Shifting people’s thinking to increase support for walking, riding and taking public transport
Many New Zealanders share a vision of living in towns and cities where all people can move around in healthy, enjoyable ways.
This vision requires streets that meet everyone’s needs, including children, older people, and disabled people.
Creating real options for more people to walk, ride bikes and use public transport more often has a large impact on our health and on our environmental impact.
The barriers at play
To deliver on this vision, people in the public need to see, understand and demand changes to how we design and build our cities and transport systems.
Our built environment determines the options we have for getting to the places we need and want to go—but the dominant shared way of public thinking and reasoning is that transport = cars.
This shared mental model makes it hard for people to see that we can change how our towns and cities are designed and how our transport system can enable walking, riding and taking public transport.
Big changes need big support. The more people who understand and back the changes needed to achieve the vision, then the easier it is for people in local and central government to make them happen (and for successive leaders to keep them in place).
We needed members of the public to understand what it would look like to have a transport system that met everyone’s specific needs, and how that in turn would better everyone’s lives.
Working with Waka Kotahi on a solution
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi knew they first needed to understand more about how the public think and reason about transport.
Then they needed ways of talking about transport (especially about walking, riding, and public services) which would enable people to hear clearly, and understand more deeply, how policy, practice and infrastructure changes would lead to a better Aotearoa New Zealand.
Their goal was to increase support for more people to walk, ride and take public transport.
Waka Kotahi approached us for help:
understanding shared ways of thinking
developing effective, tested narratives and frames to help shift people’s thinking
garnering support across the sector to use these effective frames well.
As part of their strategic direction, Waka Kotahi had a vision for our cities to be easy and safe for all people and communities to get around. One where our primary modes of transport work well for children, elderly, disabled people, and the environment.
This vision was the result of evidence showing numerous harms were occurring across New Zealand society as a result of car centric urban infrastructure. Further evidence showed a shift to active and public transport modes would significantly improve people’s lives and reduce these harms.
Local and international research shows when alternative modes of transport are available, people then use them.
In 2020 Waka Kotahi approached The Workshop to identify public understanding of the issues relating to transport. The end goal was to find evidence-informed ways of talking about changing how we move around our towns and cities. Waka Kotahi knew they would need to build support for the policies, practices and infrastructure projects that would make it easy, obvious and enjoyable to move around our towns and cities on foot, by bike and on public transport. They understood that changing policy and practice without productive public understanding would be difficult to implement and even harder to maintain.
Over to us.
What we did
Research
We listened to experts in transport and urban design, interviewed members of the public, and reviewed literature from Aotearoa and overseas to understand how transport and urban mobility was understood and talked about. We sought to identify the shared mental models that would get in the way of introducing evidence driven changes, and those that would switch on support for mode shift.
Early findings showed that most people thought of transport as roads and cars. People reasoned that the mode of transport was determined mainly by personal preferences, and that moving cars quickly through a town was the most important issue to address. These mental models make it hard to see how creating real options to walk, ride and take public transport could benefit us all in both the short and long term.
The way transport was talked about prioritised money and productivity outcomes, making it hard for people to see and think about transport’s role in health, mental wellbeing, independence and safety (particularly for children) and protecting the environment. These were key goals.
Our research also made clear that people saw changes to transport as a zero-sum-game, where shifts would lead to an individual loss, for example loss of personal on-road parking for cycle lanes. When this mental model is dominant we see groups pitted against each other for space and resources. This doesn’t reflect the way most of us actually live in our towns and cities, because we’re part of a broader community and people use many forms of transport depending on the situation.
A key element was the division of people based on the division of people based on the type of transport they most identified with, for example cyclist versus driver.
For example, drivers vs cyclists, business vs council. Identity groupings undermine our ability to have productive conversations and make plans that work for us all over the long term.
We needed the public to realise the opportunities a transport system geared towards non-car modes would offer. For example, cleaner air to breathe on account of less carbon pollution, more opportunity to be active, and improved mental wellbeing.
We identified mental models that would achieve a mode shift by switching on care for the environment, and the need for equitable access to transport for everyone–including people with disabilities, caregivers with children, and people with limited options. We emphasised change would contribute to a good life for all people: specifically, more green spaces and a desire for connection and connectedness.
The next stage of work
These findings informed developing and testing new frames and narratives that would help people see, understand and support the changes required.
