Executive summary

New Zealand’s success in the fight against COVID-19 is, largely, dependent on the behaviour of everyday citizens. As a provider of infrastructure that connects Aucklanders, AT has a critical role in ensuring the continued adherence to the necessary behaviours to contain this virus, and ultimately, a part to play in the health of Auckland’s citizens.

Behavioural science can play an important role in AT’s response to this pandemic; providing critical insights into how and why people do what they do. Research, techniques and methodologies from this specialism, supporting individual adherence to the necessary behaviours as well as providing insights needed to prepare for new customer habits as we move down the alert levels.

We have outlined core behavioural challenges for Auckland Transport through the COVID-19 levels, such as managing fear and instilling trust and preparing for lost public transport commuter habits. Yet, the main focus of this discussion document is practical intervention recommendations to tackle these challenges. It includes specific execution recommendations across channels, teams, and current Auckland Transport programmes. To support the next steps and discussions, the practical intervention ideas have been prioritised based on assumed ease of implementation, cost and impact on the audience. These prioritisations require internal validation to be truly meaningful. Further work can also be done to identify internal data sources, such as review of CCTV, to identify whether customers are adhering to necessary physical distancing rules.

Next steps will be the wide sharing of this document with relevant internal stakeholders across the teams referenced and an internal briefing call where key insights can be shared.