Want to fix traffic? Pay people to get up and go earlier | Ars Technica

Lure of cash prizes has some shifting the time of their Stanford commutes.

via Want to fix traffic? Pay people to get up and go earlier | Ars Technica.

So, Balaji Prabhakar, a Stanford professor of electrical engineering and computer science with a background in computer networks, had an idea. He found that there may be a new way to alleviate congestion: rather than imposing a penalty on drivers, why not pay them to simply alter their behavior slightly? That is, what if drivers were given a financial incentive to drive slightly earlier or slightly later than the prime 8 to 9 am window?

Gamification of traffic; testing at Stanford, pilot program in Singapore

HT Jason

Earlier article from 06/11/2012:

London, Singapore, Stockholm and a few other cities around the world battle heavy traffic with a “congestion charge,” a stiff fee for driving in crowded areas at peak hours. But drivers generally hate the idea, and efforts to impose it in this country have failed.

via Experimental Campaigns Pay Drivers to Avoid Rush-Hour Traffic – NYTimes.com.

Leave a Reply