The Benefits of Forced Experimentation: Striking Evidence from the London Underground Network*

Abstract

We estimate that a significant fraction of commuters on the London underground do not travel their optimal route. Consequently, a tube strike (which forced many commuters to experiment with new routes) taught commuters about the existence of superior journeys, bringing about lasting changes in behaviour. This effect is stronger for commuters who live in areas where the tube map is more distorted, thereby pointing towards the importance of informational imperfections. We argue that the information produced by the strike improved network-efficiency. Search costs are unlikely to explain the suboptimal behaviour. Instead, individuals seem to under-experiment in normal times, as a result of which constraints can be welfare-improving.

E-bike trials’ potential to promote sustained changes in car owners mobility habits

“…In line with previous research [11,15,16,21,24,[26][27], our study findings indicate that disruptions of individuals' mobility context may trigger changes in habitual travel choices. Bearing in mind that our study did not measure actual habits but rather habitual associations it provides strong evidence that exchanging one's car keys for an e-bike for just a few weeks influences long-term habitual associations with car usage, and that this change persists even a year after the end of the intervention.…”

“…Yet, disruptions of stable contexts have demonstrated a considerable potential for altering individuals' mobility-related habits. Examples include highway closures, which may nudge car drivers to try out public transportation [20], or strikes, such as the London Underground strike of 2014, which led to lasting changes in mobility behaviour among about 5% of all affected travellers [21]. In addition, natural disasters, such as hurricanes [22], and personal life events, such as a serious injury [23], qualify as disruptions that are sufficiently strong to induce changes in individuals' mobility patterns.…”

Hysteresis and the Welfare Effect of Corrective Policies: Theory and Evidence from an Energy Saving Program

“…See, for instance,Reiss and White (2008),Charness and Gneezy (2009), Giné, Karlan and Zinman (2010), Ferraro and Price (2013), Allcott and Rogers (2014), Bryan, Chowdhury and Mobarak (2014), Dupas (2014), Acland and Levy (2015), Ito (2015), Fujiwara, Meng and Vogl (2016), Miller (2016), Brandon et al (2017),Ito, Ida and Tanaka (2017) andLarcom, Rauch and Willems (2017).…”

Teaming up for sustainability: Promoting sustainable mobility behaviour through sports clubs in Switzerland

“…Scholars argue that disruptions are effective interventions in breaking mobility habits and yielding long-lasting changes. Examples of such disruptions are closed tube lines due to a strike (Larcom, Rauch, & Willems, 2015), extreme weather events (Marsden & Docherty, 2013) or socio-economic changes such as moving, change of job or the birth of a child (Schäfer, Jaeger-Erben, & Bamberg, 2012;Sovacool, Kester, Noel, Zarazua, & Rubens, 2018;Verplanken & Roy, 2016). These disruptions are windows of opportunity through which people can reconsider and adjust their travel behaviours.…”