Complete Stop Observation

There are many behaviors that go unnoticed, simply happening without much thought or identification. During this observational study, the specific behavior chosen for observation happens frequently- commonly performed by many individuals. The observation identified how often people did not come to a complete stop at different locations with various population frequencies (amount of other vehicles at intersection). It was observed that this behavior increased at the site with a higher frequency of other vehicles.
This behavior (coming to a complete stop) is important in the safety of vehicle operators and pedestrians. By coming to a complete stop the vehicle operator is more likely to be aware of their surroundings and make safer decisions at their …show more content…
At the first location (less active) 7 cars did not come to a complete stop out of 42 observed vehicles. While at the second location (busier, more populated) 8 cars did not come to a complete stop out of 53 recorded. In conclusion, the percentage of cars that did not come to a complete stop was 17% at the first location and 15% at the second location, indicating that presence of other vehicles may influence the completion of stops.
First location rate: 1.4 complete stops per five minutes Second location rate: 1.6 complete stops per five minutes
There are many errors in control and correlation that could be corrected for more valid data. First, the test ran on two different days. Ideally it should be the same day, same time for a better control. Furthermore, to create reliability the test should have been repeated multiple times to get the most accurate average of non-complete stops. Lastly, the correlation between non-stops and amount of other vehicles present may represent the third variable problem. Both non-stopping and amount of vehicles could be caused by age or gender, making the behaviors correlated only casually