Want to Help Transportation Options Be More Easily Adopted?

“Nudging” Our Way to Mode Shift

ACT's Book Club will meet again on Thursday, November 12 at 2 p.m. ET! This discussion, moderated by Lauren Mattern of Journey, will feature Chris Bongorno, TDM-CP and Mitzi Alex, AICP of Toole Design for a discussion on Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.

Written by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, this book explores how subtle changes in the way choices are presented can significantly influence human behavior. Through the lens of behavioral economics, the authors demonstrate why people don't always make rational decisions, and how "choice architecture" can be designed to encourage better outcomes while preserving freedom of choice.

For transportation professionals, Nudge offers valuable insight into one of the core challenges of TDM: influencing travel behavior. Whether the goal is encouraging transit use, carpooling, active transportation, or telework, or shaping smarter parking management, TDM practitioners rely on understanding how people make decisions and what motivates them to change habits. The concepts in Nudge provide a framework for designing programs, incentives, communications, and policies that make sustainable transportation choices easier, more attractive, and more likely to be adopted.

Chris Bongorno, TDM-CP
TDM Practice Lead, Toole Design

Chris is Toole Design’s Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Practice Lead. He has nearly two decades of experience in transportation and community planning, mixed-use and institutional development, place management, and strategic planning. Chris’s work in the TDM industry has brought him to communities across the United States, helping to set up projects, programs, and the organizational capacity needed to execute them.

Chris currently serves as the President of the Midwest Chapter of the Association for Commuter Transportation (ACT), through which he earned the TDM Certified Professional (TDM-CP) credential. He is also active with the American Planning Association (APA) Transportation Planning Division (TPD) and chairs the Yellow Springs Active Transportation Advisory Committee in his home town of Yellow Springs, Ohio. Chris is a proud Cleveland native and maintains roles there with groups like the Holden Parks Trust and Doan Brook Watershed Partnership.

Outside of work, Chris enjoys cooking, cycling, board games, live music, and hanging out with his wife, three children, and their dog, Gryff (short for Gryffindor).

Mitzi Alex, AICP
Minneapolis Office Director, Toole Design

As the Minneapolis Office Director, Mitzi has both public and private experience leading land use and multimodal transportation planning, implementation strategies, public policy, and community design. Her specialties include managing complex planning and policy initiatives, healthy and active communities, sustainable growth, policy and planning analysis, and implementation strategies.

She values cross-sector collaboration and creative approaches, and has presented professionally at national planning, transportation, and medical conferences.

Outside of work, Mitzi enjoys nature based activities including hiking, birding and kayaking, travel, great food, and family time.

More about the book

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

By Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein