Documents

The publication of a Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) report looks at how changes in behaviour can help to drive decarbonisation on local road networks across the country.   

Decarbonising the local highway network is an essential step in the path to net zero because the UK spends over £4bn annually on maintaining, developing and improving local roads; generating an estimated 1.5 million tonnes of CO2e each year. This equates to 1.4% of the UK’s domestic transport carbon footprint, a figure that will continue to rise as more vehicles on the roads decarbonise.

Following work undertaken in carbon baselining by the Live Labs and consideration of findings by the Commissioning Board, the programme realised that many of the factors restricting the potential uptake of low carbon products and solutions could be behavioural in nature. The whole system underpinning local highways is complex, with many players influencing decisions. The Commissioning Board appointed behaviour insights experts BIT to undertake a study to understand this landscape and make recommendations to enable change across the sector to enable an acceleration of asset decarbonisation.

The BIT report concludes that there is no ‘quick fix,’ emphasising that time, investment and commitment from various organisations are required for a low carbon, transport future. The report also stresses that, given its strategic position, ADEPT can play an important role as a catalyst for change across the transport infrastructure sector.  

You can read the press release here.