Travelling together to sport

Purpose and goal:

Tens of millions of trips are made each year for training and competition, mostly by children and young people and with an increasing proportion of driving parents. It is difficult to change habits, but if we can get a few percentage points more to travel together, the environment and cohesion will be a win.

The goal was a feasibility study in aim of developing business, behavioral and technical conditions around a digital service for traveling together to training and competition. The hypothesis was that there are two obstacles: A. Organizational and business. B. Behavior and habits. Expected results and effects:

The study provides an overall picture of the complex issue. Our most important insights: 1. The technical part is not very difficult, but there is a problem around the destination, i.e. data about where to go. There is a lack of data and ownership. 2. Just as important is influencing attitudes. In everyday life, social sustainability arguments are stronger change factors than environmental arguments.

As a next step, the study points to the establishment of a national register of sports facilities and a task for the Swedish Sports Confederation to promote traveling together. Approach and implementation:

The study was carried out from a systems perspective, i.e. we investigated a series of perspectives and how they interact. At the center is the individual who makes the decision to travel alone or together. To understand the decision, we started with qualitative studies on the practitioners, especially young ones.

A large number of factors influence travel habits (e.g. geography, type of sport), and many actors (sports managers, app companies, transport companies) may influence. Interviews with actors gave us solutions which are feasible, business-wise and organizationally.