Car dependence remains stubbornly high even as cities invest in new infrastructure and climate targets tighten, in part because many transport interventions still ignore how and when people actually change their travel habits. This project tackles that gap by combining global evidence, stakeholder insights, and a seven-country survey of 4,088 people to understand the windows of change—life and work transitions—when people are most open to rethinking how they move.

It introduces a Sustainability Index that pinpoints 25 high-impact "Actionable Change Initiatives", from employer-backed incentives and micromobility uptake to better public transport, that demonstrably shift trips toward active and shared modes. Traveller segmentation into Urban Strivers, Settled Simplifiers, and Dynamic Jugglers shows that a one-size-fits-all approach will fail—especially for contentious measures like road user charging, whose acceptability hinges on perceived fairness and visible reinvestment in public and active transport.

The presentation will unpack these findings to show how timing policy around key life events, partnering with employers and other non-mobility actors, and designing transparent, reinvestment-linked pricing can turn behaviour-change theory into scalable practice. It will outline a practical playbook for governments and operators: target the right people at the right moments with the right mix of incentives and constraints, and embed evaluation from the outset to build political legitimacy and lasting mode shift.