Demand for public transport in cities has been and is projected to increase, putting existing transport networks under increasing strain. Nudging passengers to behave in certain ways through the creation of a salient social norm has the potential to be a cost-effective mechanism to manage transport demand. Transport for London (TfL) implemented in the second half of 2017 an experiment on one of its busiest metro train platforms. The platform surface was painted to highlight the exact location of the train doors once it comes to a full stop and to direct passengers to wait in parts of the platform that would not obstruct passengers from alighting from the train and leaving the platform. Drawing on millions of individual train waiting times, we estimate the effect of this intervention to change passenger behaviour on the platform on train waiting and delay times. We use different sets of assumptions about what the counterfactual change in waiting and delay times would have been in the absence of the intervention. The intervention has reduced train waiting times by up to 6.6%. This reduction came about mainly through reducing delay times of trains once they are delayed. The reductions tend to occur during peak traffic hours. The implied cost-savings amount to a return of £6 per £1 investment.

城市对公共交通的需求已经并且预计会增加，这将使现有的交通网络承受越来越大的压力。通过建立显着的社会规范来促使旅客以某些方式行事，这有可能成为管理运输需求的一种具有成本效益的机制。伦敦交通局（TfL）于2017年下半年在其最繁忙的地铁列车平台之一上进行了一项实验。在月台停下来的时候，对站台表面进行了喷漆，以突出火车门的确切位置，并引导乘客在站台的某些部分等候，这不会妨碍乘客下车并离开站台。借助数百万次的单独火车等待时间，我们估计了这种干预措施对列车候车和延误时间对改变乘客行为的影响。对于没有干预的情况下，等待和延迟时间的反事实变化，我们使用不同的假设集。这项干预措施将火车等待时间减少了6.6％。这种减少主要是通过减少火车的延误时间而实现的。减少往往发生在高峰时段。隐含的成本节省相当于每1英镑的投资可获得6英镑的回报。这种减少主要是通过减少火车的延误时间而实现的。减少往往发生在高峰时段。隐含的成本节省相当于每1英镑的投资可获得6英镑的回报。这种减少主要是通过减少火车的延误时间而实现的。减少往往发生在高峰时段。隐含的成本节省相当于每1英镑的投资可获得6英镑的回报。