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RATP has launched the new season of “Staying civil right down the line”, a communications campaign to build passenger awareness of incivilities on public transport networks.
In 2011 96% of respondents to TNS-Sofres’ post-testing of the 2011 politeness campaign thought that RATP was right to raise awareness of the issues. This success has encouraged RATP to go a little further in launching the latest incarnation of the campaign on 18 June.
This version has two aims:
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To continue to raise passengers’ awareness of the problem of impoliteness and
encourage them to reflect and to change their own behaviour,
• To continue the commitment made in 2011 and highlight the relationship and
dialogue between RATP staff and passengers through the prism of politeness.
The new campaign will feature two new themes and a number of actions:
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littering carriages, illustrated by a warthog;
- blocking closure of the doors after the signal has sounded, illustrated by a
donkey.
The advertising campaign will be adapted for the metro and RER networks and will, for the first time, be run outdoors on bus shelters. At the same time, a sticker campaign using the same slogan-based approach will be run on buses and at information desks to encourage dialogue with RATP staff and respect for the rules of good behaviour.
Two new slogans will be used at information desks to emphasise the relationship between staff and passengers: “Sharing 1 smile makes the journey a pleasure” and “2 smiles shared can light up 1 day”.
Incivility is a social phenomenon expressed in different parts of modern society but that crystallises particularly in public transportation networks. It is one of RATP's top concerns.
For this reason, in 2012 RATP decided to launch the Public Transportation Incivilities Observatory.
The Observatory’s first goal is to prepare a detailed report concerning the current state of affairs with regard to incivilities in public transportation networks. The study will convert what is largely a subjectively experienced problem into facts and figures. It will also make it possible to measure changes in behaviour in the years ahead.
This study will be
undertaken each year. It will enable RATP to better evaluate the nature and
scope of this problem and to set up appropriate corrective measures.
The main results
Passengers are unanimous: incivilities are a daily occurrence which degrade the experience of using public transportation. Of the passengers surveyed, 97% said that they had witnessed at least one act of incivility over the course of the past month. On average, 83% said they were “bothered” and 49% “extremely bothered” by these acts of incivility. The survey investigated thirty different types of incivility, ranging from lack of courtesy and pushing and shoving, to deliberate acts of vandalism and fraud.
The most frequently encountered incivilities are those committed through “negligence”, that is, through not being attentive enough to others:
● Talking loudly on one’s mobile phone: 86% of passengers surveyed had experienced this nuisance over the past month.
● Pushing someone without offering an apology: 71% of passengers experienced this incivility.
● Blocking passageways: 78% of passengers surveyed said that they had seen passengers who boarded a bus, metro or RER without first letting other passengers off; 75% complained about passengers who block the left hand side of escalators.
● Obstructing space (by sitting on the fold up seats during
peak traffic, for example).
● Leaving trash.
● Smoking on the platforms.
● Not yielding a seat to people who are feeble, elderly, pregnant or disabled.
However, intentional acts of incivility (direct aggression) are by no means negligible. 41% of those surveyed said that they had seen passengers exchanging insults, and a third had seen passengers “stick too close” to other passengers or look at them in an insistent or aggressive manner.
Fraud falls into a category all its own: extremely common (over the course of the past month, 83% of those surveyed had seen someone jump over a ticket gate, and 75% had seen passengers who did not validate their transport ticket), fraud is generally tolerated — except when it is accompanied by pressure that is put on other passengers (for example, passing through a ticket gate at the same time as someone else without first asking for permission).
The main lessons
While incivilities are part and parcel of everyday life, not all incivilities are seen or experienced by passengers in the same way. Reactions vary depending on the age and sex of the passengers surveyed.
The three main observations 1. Passengers are more willing to forgive incivilities due to negligence (not being attentive enough to others) than those that are committed intentionally (vandalism, aggressive behaviour). However, for those who are exposed to them frequently, incivilities due to negligence are just as bothersome. 2. Young people (age 16-25) are less bothered than seniors (over 60) by incivilities that target the company or its rules (fraud, vandalism), but both age groups are equally bothered by the lack of consideration for “knowing how to travel together” (blocking passageways and obstructing space). 3. Women are more sensitive to “personal” incivilities (lack of respect, aggressive behaviour), while men are bothered more by incivilities that target the company (fraud, vandalism) and interfere with efficiency (disrupting passenger flows).
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In order to encourage a dialogue about impoliteness between staff and passengers RATP has run a number of events on 26, 27 and 28 June.
The 3 Villebuses and 17 meeting points on the metro and RER allowed staff to discuss with passengers the impact of impoliteness on their everyday lives. These meetings were made fun and interactive through the use of an iPad quiz.
Events took place on the dates and at the times shown below:
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Metro > 26, 27 and 28 June, 1pm to
7pm
- RER > 26, 27 and 28 June, 4pm to 8pm
- Bus > 26, 27 and 28 June, 1pm to 7pm
| Meeting places in 14 metro stations and 3 RER stations | |
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| Villebus meeting places | |
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Over the past 6 years, RATP has also conducted an active policy of prevention of impoliteness and promotion of respect through its Rugby Wednesdays. This citizenship campaign is aimed at young people from some of the more sensitive neighbourhoods in the Ile-de-France region and promotes the idea of living together better, on public transport as well as in everyday life, by drawing on Rugby’s strong values, with Respect chief among them.
This year, secondary school students were invited to come up with a slogan to illustrate an example of impoliteness. At the end of the process a jury selected the best suggestion and the winning class will have the privilege of a visit from the campaign’s sponsor, Sébastien Chabal, to their school.
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