Social marketing will help Sweden switch to bicycles

More and more people are starting to cycle, thanks to urban sustainability strategies that take the example of Copenhagen, where about half of the population commutes to work by bicycle.

Still, this is not enough, for example, in the United States, Portland tops the list of major cities with cyclists, but there the latter are only 6%. What do you need to see more bikes on the road?

The obvious answer is better infrastructure, like decent bike lanes. But a new program in Sweden takes a different approach, based on the theory that one of the reasons people don't ride a bike is that they've never actually tried.

So the authorities decided to hold an unusual action: in Goterborg, for the next six months, the government is giving some people a chance to try cycling in exchange for a promise to give up driving their cars at least three times a week.



“We believe that cycling has the potential to meet most of the needs of the population,” says Rickard Waern, project manager for the Energy Agency of West Sweden. “This is especially true today, as new and different types of bicycles have appeared on the market in recent years.”

The organization selected 36 guinea pig cyclists, of various ages and occupations. The idea is that these 36 people will set a positive example that will help encourage other people to try cycling.

“Showing a positive example is a great way to convince people,” says Warne. “With this project, we are trying to create the perfect example – people from a wide variety of populations, with a wide variety of transportation needs, all of whom can meet their need for transportation by bicycle.”

Sweden faces the same infrastructural challenges as many countries: most cities were designed to move cars around, so cycling to a shopping mall outside the city is not an easy task.

“In some cases, it can be a daunting task for a bike to do the shopping, take the kids to school and then drive to work,” Warne says. “Although it is sometimes very difficult, we believe it is more of a psychological barrier than an actual problem. Most people use the right bike for their purposes, connect a little planning and cope with even greater difficulties than these.”

It certainly depends on your child’s route and age, but one of the most popular transportation solutions is the incredible Kona Ute. Its trunk is so large that you can install not one, but as many as 2 child seats, one by one.



If you feel uncomfortable traveling together on two bikes, then a tandem like the gorgeous Viking Monarch is the obvious choice for you. The only way to achieve complete harmony in such a trip, the one who usually chooses the direction, you need to put in the front seat, from which you control and braking.

Participants of the action use cargo, folding and tandems for their purposes among many other models presented, enjoy taking children to school, ride in the forest on tourist expeditions and calmly maneuver through traffic jams waiting for their turn on the ferry.

The demonstration process of using a bicycle will last six months. That is how much, according to experts, it is necessary to assimilate useful information and the emergence of a habit, and at the end of testing, members of the control group will be able to buy the provided bicycles at a significant discount.



Source: facepla.net