Collectively, we explored three key frames:
opening our streets for everyone
childhood independence offered by alternative modes of transport
responsible management for the long term
We developed and tested messages in experimental and non experimental surveys. All three frames significantly increased people’s support for mode shift policies, as shown in the figure below:
Figure 1
The most effective messages were documented in the framing report launched in December 2022 - How to talk about opening our streets to people who walk, ride bikes and take public transport.
The report was supported by a messaging toolkit for those creating communications and was designed for both those working at a national level within Waka Kotahi and experts and advocates for mode shift, as well as those working at a local level including councils and community groups.
Using framing to create support for change
Having effective frames and narratives that help people understand and support change is critical. But for real change to happen, those frames needed to be put into action.
The next step in the project was to make sure the effective frames could be shared widely and consistently, giving people the confidence and tools to shape conversations in their own contexts.
While The Workshop team were busy completing research, work was also underway to build the capability, capacity and confidence for people who would be using these narratives and frames.
We led a programme of training for Waka Kotahi and their partners and collaborators so they would be able to use these new proven frames.
207 people from Waka Kotahi completed training or attended a learning session with us and we supported 34 key practitioners with coaching and mentoring sessions. Through a series of talks, webinars and training sessions, more than 100 people from across the sector engaged with this mahi.
Waka Kotahi understood it takes more than one messenger to shift a narrative, and ensured people across the sector had access to the research, tools and guides we created so they could reinforce these ways of talking about transport that were proven to shift thinking.
“Anyone that I’ve asked that did that training has got real value out of it, and not just from the transport side of things. All the other people who kind of went through that training all came out of it with something different, being able to critically analyse the news of the day, or the current events that were on at the time. Also, just the networking opportunity – [with] likeminded people or industry partners from New Plymouth, Napier, or Masterton.” – Peter McGlashan, Waka Kotahi
“Learning about what works in advocacy, and what doesn’t help us stop wasting time arguing with the naysayers and build positive narratives that appeal to people who are persuadable. It helped us build common narratives with advocates for health, climate and justice.” – Patrick Morgan, Cycling Action Network
What happened as a result
People used the frames and narratives! And not just those that might have attended a webinar or training.
The research report and messaging toolkit landed at a time when many councils were actively delivering walking, cycling and public transport projects co-funded by Waka Kotahi and local government.
This created many opportunities for the tested helpful narratives to be used and shared by both those delivering and advocating for the projects and the benefits they deliver to communities. We saw a shift in how projects were talked about.
“Our streets need to work for everyone who uses them. Yesterday we announced 13 councils across the country will receive new funding to implement accelerated street change projects for walking and cycling, as part of the Streets for People programme.” – Kathryn King, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency
“Woven is another example of an awesome placemaking event in Avondale. I’d love to open the streets for the people on a more regular basis to encourage more locals to use our streets and have fun in our public places.” –Fasitua Amosa. Whau Local Board deputy chair
“I’ve been inspired by the 2walkandcycle conference and I’m writing a petition to get raised crossings outside my sons’ kindy and school. As soon as I started writing it I opened up The Workshop guide to talking about opening up our streets and easy as pie it helped me write something one million times better and 20 times faster than it would’ve otherwise taken me. I honestly use it all and time and I’m so so grateful.” – Peri Zee, Advocate
Other examples of these frames and narratives in action include the Talk Wellington Advocates Network and Stuff NZ’s mode shift series about transport.
Responding to false information
As the volume and scale of stories about how changing the way we move around our towns and cities could benefit us all grew, so too did false information from those opposed to these measures.
Conspiracy theories imported from other places started to appear in some localities, prompting a proactive response from Waka Kotahi.
At The Workshop, we delivered training on tactics to respond to false information for communications and engagement professionals and urban mobility staff across Waka Kotahi.
The training equipped those responsible for responding to false information with the skills, tactics and confidence to know how to respond in ways that didn’t amplify false facts and enabled good quality information to continue to be shared.
“I love that there are tangible ways to build [responding to false information] into our comms strategies and plans; e.g. working up the truth sandwich as part of our planning. —Training participant
Building practice at pace and in a time-poor context
Waka Kotahi faced a challenge with timing—they needed solid research to ensure effective messaging but also needed those messages immediately for their communications and projects.
“That’s the challenge for organisations like us, where there’s academia, where it will take you years to get something, and then there’s consultants where you’ll get it pretty quick…trying to find that happy medium where we knew that this was going to need to be a slow-burn, but it was also needed really quickly, and there was this tension between the two. How do you push this rock up a hill, but at the same time, get some wins along the way?” – Peter McGlashan, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency
The Urban Mobility team at Waka Kotahi identified a key challenge with this work, which is that following best practice, evidence-based strategic framing requires some unlearning of habitual ways of communicating. Then it involves learning new strategies and practices for creating communications.
