Checking for travel disruptions saves ten times the stress
It’s simple but very effective. Checking for disruption before setting off can save travellers huge amounts of stress, a new study has revealed. |
The study, which was carried out by Northumbria University on behalf of Transport for London, showed that when passengers are suddenly faced with unforeseen delays which force them to take alternative routes they suffer ten times more stress than people who had checked out potential problems beforehand.
In the study, participants were divided into matched-pairs and asked to plan a route between Brixton and Bank stations using screen-based maps of the London Underground. A competitive element was included to make the task more meaningful and stressful: the participants were told that the person from each pair who navigated the fastest would win a modest cash reward.
One person from each pair was informed in advance that the Northern Line - the most obvious route – had been shut at London Bridge and that there were also significant delays on the Bakerloo line.
However, the other person in the pair only became aware of the Northern line closure when he or she had reached Borough, and discovered the Bakerloo line delays once he or she had retraced his or her route to Elephant and Castle.
Blood pressure measurements were taken before and after the exercise, and participants were also asked to rate both the level of stress they had experienced (subjective stress) and how much effort the task took.
Although there were significant differences across all the indicators, heart rate was used as the main measure of the difference in stress response. Overall, participants who did not have advance information experienced a 13% increase of heartbeats-per-minute during the task, whereas those who were well-informed showed a 3% decrease. This demonstrated that it was over 10 times more stressful for those not having information before travelling compared to those that did.
Northumbria University psychologist Dr Jason Ellis undertook the study. He said: “These results show conclusively that if you want a calmer journey, and don’t want the worry of wondering whether you are going to reach your destination on time, then your must find out beforehand if there are going to be problems. It reduces both psychological and physical stress significantly.”
The research was commissioned by Transport for London to demonstrate the
usefulness of the ‘Check Before You Travel’ tools on their website.
Date posted: August 31, 2010
