How to push transport policies?

Politically influenceable factors are considered to be the most important predictors of acceptability of restrictive transport policy measures, also known as push measures. Policymakers can therefore actively influence the acceptability of measures through the design of measures. Nevertheless, in practice, policymakers often refrain from implementing push measures due to the supposedly low acceptability of push measures among the population. This paper therefore examines the question of how transport policy push measures can be made more acceptable through their specific design. This is intended to contribute to a better understanding of the acceptability of measures and to show policymakers how they can implement push measures. For this purpose, a quota-representative quantitative online survey (n = 1,100) of the urban population of Germany was carried out. In this survey, various features of four different push measures were surveyed—parking fee increases, redistribution of street space, access restrictions and a 30 km h−1 speed limit. The results of the survey demonstrate that there is already a high level of acceptability for some of the measures. It also becomes clear that more disruptive features lead to greater rejection and non-traffic uses are viewed positively. Furthermore, it can be stated, that large parts of urban society are already open to more disruptive designs of push measures. Policymakers can therefore actively influence the level of acceptability of push measures among the population. Policymakers should act flexible and integrated when developing measures and know the needs of the population to be able to develop acceptable and effective measures. The results of this study contribute to a more precise understanding of the acceptability of push measures and at the same time show how policymakers can implement even controversial push measures.