Nudging Astino visitors toward sustainable transportation
Zona Carpooling project was a week-long project for the class design for behavior and impact taught by Roberta Capellini and Matteo Signorini. The brief was to make visits to the Astino valley more sustainable, social, and accessible.
The team focused on encouraging one-time event attendees who usually drive alone to consider carpooling and walking together instead. Initially promoting buses and bikes, event organizers found logistical barriers made them impractical. Key insights: parking was costly, the walk felt unsafe at night, and carpooling was uncommon in Italy. However, people valued lower emissions, savings, and socializing.
The team’s concept draws from this research, as well as behavioral change techniques, introducing subtle interventions that nudge carpooling behavior from the planning stages through to the event itself. The event website (CIID uses EventBrite) encourages attendees to coordinate travel. Signage and preferred parking spots at the venue educate visitors and offer the benefit of convenience. At the event, light social rewards—like a small round of applause or public acknowledgment—celebrate their choice. Lastly, visitors receive a discount on parking and feedback on their environmental impact, reinforcing the value of the behavior.
The aim is to help carpooling become a more normal, even enjoyable, part of attending events in Astino—something people feel good about and start to expect.
Throughout the project, the team deepened their understanding of the BCTs ( Behavioral change techniques) through small cues, timely prompts, and simple incentives can make sustainable behaviors feel easier and more appealing. They also saw how design can shift habits not by forcing change, but by meeting people where they are—and making the better choice the easier one.
