Children at Play Signs

A popular way to try and get speeding vehicles to slow down in residential neighbourhoods is to put up Slow Children at Play signs. Despite our good intentions, research says that there is no evidence that these signs are effective.

Children at Play

There is no evidence that special warning signs of this sort reduce driver speeds or crash rates. This is the unanimous conclusion of the many credible sources we located on this topic. This claim is supplemented by a number of often-cited “common sense” observations that such signs do not give clear and enforceable guidance to drivers, provide a false sense of security to parents and children that may increase risk, expose the government to liability, give the false impression that areas without such signs do not have children, represent an unnecessary cost that then propagates as additional signs are requested and violate the principle that signage should be based on engineering, not political, decision making.

Learn More

• Transportation Synthesis Report - Wisconsin Department of Transportation

Share This Article