
Parking Behavior and Driver Psychology
Medium
Why do some drivers back into parking spots while others take up two spaces? You can learn a lot about human behavior just by walking through a parking lot. This project combines observation with interviews to profile common parking habits.
You survey at least 100 parked cars at a mall or supermarket. You tally how many are backed in or taking two spots. You also count those parked in a handicap zone. Then you interview drivers about their reasons. You ask "What was your reason?" rather than "Why?" to avoid sounding judgmental.
Look for patterns in the responses and calculate what percentage of drivers fall into each category.
Hypothesis
The hypothesis is that there are patterns in the way people park their cars.
Method & Materials
You will survey a parking lot for different parking styles, record the data, and interview drivers to find out their reasons for parking the way they do.
You will need a parking lot, a sample of a minimum of 100 parked cars, writing materials, adult supervision, a calculator, and a spreadsheet.
Results
After surveying the parking lot and interviewing drivers, patterns were found in the way people park their cars. The most interesting observation was that the majority of drivers interviewed backed into their parking spaces.
Why do this project?
This science project is interesting because it looks at the psychology behind why people park the way they do.
Also Consider
Variations of this experiment could include surveying different types of parking lots (e.g. residential, commercial, etc.) or surveying different types of vehicles (e.g. cars, trucks, etc.).
Full project details
Additional information and source material for this project are available below.Related videos
These videos explain the science behind this project and demonstrate key concepts used in the experiment.
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