The Danish city of Copenhagen had growing problems with violent attacks on parking attendants during the turn of the century. The attacks appeared more often and became more severe, while prices of parking also increased. The working environment of the parking attendants, many of whom where women, was getting worse with increasing harassment, threats and violence.

The curve was then suddenly broken and conditions quickly improved.

The personnel did receive different kinds of training and education, but it was generally agreed that what had done the trick were the new uniforms. The old were green, the new were blue. The first uniforms, the color green, apparently allowed violent and offensive behavior from the citizens. While the new dark blue ones, the same color (coincidentally?) as police uniforms, caused people to behave more respectfully. The attacks quickly went down 75%.

The parking attendants, who were now feeling more secure, also started using a different body language that did not invite confrontation to the same degree and the numbers went further down.

This is an interesting phenomenon of social design for a couple of reasons. First off, the simple act of changing the color of the uniforms has had deep social implications in a field that is almost naturally ridden with conflict. The new color is associated with authority and aggression is repressed on the side of the angry citizen. There was no real increase in the authority of the parking attendants. The change was strictly symbolic and the only tool was a color change.

Another interesting feature of the project is that the social consequences, in the form of less violence, created further change because the parking attendants felt more self-assured. They then expressed the authority that was associated with blue uniforms, and the symbolism stepped into the real world.