A group of interdisciplinary TØI researchers has created the CarNudge project, where research institutes, government agencies and private companies collaborate at both national and international level to create knowledge and expertise for a more innovative and sustainable transport system with fewer vehicles and a more efficiently utilized car fleet.

Project period: January 2020 - December 2023.

Nudging  is a term that was popularized in Thaler and Sunstein’s book “Nudge”, published in 2008. The term ‘nudge’ refers to a “libertarian paternalistic” approach, or simply put a situation where the freedom of choice is maintained, while an institution designs the “choice architecture” to stir people choices toward “what is best for them”.

We focus on two pressing and understudied topics – car sharing and parking regulations - that, if done in a socially efficient manner, can contribute to reducing private car ownership, car usage and its externalities.

CarNudge project plan:

• Develop a digital platform hosting a user-friendly carsharing calculator, helping individuals compare costs and benefits of car ownership and carsharing (WP1)
• Construct a unique dataset linking objective register data (vehicles and socio-economic information) with parking regulations and carsharing membership status (WP2)
• Our PhD candidate at the Department of Economics (UiO) will study the relationship between parking policies, car ownership, car use, and carsharing using econometric models (WP3)
• A large-scale randomized controlled trial, where car owners will be nudged over to carsharing by using the carsharing calculator. The results of the trial will be validated through both survey and objective register data (WP4)
• The results will be summarized and evaluated with our partners through focus groups interviews. The outcome will be applied to construct in a set of scenarios for the future of carsharing in Oslo. This will provide relevant information for policymakers about the potential environmental and welfare impacts related to carsharing and how it can be encouraged (WP5)

Impact

The Team

The project is carried out as a collaboration:

• The Institute of Transport Economics
• Statistics Norway (SSB), research department
• Bilkollektiv SA
• Vy Bybil AS
• Hyre AS
• Nabobil.no AS
• Move About AS
• Oslo municipality (BYM)
• Behavioral Insight Team (BIT)

Funding

This research project is funded by the Norwegian Research Council (300625 samarbeidsprosjekter for effektive, sikre og bærekraftige transportløsninger).