Transportation
To Cut Car Pollution, Ask Drivers to 'Think of Yourself'
Researchers tested different road signs to prevent drivers from idling their engines. “Big Brother” eyes helped, but a simple appeal to the “private self” did even more.
Idling your car unnecessarily pollutes the environment, squanders gas, and offends others’ ears. It’s particularly reprehensible in foul-aired places like London, where cars helped push the city past its yearly pollution quota in just one week last January. Can anything be done to curb this wasteful, boorish behavior?
Some researchers believe so, and their weird solution boils down to a couple of tweaks to road signs: adding “watching eyes” and appealing to the “private self.” Based on principles of behavioral psychology, the researchers believe images of eyeballs and requests for drivers to think about themselves are effective at getting drivers to cut their engines, as described in the latest issue of Environment and Behavior.