Last month I blogged about an experiment in Sweden where a speed camera records all the cars keeping to the speed limit with all the legal drivers going into a prize draw for cash prizes. The trial has now been carried out and here’s the result (quick version – the average speed of traffic fell from 32 km/hour before the trail to 25 km/hour during the trial):
Also on YouTube here.
Hat-tip: the Nudge Blog
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4 Comments
Was there a speed monitor there before they set up the experiment (ie, the same display and smileyface but without the reward system)? Or, if any such system was new to that road, are the reductions significantly more than you’d get from setting up a regular visual speed monitor, or even just a regular speed camera?
It’s a good idea but you can’t really draw any conclusions from it without those bits of information.
Interesting result. Still, I’m not too keen on rewarding people for simply refraining from breaking the law. Can I get a prize for not murdering anyone?
@Louise there are definitely some people who one deserves a prize for not murdering
It’s a nice idea. But I suspect that it’s likely to encourage the tendency of drivers to stamp on the brakes when they see a camera, which not only slows traffic down unnecessarily but can also be dangerous and increase the accident rate. So it depends on what you’re actually trying to achieve.
If the aim is simply “reduce average speeds”, then yes, it will work. But if the aim is “reduce accidents and improve safety”, then it may not. And I’d argue that only the latter is a valid goal of traffic management.