It’s time consuming. Finding time to unlearn and then practice new ways of doing things while in the middle of delivering on projects and priorities puts an extra load on those responsible for reframing communication. This load meant that some people rejected the advice because it felt too hard or too different to put into practice, while others sought ways to make it easier to practice.
As a result, one member of the team created a ‘quick guide’ which took the key frames and framing principles and made them even shorter and simpler.
The quick guide is a great example of taking the full advice, finding the changes in framing that would make the most impact and prioritising them based on organisational context. Reframe Aotearoa found it very insightful to see what content was prioritised in the quick guide, and applied what we learned from this to practice to other tools and resources across this work.
“I’ve created this little toolkit designed for people that don’t have all of those hours a week to commit across eight weeks, but that they can go away with the basics – like don’t start with the problem!” – Team member, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency
Reframing modeshift created impact
The transport system is large and dynamic with many systems and actors that influence how transport solutions are designed, delivered and used across our towns and cities.
This makes it challenging to directly measure the impact Reframe Aotearoa had, as the goal was to build support for policies, practices and infrastructure projects that would deliver on Waka Kotahi’s vision.
However, we measured the impact of our strategic narrative and framing research and advice through the following six criteria:
Communicators feel empowered, hopeful and confident
We have direct feedback from people we’ve interacted with through training, webinars, coaching and mentoring, as well as from those that have picked up the Research report and messaging guide to use on their own.
“There was a mix of people who came onboard. Most were in the public servant space, but there were also some local government politicians or elected officials. I’m hopeful that those people will hang around. Once you’ve done this type of stuff, it shapes how you tackle any problem. It’s not just talking about transport, or climate change.” [Recounted] – Peter McGlashan, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency
“The narrative for change training has been a really amazing tool and skillset for people, and I was lucky enough to be in a group with a relationship manager from Waka Kotahi, as well as someone from Council, and so it was really cool to have those group discussions, and be able to really readily talk about the application of what we were learning each week. My favourite aspect was the Council partner taking us through what she was thinking, being able to sort of overlay what she was learning, therefore creating a really amazing accessible sort of campaign, and then hearing about her success she had with those, and just watching her confidence grow.” – Team member, Waka Kotahi
“The Mode Shift advice was crucial in refocusing our advocacy away from myth busting and towards a values-led approach. Fewer facts, more values and story-telling.” —Patrick Morgan, Cycling Action Network
There is social licence to use framing and narratives as an approach in their organisation
As a large organisation responsible for all elements of land transport, Waka Kotahi made great progress in using framing and narrative as an approach.
There were teams and areas of work where this was embraced more strongly than in others, due to the nature of their work and the context in which they operate as a crown agency.
Interestingly, we saw social licence strongly in organisations outside of Waka Kotahi. This example from Cycle Wellington demonstrates that the narrative and framing advice was adopted, normalised and even preferred over previous communications approaches.
“Based on your guidance and our experience as advocates, we developed this guide for constructive conversations about better transport, a better city, and better lives. The guide is aimed at our supporters and candidates running for city council.” — Cycle Wellington member
People use narratives and frames to better explain complex issues
There was a noticeable shift in how walking, cycling and taking public transport was talked about across organisations and media.
While the dominant narrative of roads = cars is still the most prominent transport narrative, there are now well used and widely shared alternative narratives appearing. The most noticeable change is the uptake of the metaphor ‘opening streets’ and the use of ‘freedom and independence’ for children framing. We see this being used consistently across the information environment.
“The best test of any street is whether there are people reflecting the full diversity of society. Streets should be inviting for everybody to spend time, play and make journeys on foot, cycle or by public transport” — Healthy Families East Cape
Using this research as a base and adding locally specific research, Reframe Aotearoa have supported two local councils to effectively frame local transport and climate projects.
We worked with Auckland Council to strategically frame their reduction of vehicle kilometers travelled project and Porirua City Council in framing their transport strategy.
People/public show deeper understanding of complex issues
Without doing further research or having access to consultation data around mode shift projects this is a difficult criteria to find evidence for, but, anecdotally, conversations around shifting how we move around cities is still robust—and at times heated.
The noticeable difference is the consistency of how people who support changes to open our streets use the frames to explain why they support change.
