A nudge in the right direction

molesworth 1

Yes, yes yes.

People respond much better to sensible, rational, relevant information & advice than they do to the threat of arbitrary censure for transgression. It's about being treated like an adult.

Anecdotally, I drive for a living, and, from my experience, VASigns WORK. The 'Smiley Face' for "good" behaviour is also effective, as are the 'mobile' VASigns that concerned residents can use for a week or so (via their local Police or Council, I think) at any speeding hot-spots in their locality.

As an example of the Pessimistic Right's seemingly dogmatic opposition to the 'Nudge', I remember, whilst Hillary was still in the running, an excoriating reaction from the American 'right' to the suggestion that Govt. 'Health Messages' (e.g. "Breast Is Best", "Try To Stop Smoking" - pretty innocuous stuff) might appear on ATM screens. Perish the thought. It seems they were perfectly happy for commercial advertising to use this space (at a price, natch!) to proactively market fast-food, soft-drinks & transient, inessential, consumer fluff on a gender/age/location vector, with all the disastrous outcomes, but were implaccably imposed to the Govt. offering such targeted 'nudges' for social benefit.

Would it be so terrible if an info-message accompanied your ATM transaction to let you know that a shop round the corner has a 'special' on low-energy lightbulbs, or that a drop-in health centre just across the way would be happy to give you a quick opinion on that nasty lump that has appeared on your nose, or that, you being a man of a certain age, your GP would be delighted to check your prostrate, at your convenience, well no, not at your 'convenience', that's just weird.... but you get my drift?

There is a space opening up for liberal paternalism, if only it does not get sold wholesale to the brand marketing men. No, I don't want a half-price f***ing Happy Meal!

Nudging people into sensible choices by supplying timely, pertinent & cogent information is one way in which a Govt. could beneficially ally its' command of statistics/data with emerging communication technologies, for the general good of the population. As opposed to, say, an unweildy, expensive and, ultimately, un-workable National ID data-base...

Gavin

I like the idea of the smiley face, round here these signe just show your speed but I have seen some that say "Thank you". They definitely affect my driving for the better. If you combined this with the Dutch idea of shared space and take as many road signs and traffic lights away as possible !! See this link http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1533248/Is-this-the-end-of-the-road-for-traffic-lights.html. We're in danger of becoming a civilsed country again !

Tanuki

Those speed-signs can be put to other more-valuable uses: I recall one that was installed locally which flashed "Your speed XX MPH - limit 30". Of course everyone loved to spend their time seeing who could get high-score of the night.

Millsee

And yet underlying this article, and the repsonses to date, is the Government-peddled (Brownie) notion that speed=danger.

It doesn't. Speed is a factor in about 6% of accidents according to an available-but-hidden report published by the DfT.

The road safety budget should be going on education. 96% of accidents are caused by driver error, so why spend millions on traffic calming and junction realignment schemes? (It's a rhetorical question, we know why really!)

Rory Sutherland

Thank you for these comments.

The article "End of the line for traffic lights" reminded me of a peculiar diswcrepancy in traffic policy. Generally the United States, though economically liberal, favours traffic lights over roundabouts (or traffic circles): in Europe it is the other way round. Yet to me it seems obvious that traffic lights are odiously dirigiste and interventionist, whereas roundabouts are a perfect, self regulating, free market approach to traffic management. So what do Americans (with the exception of the traffic planners of Massachussetts) have against them?

Traffic lights seem to me massively less efficient and less agreeable than plain junctions, never mind roundabouts. You don't often find yourself swearing while being kept waiting at a roundabout, after all, since the only reason you need to wait at a roundabout is because someone else who arrived before you needs to use it first.

And the worst single piece of bad design in all traffic systems? The fact that Pelican crossings don't have a "cancel" button. On an average trip in London I find myself waiting at lights which have been activated by someone who has long since crossed the road using a natural break in the traffic.

Ian C

I have come late to this but you should remember that there is also the "There should be a law against it" totalitarian mob who are both right and left, but mostly the latter. They will be horified that the state can do something positive without imposing a fine or locking people up