<aside> 💡 My guess of a formula for an environment that would make the healthy option the most likely option. Let’s engineer incentives backwards from there:

</aside>

*Probability of walking and cycling more = critical need to get somewhere

• absence of unhealthy means of transport
• target is reachable within 10 minutes
• financial incentive
• others know you’re lazy
• fear of being unhealthy
• climate change fear*

Replace short car trips (< 10 min) with e-bike trips

1. I suggest that a shared mobility provider like Bolt provides only shared e-bikes in a small town (= small, limited environment to test this hypothesis).
2. Bolt doesn’t provide any unhealthy means of transport like scooters in this particular town. If both scooters and e-bikes are available, there is one more decision to be made every time, and laziness wins and people take scooters over e-bikes.
3. Bolt also doesn’t provide non-electric bikes. If both are available, one more decision is to be made. Like: Is it OK to arrive sweaty? Will there be hilly terrain? E-bikes will serve more uses cases, even if the extra engine is not absolutely needed.
4. Instead of donating money to conventional charities in third world countries, they could fund an experiment like this to show how their core business can have a major impact on making people healthier.

But na it won’t work

• Franzi: “But na it won’t work. Only very few things you currently do by car, you can also do by e-bike. You can’t even go shopping with e-bikes.”

One specific action for me

Ask Bolt to do a first experiment, providing only e-bikes in a small town.

Live in a walkable town

1. If you work remotely, you can try out what a walkable town feels like. There are some small, walkable, international towns coming up. If any target is reachable in 10 minutes by foot or bike, other variables almost don’t matter because it’s anyway the fastest and easiest option to get somewhere.
2. If you don’t work remotely, you still can have a look if your profession is already needed in these new walkable hubs. While during the last decades, highly-skilled people moved close to a corporate office - now remote workers instead of corporate people can move to a location first. Then other professions settle around.

But na it won’t work

• Harry: “But na it won’t work. Most people don’t move and want to stay close to where they were born.”
• Lio: “But na it won’t work. People like to live in cities.”

One specific action for me