Are 'Children At Play' Signs Counter-Productive?

Although slightly OT I have to share...

When I first moved here to Arkansas, I had to poke fun, because the signs here read, "Slow children at play"... I laughed and said it wasn't a very nice thing to say about their own kids.

And then, after you got to know them, you understood that they really were slow.

I was born in Hot Springs, and still have property there.

Where 'bouts are Y'all?

I'm in the booming town of Cabot (just outside Little Rock). A few miles south of the site of the New Year's blackbird debacle.

And besides, it's not the slow children at play that you need to be cautious of, it's the fast ones.

This is similar to what happens to operators with excess alarms at an industrial plant. Once they become inured to the sight/sound of B.S. alarms, they just ignore them altogether.

I once saw an operator while watching a safety film, sit there and just tap constantly at the alarm silence button. Since he was facing the projection screen, not the HMI, he was paying absolutely no attention to the alarms that came in during the film.

ANY warning system can be used too much. If it is, people will have a tendency to ignore it or just block it out. Finding the balance is the key.

At the same time you will find there are no signboards in places where it should be

I think they are probably a waste of money.

The people that are likely to run over kids in a residential neighborhood, (where they should be driving slowly anyway), are not likely to notice the signs.

Speed limit signs are counterproductive - when they are disregarded. That's why the roads are littered with speed cameras - they seem to be the only things that the motorist cares about.

Wherever there is a "slow,children at play" signboard the maximum speed also to be mentioned and there should be a camera with lower speed limit to monitor motorists exceeding safe limit in those areas.

These type signs 'Children at play' [slow or otherwise] and the walking red cane and many others do seem to break the 'lets get to work no matter what' trance we put ourselves into when we ge behind the wheel' and just might save a life. When we see a rolling ball we all tend to tap the breaks.

A bit OT I know but...

I find day-time-running lights to be effective where I live, especially in adverse weather. What bugs me about them is the lack of design thought to turn the tail-lights on with the running lights! A single diode should do it. Too many people don't realize that they have no lights in the back in adverse weather and that's a bad thing! I like my Toyota because it allows me to have the headlights (including tail-lights) turn off and on automatically with the engine.

I suppose the signs would be justified, if it saved a life. As for the disrespect for all signs, that is at the driver's peril.

Was that taken from the CDC website?

But of course, they have all the best traffic signs..