The Effect of "Children at Play" Signs and Being Watched on the Speed of Drivers

Overview

Objectives/Goals Parent provided "Children at Play" signs and other unofficial street signs are being used in many neighborhoods and streets throughout the world. Although these signs are supposed to bring awareness of children playing and slow the speed of cars, it is unknown if the signs actually work for their intended purposes. The purpose of this experiment is to answer the question: Do "Children at Play" signs and being watched affect the speed of drivers? Methods/Materials After selecting the location for my test, I used a radar gun to measure the speeds of the vehicles. For my experiment, I surveyed 200 cars in all, with and without the "Children at Play" signs present. Additionally, I tested whether being watched versus not being watched affected the speed of the drivers both with and without the sign. I recorded the approximate age, gender and speed of the drivers for each trial and put them into graphs for further analysis. Results In all the graphs the trend shows the speed of the driver is decreasing with age. This means the older the driver, the slower they drive. With the four graphs combined, it shows drivers who drove the slowest are those when the "Children at Play" sign was present and when the drivers were being watched. The next slowest group was those with the sign, but not being watched followed by those with no sign and being watched. Finally, those who drove the fastest were those with no sign present and not being watched. Additional observations from the data show when there was no sign and not being watched, all motorists, besides those in there sixties drove above the speed limit. Females, especially in their thirties and forties, exceeded the speed limit. With both the sign and being watched, the trend showed that almost all drivers, but those in their twenties drove the speed limit and below. In addition, with both the sign and being watched about only 25% of males and females drove above the speed limit in this graph. Finally, drivers who drove over thirty-five miles per hour also ran through a nearby stop sign. Conclusions/Discussion The combination of "Children at Play" signs and being watched makes a measurable difference in a driver's speed. The older the driver#s age the slower they drive and females tend to drive faster than males. Parents should be aware that the signs do help but they do not work perfectly and should aways have supervision over their kids incase of an emergency.

Awards (1)

• Honorable Mention

Competition history

• CSEF 2014 Behavioral & Social Sciences · Entry J0407

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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