Ornamenting the Nation with Natural Nudges

Up until the eighteenth century, one of the effects of the industrial revolution was to leave the UK short of wood. In 1755, through premiums and medals, the RSA encouraged tree planting “for the supply of the Navy, the employment and advantage of the poor, as well as the ornamenting of the nation”. Over 50m trees were planted until the end of the project in 1835.

Up until the eighteenth century, one of the effects of the industrial revolution was to leave the UK short of wood. In 1755, through premiums and medals, the RSA encouraged tree planting “for the supply of the Navy, the employment and advantage of the poor, as well as the ornamenting of the nation”. Over 50m trees were planted until the end of the project in 1835.

In the 21^st century we’re still grappling with the need to use resources sustainably, but a lack of UK forests is no longer a pressing danger. Climate change and the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is a much more urgent challenge. Another change between then and now is that the approaches we can take to solving problems have developed. For example, because many of today’s RSA projects examine how individuals and communities can make a difference, knowledge from fields such as behavioural economics is important to informing strategies and explaining unexpected side-effects.

The UK’s roads are a fascinating and (environmentally-speaking) important (car travel contributes more carbon dioxide than any other form of transport in the UK) arena in which to develop behavioural interventions. Across many motorways, for example, lines painted at decreasing intervals on the approach to a roundabout, trick drivers into thinking they are driving too fast and encourage them to reduce speed.

But in a neat (and hopefully not too tenuous) link between the RSA’s past and its present, I wanted to post about Norfolk council, who are piloting a scheme that uses trees planted at the road-side to nudge drivers into driving more safely:

The planting of trees and hedges is designed to reduce speed ‘by playing with the driver's peripheral vision’. One technique involved placing trees – at decreasing distances apart – on the approach to a village, tricking drivers into thinking they were speeding. (thanks to @danlockton for the link to the Independent’s coverage)

The main benefit of course is safer driving but is also likely (depending on the type of road) to reduce the carbon emissions of passing traffic. It seems to me a rather ingenious example of making use of a feature that could have been planted regardless - "a good result for what is a very cheap method" as Stuart Hallett, the casualty reduction manager observed. There's also something nicely cyclical about using a natural carbon sink to reduce emissions...