Kid-Designed Signs Expected to Slow Traffic

More than 100 children created street signs for a contest that is part of a village initiative to slow traffic to keep village pedestrians - particularly kids - safe.

The kid-designed, "emotionally intelligent" street signs are part of a multifaceted approach to create safer streets by making motorists more alert to the need to slow for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Ann Deuser, owner of the make-it-yourself art studio , helped kids and families participate in the , saying she believes it is her duty to help prevent pedestrian accidents.

“I live on Greenvale and Wabash and those cars really go fast in the morning. I watch it and I have complained,” Deuser said.  “People have to be more aware there are so many kids around … waiting for the bus, walking, and riding their bikes.”

Other elements of the initiative to reduce traffic speeds and boost driver attentiveness will include heightened speed enforcement in high traffic areas, like at crosswalks on Brown Deer Road, and installing push-button activated LED crosswalk signs for pedestrians, said Village Manager Andy Pederson.

For now, the focus is on judging entries to choose a winner for the street sign contest. The winning entries will be transformed into real street signs by TAPCO, Inc., a traffic and parking control company based in Brown Deer. TAPCO will donate the first three signs to the village.

Before the signs go up, the village will measure speeds on village streets, to create before and after data to document changes in traffic activity as a result of the kid-designed signage, Pederson said.

Pederson said the biggest component of the plan to slow traffic is driver education. Although excessive speeding may be an occasional issue, the kid-designed signs are expected to tap into drivers' "emotional intelligence" and  help make motorists who may be desensitized to common street signs more alert.

“We do get complaints about speeding, but one of the biggest issues is to educate people on the safety of stopping at crosswalks when children are present,” Pederson said. 

“It’s not ingrained in people's minds that they need to stop at a crosswalk,” he said.  “People become desensitized to those signs after a while.”

One remedy is to change the visual aesthetic of common street signs to create  emotionally striking signs designed by the people they are intended to protect -- children.

"Maybe if you touch them at a different emotional level, people will respond differently," Pederson said.

Judging the contest will be difficult, according to Pederson, as "some of those signs just hit you so hard.” 

“I’m a parent. There are a lot of parents in Bayside and the last thing we would want to happen is an accident at a crosswalk,” Pederson said. 

Other parents backing the program by having their children design signs for the contest are Eido Walny and Michele Ellner. Walny, a village trustee, is a parent of a 5-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter. Ellner is a Bayside mother of three, 12-year-old Zachary, 9-year-old Molly, and 5-year-old Alex.

“I know what the vision is behind this program and so, for me, as an active member of the community and someone who sees the value, both my son—and, to a lesser extent, my daughter, who is two—got involved,” Walny said. 

“One of the No. 1 complaints I hear as a trustee is, ‘Cars are driving too fast down my subdivision,’" Walny said. "I do think it is a problem, so I think having these alternative street signs are important to get people's attention.”  

Ellner's children created signs similar to Ilan Walny’s—using optimistic and decorative imagery with captions urging drivers to slow down.

Bayside is a pedestrian-friendly, family-friendly community, Ellner said, but  motorists forget that as they rush through neighborhoods.

For Ellner, the street sign contest fit perfectly with attempts she already is making to improve safety for kids walking and biking to school.

“I have been supporting the effort for kids to safely ride their bikes to school” Ellner said.  “This effort seemed completely in line with that, so kids can ride their bikes safely everywhere.”

The children's street sign designs currently are on display at .

Check out FOX6 News' report on this unique project.