-the-worst-is-yet-to-come-draft-un-climate-report-warns-of-drastic-changes-over-30-years)
 that “The choices societies make now will determine whether our species thrives
or simply survives as the 21st century unfolds. We need transformational change
operating on processes and behaviours at all levels: individual, communities,
business, institutions and governments,” added the IPCC.

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