The high cost of speeding tickets does make some drivers slow down, but what if you were actually paid to stop being such a lead-food instead?

In recent research, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration installed small GPS devices in cars and promised drivers $25 at the end of the week if they didn’t break the speed limit.

If they exceeded it by five to eight miles per hour, they were docked three cents, and if they went at least nine miles per hour faster than they should’ve, they lost six cents.

“We found that the incentive system was incredibly effective in getting drivers to reduce their speeding,” says Ian Reagan, a traffic safety researcher at NHTSA. “Egregious speed limit violations were almost eliminated — that’s driving nine or more mph over the speed limit.”

In addition, the devices provided real-time feedback, informing motorists of the “cost” of a trip every time the ignition was turned off. Reagan said some drivers even made a game of it: “They wanted to see if they could keep [all of] that incentive amount of $25.”

He thinks insurance companies might someday offer this type of reward to drivers seeking to lower their premiums rather than the standard good-driving rebates many currently have.

[NPR]

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