
How one postcard can increase the number of cyclists in your city
Updated: Aug 31, 2020

Can you tell me why every city is not doing this?
It's true, cities like Paris have been doing a lot to increase the number of cyclists in town. ๐ฒ
๐๐ฝ Financial support to buy/fix bikes
๐๐ฝ Build new bicycle paths
๐๐ฝ Increase the number of bike-sharing stations
It cost a lot of moneyโฆ and the results are here.
The number of Parisians using bikes rose 54% from September 2018 to 2019. ๐
However, if the city wants to grow this number again they might want to look at the freshstart approach.
Example :
Portland was looking to increase take-up of its bike-sharing program, BIKETOWN.
Postcards promoting the program were sent to 2 groups:
1) residents who had recently moved
2) residents who had a new bike station recently installed in their neighbourhood
Results:
People who had recently moved were ๐บ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฐ ๐๐ถ๐บ๐ฒ๐ as likely to respond to the postcard and take up the service than group 2.
Why?
Because itโs a lot easier to change habits when youโre making big life changes like moving to a new home or starting a new job.
When doing so, you're breaking the old habits and are ready to make new ones.
On the contrary, the people who had a new bike station newly installed in their neighbourhood were not experiencing any changes in their current habits.
For some detailed explanations on why, have a look at the article on the status quo bias.
Timing is everything!
So next time, you would like to make your friends, colleagues, family adopt cycling in town, don't miss their next life change (new house, new jobs, new marital status...)
So why not more cities are doing this?
Want to learn more? Register to our newsletters to receive exclusive content.
I want to subscribe to the newsletter