Nudging passengers with visual cues can reduce rail congestion and thus make public transport more attractive.
In rail transport, disembarking passengers often cluster in the middle of the platform. Possible reasons for this behaviour include people seeing other passengers doing the same (a detrimental social norm) and mere laziness. Additionally, information on where train doors tend to be located is not always easily found. This crowding leads to inefficient boarding and sometimes tumultuous squeezing at train doors.
This causes overall increased dwell times, which can negatively impact the reliability of the rail service. With the urgent need to convince more people to switch from their own cars to public transport, ensuring a great user experience at the railway station and on the train is essential. Facilitating passenger movement on the platform is thus key to optimising rail infrastructure use, enhancing service quality, and promoting green mobility.
Visible markings on the platform can intuitively guide passengers to train doors or specific compartments. Modern approaches use colour-coded display information, but immense floor markings like footsteps or pathways can also work effectively.
A field experiment for Transport of London tested an intervention using “green lanes” as visual cues (Offiaeli & Yaman, 2021). These lanes indicated where train doors would open and which paths to keep clear for exiting passengers. During peak times, audio messages encouraged passengers to move out of the green zone, a tactic proven effective during the announcement.
The result: Overall, the “green lanes” intervention successfully reduced train waiting times by up to 6.6%. This not only improved efficiency but also significantly enhanced the overall train experience, making public transport more reliable and appealing to passengers. By providing a smoother and more organised boarding process, such low-cost tools can help attract more people to choose trains over cars –thus promoting greener mobility and reducing traffic congestion.
Are you aware of any other nudges that help to promote green mobility? Feel free to get in touch: hello@green-nudges.com
From Anna Walter-Dockx who is a Behavioral Economist with a focus on sustainable habits. Her expertise spans consulting public and private sector clients, as well as addressing behaviour change in areas such as waste management and mobility. Currently, she is working on shaping the transport of tomorrow as a Behaviour Designer within Austria’s largest mobility provider (ÖBB).
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