This weekend, the start of the Christmas holidays: the stations will therefore be stormed by travelers, impatient to join their families for the end-of-year celebrations. To manage so many people, the SNCF is a pioneer in the use of “nudges” (“nudges” in French), through its Ile-de-France operator Transilien. Coming from behavioral sciences, these small techniques – which earned the American Richard Thaler the Nobel Prize in economics in 2017 – aim to encourage people to adopt more positive behaviors, but without forcing them to do so.
Seeing the full potential of this theory, Transilien SNCF created a dedicated unit within it in 2015, and embarked on initial experiments in 2016. The company “has to date carried out more than 50 projects which touch on subjects varied aspects of the traveler experience,” she reports. And the results are there. To explain its approach and share its progress, the railway company organized a major conference on the subject at the Cité des sciences in Paris. The opportunity for her to highlight several experiments carried out over the last seven years on the network, relating to flow management, cleanliness and even passenger information. Like its “anti-spill” nudge, deployed in 19 stations in Île-de-France from 2019, intended to prevent travelers from relieving themselves anywhere in the stations. To do this, giant stickers representing a crowd of spectators here, rugby players there in full haka, were stuck in certain places, creating a visual presence. Objects, such as basketballs or rugby balls, were also installed in isolated corners. Result: an 81% drop in spills on average, and lower maintenance and upkeep costs.
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To avoid traffic jams in front of the validation gates, here again Transilien SNCF is experimenting with a nudge in four Ile-de-France stations (Paris Nord, Pantin, Stade de France Saint-Denis and Neuilly-Porte Maillot). These are messages displayed in large size before certain validation gates. Featuring athletes, this nudge is constructed in three stages: “3… On your transport tickets / 2… Ready? / 1…Validate!” “These devices aim to make everyday travelers and particularly occasional travelers anticipate the gesture of validating transport tickets in order to streamline passages at the validation gates, thus avoiding congestion at peak times,” explained Transilien SNCF last year. According to the company, this nudge made it possible to reduce the proportion of travelers delaying obtaining their transport ticket at the validation gates from 8% to 2%.
Forgotten baggage is another problem that the company is trying to tackle using nudges. At Paris Nord station, a system was tested to encourage travelers to report items forgotten by other users themselves. It is based on an audio message (“Be attentive travelers today. To avoid the destruction of your belongings and disruptions on your line, do not leave anything behind”), as well as posters. They depict a gesture of mutual aid between travelers, one man calling out to another: “Sir, you forget that!”, showing him a bag, the other replying: “Oh! THANKS”. “Thanks to this system, the number of travelers calling out to other people forgetting their belongings increased from 12% to 42%,” says Transilien.
Building on these successful experiments, the operator does not want to stop there. “We are keen to develop these behavioral science approaches. We are going to focus on our Nudge Unit, in order to strengthen the traveler experience. We are only at the beginning,” explains Alain Ribat, general director of Transilien SNCF. For the boss of the railway company, “nudges are an obvious lever for improving the offer”, while users very often complain about their travel conditions. “Smoothing flows” and “strengthening passenger safety” are the two main issues for which Alain Ribat wants to develop nudges.
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Beyond Transilien, and therefore the Île-de-France region, SNCF and its subsidiaries (notably Keolis) are developing nudges almost everywhere in France. As a device intended to improve safety at level crossings, via ground markings and explicit signs, tested in two municipalities and currently being deployed in four others. Or another in Lyon, at the Part-Dieu metro station, to facilitate orientation and improve flow management, thanks to indications displayed in larger size or even positive messages – for example “Congratulations: you are at the top !” written at the top of a staircase.
Other examples have already been put forward by the SNCF, such as “Poubellator” in Ouigo trains to improve the cleanliness of the wagons. Or even the nudge to increase the use of seat belts in school buses in the departments of Drôme and Ardèche, with posters in the coaches, a more visible sheath around the belt and covers around the seats showing figures clicking on their belts. Effective and inexpensive, nudges seem to be gaining more and more followers, on the business side but also on the administration side. As American researcher Cass Sunstein, co-author of the seminal book “Nudge” with Richard Thaler, points out, “this is an attractive solution for governments, because these techniques push people to make the best choices without affecting their free will , and without it costing a lot of money.