As part of the 2022 Aotearoa Bike Challenge, the most successful bike riding behaviour change program of its kind in the world, we were excited to partner with the carbon committed folks at Beca to launch the Beca Sustainable Traveller Badge.
What’s a badge, you say?
Love to Ride utilises a number of behaviour change techniques in order to be successful at encouraging and supporting more people to ride bikes. These are targeted at rider skill levels and confidence and take into regard a user’s ability and their perceived barriers. One behaviour change technique we employ is the use of ‘recognition and reward’ and one of the ways we do this is through the use of our badges. These badges help to endorse positive behaviours and help to encourage people to repeat this behaviour. The popularity of badges on our platform is testament to the subtle power of these virtual tokens of good vibes! Because we recognise on the platform people who achieve a badge, this also helps to create social proof for doing the kinds of behaviours we want to encourage our communities to do.
Beca have been a long time proponent of the Aotearoa Bike Challenge so it was no surprise to see them go one step further as sponsors of the challenge in 2022. We wanted to ensure the work we did together reflected their values as a company and also led to measurable outcomes. Together we developed the Beca Sustainable Traveller Badge - a badge exclusive to Aotearoa Bike Challenge participants - to encourage people to consider travelling sustainably when they look to make travel choices. Participants in the bike challenge who chose their handlebars over their cars more than 4 times during the challenge month, were rewarded with the Beca Sustainable Traveller badge.
With more people working from home in the last few years, it was important to ensure our audience knew that the commute isn’t their only way to reduce their carbon footprint. Short trips from A to B, when one might usually hop in the car, can make an ideal trip by bike. This is true even more, when the destination isn’t very far away.
Encouraging short transport trips is also a brilliant method to get people into the habit of thinking about travelling actively, instead of picking up the car keys. A quick trip to the store in their neighbourhood, or to get that morning coffee, may not be as big of a step for someone who might be new to riding. New riders often lack the confidence to consider commuting to a job or meeting, where there are more factors to consider. i.e. Navigating busy roads, showers, and other end of trip factors.
When we broaden the idea of a trip and encourage short, quick trips, we hope to persuade a cross section of people at all riding levels to take shorter rides to get from here to there.
5,661 people unlocked the Beca Sustainable Traveller - this means each of these participants logged at least 4 trips for transport (if not more!) Collectively, they logged 83,321 trips for transport during February saving 130,092 kilograms of carbon from being released into the atmosphere! That would have taken 6,195 trees a whole year to absorb.
The riders in this cohort came from all backgrounds; new, occasional, and regular riders, each logging rides both long and short, and unlocking the badge to become a Beca Sustainable Traveller.
It’s an awesome result and it’s great to have conscious corporations like Beca, supporting programs that work to change behaviours around carbon consumption and take action on climate change. Now off to pick up that coffee…
Want to keep reading about the Aotearoa Bike Challenge? Check out these related blog posts:
