More Data Collection

Yesterday Aeranie, Brian and I went to Battle Creek to collect more date for our pedestrian safety study (click here for an earlier explanation of the study). Our results were pretty decent, with about a 15% yielding rate for our baseline condition (just standing there, waiting to cross), and a 45-60% yielding rate for both of our extended arm conditions. We're happy with the results, and we were able to knock off 120 trials in 3 hours, which is pretty damn good if you ask me.

We still have more data to collect in Marshal, Battle Creek, and Chicago. Stay tuned for final results.

On a side note, we're always running into social validity issues while conducting the study. Yesterday we had a security guard come up to us (we were sitting against one of the Kellogg buildings) and ask us all sorts of questions. He was concerned because we had bags, and that we were crossing the street wayyy too many times (more than 1x for any "normal minded human"). We explained to him that we were doing a study that is funded by the Department of Transportation, but that didn't do a good job of convincing him to leave us alone. We told him that the principle investigator of the study was friends with the city commissioner, and therefore we had permission to run the study in the city, and that still didn't convince him. Then, Brian said, "Well, what if we sit across the street and collect data." And that was the magic response. The security guard was happy to get us away from his building, and he told us he didn't mind us crossing the street 120 times, just as long as the calls stopped coming in from the Kellogg employees. And that leads me to my point... with all respect to all individuals, what is so scary about 3 college students with a clipboard and an objective to advance pedestrian safety? Apparently the threat of terrorism has gotten to our heads so much that we are fear our own curiosity. "You can run your trials, just not in my area." I don't know, folks. We're living in fear, and we're way over our heads with it. What ever happened to trusting ourselves?