Making Rotterdam more fun, beautiful and liveable. Students of the master programme in Behavioural Economics came up with solutions for societal problems in Rotterdam, such as household waste being placed next to the container and unsafe streets. This led to very practical recommendations that were sent to the municipality of Rotterdam.
During the seminar 'applied behavioral economics', the students of university lecturer Sophie van der Zee worked in twelve groups. They were allowed to choose a topic themselves, as long as they could justify why this specific topic was importtant to address.
This resulted in interesting topics. 'How do you ensure that more people wear a helmet on an e-bike? What influences the feeling of safety when students cycle home at night? What role does lack of time play in eating unhealthy food? The students really went into the city to do research', says Van der Zee.
Why do international students throw away their waste less well?
Master student Hanneke van ‘t Wout took part in the course and conducted research into waste with her fellow students: 'We noticed that international students often don't throw away their household waste properly. We wanted to know why.'
Do international students not know the rules? Or do they feel less connected to their environment because they might only live here for a short time? 'We first investigated this via a survey. We investigated what the actual problem was and what the possible solutions could be', says Hanneke.
An important discovery was that the behaviour of others has a major influence. 'People are more likely to put their waste next to the bin if other waste is already there. For international students, the unfamiliarity with the rules certainly plays a role, as well as the available resources. Some students did not know that they could receive large fines (at least 187 euros). But we also saw that they were often unaware of existing apps where you can let the municipality know that a container is full.'
To gain more insight, the group observed the behaviour of people at various waste bins. They looked at the difference between waste stations where mainly (international) students live and waste stations where hardly any students live. 'We made sure we weren't noticed and observed for an hour. We investigated how people throw away their rubbish. We deliberately put rubbish next to the bin half of the time to see if that makes a difference in people's behaviour.'
And what were their findings? 'Students in particular (62%) put their rubbish next to the bin more often if there was already rubbish next to it. Non-students did this much less often (20%). Without visible rubbish, nobody put rubbish next to the bin. One way to keep waste stations clean is to empty them often to prevent waste from being placed next to them. Because once rubbish is placed next to it, more rubbish will follow automatically', says Hanneke.
After collecting data from both observations and surveys, they worked out three possible solutions. "We eventually came up with a final solution: providing English information via a flyer or a sign. That was the most effective and cheapest."
How do we ensure that more elderly wear a helmet on an e-bike?
Teacher Sophie van der Zee would like to highlight another group. These students conducted research into the use of bicycle helmets on e-bikes. 'They discovered that 62% of accidents involving e-bikes involve people aged 70 and older. And that wearing a helmet reduces serious injuries by 60 to 70%. The group used a survey and went to the market on Blaak to encourage seniors with an e-bike to fill out the questionnaire', says Van der Zee.
'This showed that only a quarter of the respondents wear a bicycle helmet. Others indicated that they would like to wear a helmet, but if they go somewhere, they have to take it with them all day. And nobody wants that. The students' solution was to place lockers in logical places so that people can store their helmets there.'
The results are practically complete. According to Van der Zee, this is the case for every part. 'You can really do something with this as a municipality. I had never thought about the fact that it is annoying to either let your helmet get wet or to carry it with you all day. That turned out to be more of a problem than that e-bikers are not aware of the dangers.'
Enthusiasm from students, teachers and the municipality
Student Hanneke, teacher Sophie and the municipality are all enthusiastic about the subject. Hanneke: 'The nice thing is that you are often busy yourself instead of listening to a teacher in a lecture hall. And that we are also working on real problems that are playing a role in Rotterdam.'
The student found the seminar very educational: 'I learned not to come up with solutions too quickly. It is good to do research first to understand the situation. Do international students not feel like throwing away their waste or are they not aware of the rules? You learn useful skills that you can use later in your work.'
Sophie van der Zee has been teaching the subject for years. It is her favorite subject: 'The students love doing it. This is also evident from the evaluation afterwards. I have heard from several former students that they were able to refer to the assignments from this seminar in a job interview. A large number of our economics students later end up in consultancy. You have to be able to set up this kind of practice-oriented research there.'
The municipality is also happy with the research. The reports and outcomes are already in their hands. 'They are going to distribute it internally and next year we will see if the municipality can also actively participate. So the municipality is involved from the start. In this way we come even closer to the society of Rotterdam and there is a greater chance that the results will actually be used to solve problems in the city', Van der Zee concludes.
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