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Een stapje verder, alstublieft. Gedragsbeïnvloeding van mustreizigers op Nederlandse perrons

Overduin, J.S. (2012) Een stapje verder, alstublieft. Gedragsbeïnvloeding van mustreizigers op Nederlandse perrons.

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Abstract:Europe’s most intensively used railway system is the Dutch one. Due to expanding traveling the Dutch ministery of Transport, Public Works and Water Management wants to take things one step further, by enlarging the capacity of the railways by the year 2020. According to the High Frequency Rail Program, in 2020 there will be even more trains passing the railwaystations every hour, with more people occupying and waiting at the platforms. Therefore an optimal usage of the limited space at the platforms is necessary. The current suboptimal movement of travelers causes crowds at especially the bottlenecks, which at it’s time causes negative affect and avoidance. At peak hours this problem is most visual, when so called must passengers use the railway system to get to their jobs and education or when they head home. These passengers repeat the same behavior over and over, which raises the question whether habitual behavior is conducted. Therefore, if we want to develop a way to influence these travelers, we must first investigate their behavior by answering the first research question: To what extent is habitual behaviour shown by frequent travelers during peak hours at the train platforms? The research, which questioned 65 respondents, showed no evidence for habitual behaviour, based on the Self-Report Habit-index (Verplanken & Orbell, 2003). However, the output (as filled in by 21.9%) raised the suggestion that it might be possible to influence passenger behaviour at platforms by informing the travelers where the quiet spots in de trains would arrive. Based on these results, and insights obtained from literature such as Schotsman et al. (2010), the factor developed to change behavior at the platform became usage of information. The second research question was: To what extent can behavior of must travelers at the platforms be influenced by presenting information before the train arrives? By means of another questionnaire, shown in Adobde Authorware, 101 must travelers were divided into three groups. The experimental condition showed a conventional information sign with a picture added of the arriving train and the number of spaces. The second condition showed a conventional sign without the new information and the third showed no picture of the information sign at all. The most important result we found was that the travelers in the experimental condition were spread more evenly compared to the condition without an information sign. This effect was marginal over the three conditions. A strong correlation was found between waiting area at the platform and the boarding spot. Even though no evidence of habitual behavior was found in the first research, there was habitual bahavior found in the second research, concerning watching information signs. Therefore, it seems habitual behavior at railway platforms is complex. Further research investigating the behavior of must travelers at Dutch railway platforms (e.g. by observation) is therefore recommended. In this way we can determine the different kinds of graduation of habitual behavior and the extent to what it can be influenced by subtle adjustments of the railway environment.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:77 psychology
Programme:Psychology BSc (56604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/61868
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