
CHUMS - Changing Habits for Urban Mobility Solutions
- Client Name
- The European Commission
- Location
- Europe

Challenge
To create behavioural change for sustainable urban transport, with a focus on encouraging carpooling.
Solution
The CHUMS behaviour change strategy focused on carpooling. It included a carpool week, personalised travel plans which included carpooling options, and a mobility jackpot lottery to attract people to carpool.
These initiatives had all been shown to produce significant behavioural changes when implemented, increasing car occupancy, reducing car numbers and reducing energy use, which were the strategic aims of this project.
The approach was tested and validated in five 鈥榗hampion鈥� cites that represented the scale of carpooling and the diversity of mobility mind-sets across Europe: Craiova (RO), Edinburgh (UK), Leuven (B), Toulouse (F) and Perugia (IT). They all had existing car-pooling systems, at various stages of maturity, serving 鈥榗losed鈥� target groups such as workplaces or universities.
Impact
Thanks to the establishment of a European carpooling 鈥榠nterest group鈥� early on, with members from 19 member states and candidate countries, there was further take-up of the CHUMS measures during the project.
Takeaways
Results showed that successful sites had a critical mass of potential carpoolers of 2000 employees as a minimum, with a notable positive incentive being a 鈥榞uaranteed ride home鈥� if a carpool buddy was unavailable. Poorer performing sites tended to be those with excessive free parking. Carpool weeks and prize draws were generally more effective (and cheaper) than PTPs. Younger people were most open to carpooling.