ideasarehere

In their book, Thaler and Sunstein describe the major effects minor changes can cause. My daily example is the public bus. It’s always overcrowded with coeds going from or to the university. The bus doors use a light barrier as a security measure, so the doors won’t close as long as there’s something in the way.

And every day an angry bus driver is telling the people via crackly PA to step back because the doors won’t close. Everyone is annoyed. Yet the problem is easy to fix: Why not have some red-yellow stripe pattern on the floor area that needs to be untouched? People are already conditioned not to step on red-yellow, so it’d be worth giving it a shot. To make it even more effective, they could also put stickers on the door windows that explain what this new thing is for.

A no-brainer in theory, and I’ve sent them a mail and keep you updated about what’s happening.