“I've also noticed other advocates and politicians applying framing and narratives from The Workshop. To me, this feels like a significant shift in our politics.” — Patrick Morgan, Cycling Action Network
People support and take action towards solutions that make the biggest difference
Well embedded programmes of work like Wellington’s Paneke Pōneke that have drawn on the frames we recommend are continuing at pace, with support from the general public. In general support for mode shift (and safer speeds) is withstanding a change in funding and a shift in some political rhetoric about active and public transport. We note particularly the strong use of child wellbeing and independence frames in the transport space by advocates.
We watch with interest to see how people take action in those locations where councils are continuing to progress projects that open their streets to more people. ‘
What we learned
Consistent use of frames and narratives were key for success
Having tactics to reactively respond to misinformation complemented proactive efforts
Cross functional efforts led to the best outcomes
Social proof amplifies helpful narratives
Consistent use of proven frames and narratives were key for success
From policy writers to town planners, consultants, advocates, communicators and community level activists, having a broad range of people with effective frames and the ability to use them created consistency in how walking, riding bikes and taking public transport was talked about.
Having tactics to reactively respond to misinformation complemented proactive efforts
False information spreads for different reasons and in different ways. It can be factually incorrect information that is intentionally created and spread in order to achieve a particular outcome, or can be information that is picked up and shared by people who may not know the information is factually incorrect, or they believe that by sharing it they are aiding a more helpful public conversation. It can also be spread by those with good intention through myth-busting or negating false information.
Changes to how we use our public spaces, especially roads and spaces for parking can spark the creation and spread of false information.
In the case of one local council working to deliver shared paths and protected cycleways, a conspiracy theory was imported from overseas and used by those opposing the changes to seed doubt in the community. This prompted the addition of training on how to respond to false information.
We’ve learnt that people communicating about changes like this need to be equipped with both helpful ways of framing their work and tactics to respond to false information.
In future projects where false information is a known risk, like transport, we’ll encourage proactively building capability for both scenarios.
Cross functional efforts led to the best outcomes
A strength of this project was that people from different professional disciplines came together to collaborate. Sometimes, framing is seen as the exclusive realm of communicators or only policy writers, which misses the opportunity to have all the disciplines that contribute to change to be part of the story.
Training that included people with engineering or technical expertise, programme planners, operations, policy creators and communicators resulted in deeper learning and a more supportive environment for those responsible for communications.
Social proof amplifies helpful narratives
Social proof describes stories that either demonstrate the vision in reality, or show that people value similar things (like freedom and independence for children).
Waka Kotahi and local government partners intentionally told stories that delivered social proof that changing the way we move around our towns and cities is possible and desirable for many people. They used social proof stories to show that common assumptions of limitations to walking, riding and cycling were not the only option.
Stories that highlighted parents taking their children to daycare by bike, disabled people using public transport, women riding to work, all served to show that having options for moving around delivers benefits for many different groups of people, not just those that first come to mind (which was often a mental model of lycra wearing roadies).
The reminder that social proof stories hold immense power is something we’ve taken into our implementation advice for other work.
We’re proud of the work we did with Waka Kotahi and their partners on this project and look forward to digging into similar challenges in other spaces.
Project details
People involved in this project
The research was undertaken for The Workshop by Dr. Sharon Bell, Ellen Ozarka, and Dr. Jess Berentson-Shaw. The guide and messaging toolkit were written by Jayne Dalmer and Julie Fairfield. Dr. Rebecca Grey completed the early literature review.
Acknowledgements
We would like to offer our deepest gratitude to those that contributed to this work and to Waka Kotahi for funding the project.
This work would not have happened without the support, expertise and research of many knowledge holders and experts including:
Dr. Huhana Hickey, Tamatha Paul, Mary Fisher and Erin Gough for their advice and expertise on understanding mode shift, and framing it from the perspective of disabled people
Dr. Caroline Shaw, Dr Rhys Jones, Dr. Bridget Burdett, Emma McInnes, Patrick Morgan, Gerri Pomeroy, Lourdes Vano, Simon Wilson and Lisa Rossiter for their insights and knowledge on walking, cycling and public transport issues
Dr. Eleanor Glenn and Mark Chenery and Common Cause Australia for their early advice, and their generosity in sharing the results of their own research on framing walking and cycling
Kathryn King, Peter McGlashan, Dr Kirsty Wild and Stephanie Whyte from the Urban Mobility Team of Waka Kotahi
All of the focus group members and survey respondents.
Project resources
How to talk about urban mobility and transport shift -Short guide
Framing Mode Shift: Research Findings Report
Resources created using the original research
How to talk about transport and climate action
Using narrative to support Porirua City Council’s Transport Strategy