The Effect of the Bicycle Safety Device on Cyclist’s Ability to Detect Cars Behind Them

School Name

Heathwood Hall Episcopal School

Grade Level

10th Grade

Presentation Topic

Engineering

Presentation Type

Non-Mentored

Oral Presentation Award

2nd Place

Written Paper Award

4th Place

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the efficiency of the Bicycle Safety Device (BSD) on how far away cyclists can detect a car behind them. The BSD is a device that can detect objects behind it, chimes when it does so, and records how far away the object was in feet (up to 23ft.). The independent variable for this study was whether or not the BSD’s chime was turned on, and the dependent variable was the value recorded by the BSD. The null hypothesis stated that the BSD would have no effect on cyclist’s car detection ability, and the hypothesis stated that a cyclist would be able to correctly detect cars behind him/her from a greater distance and more accurately. The BSD was added onto a cyclist’s bike, and the cyclist used it to determine how far away cars were behind him with and without the chime and how often he correctly predicted that there was a car behind him. After 20 days of cycling the BSD was determined to be slightly more efficient than the control, meaning that the cyclist was able to detect cars behind him from farther away. However, the difference was not large enough to be statistically significant, so the null hypothesis was supported. The cyclist was correctly able to identify cars behind him without the chime more consistently, suggesting that the BSD may yield false positives.

Location

Lassiter 118

Start Date

4-14-2018 10:00 AM

Presentation Format

Oral and Written

COinS
 
Apr 14th, 10:00 AM

The Effect of the Bicycle Safety Device on Cyclist’s Ability to Detect Cars Behind Them

Lassiter 118

The purpose of this study is to determine the efficiency of the Bicycle Safety Device (BSD) on how far away cyclists can detect a car behind them. The BSD is a device that can detect objects behind it, chimes when it does so, and records how far away the object was in feet (up to 23ft.). The independent variable for this study was whether or not the BSD’s chime was turned on, and the dependent variable was the value recorded by the BSD. The null hypothesis stated that the BSD would have no effect on cyclist’s car detection ability, and the hypothesis stated that a cyclist would be able to correctly detect cars behind him/her from a greater distance and more accurately. The BSD was added onto a cyclist’s bike, and the cyclist used it to determine how far away cars were behind him with and without the chime and how often he correctly predicted that there was a car behind him. After 20 days of cycling the BSD was determined to be slightly more efficient than the control, meaning that the cyclist was able to detect cars behind him from farther away. However, the difference was not large enough to be statistically significant, so the null hypothesis was supported. The cyclist was correctly able to identify cars behind him without the chime more consistently, suggesting that the BSD may yield false positives.