Study Finds Majority of Drivers Don't Recognize Amish Marker on Vehicles

May 29, 2003

Source: The Associated Press

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1078&dept_id=151021&newsid=8156306&PAG=461&rfi=9

On May 29, 2003 The Associated Press reported that "a Penn State University study found that the vast majority of drivers didn't recognize the slow-moving vehicle symbol that adorns most Amish buggies. Many mistook the symbol for a yield sign or even a biohazard warning... Philip M. Garvey, a research associate at Penn State's Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, showed 106 subjects a variety of road signs, including both daytime and nighttime depictions of the slow-moving vehicle triangle, for a paper published in the current issue of the Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health... Although Garvey said his research team accepted a wide range of correct answers, including 'Amish buggy' or 'tractor,' fewer than 30 percent of those surveyed correctly identified the symbol. Hazard and biohazard warnings were the most common incorrect answer, followed by stop or yield and construction markers."