Will Tom Brady’s Pretty Face Slow Drivers in a School Zone?

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Does Tom Brady have a face that can stop traffic?

Boston P.E. teacher Sam Balto wanted to find out. Balto laminated a photo of Brady to make a street sign. He put the sign in the street to slow drivers and keep students safe as they walked to his 62% Latino school, Ellis Elementary, in the city’s Roxbury neighborhood, the Boston Globe reports.

Before Brady: Drivers sped up to 55 mph in a 20 mph school zone. Few yielded. Some ran over crosswalk signs.

After Brady: Drivers slowed down. Smiled more.

“It definitely helped to get cars to slow down,” Balto recently told Salud America! via Twitter.

The Brady Experiment

Balto first brought the Brady-as-crosswalk idea to WalkBoston.

Brendan Kearney of WalkBoston said they spit-balled the idea on a walk audit. The audit found that “a lot of drivers weren’t yielding to parents and students that were crossing that crosswalk…and drivers were going pretty fast,” Kearney told WBZ News Radio.

Sadly, many cities and schools deal with these issues, especially in Latino areas.

Unsafe streets, no sidewalks, speeding cars, and more prevent Latino kids from getting the physical activity they need for healthy lives, according to a Salud America! research review.

For Kearney and Balto, their Brady experiment worked, even though the sign was only up for a day.

“It’s been an overwhelming positive reactions. Smiling students. People were slowing down and taking a minute and recognize that you should slow down, especially when you’re around a school so if Tom Brady help to make that happen…then it’s a great thing,” Kearney told WBZ News Radio.

But even if it hadn’t worked, it was worth a shot, Balto said.

“Everybody needs to put a smile on their face,” Balto told the Boston Globe. “Tom Brady is one good looking guy. If I can get my kids to smile and their parents to smile, that’s a great way to start the day.”

Can You Do It, Too?

So, local schools and transportation officials…

• J. Lo crosswalk signs?
• Enrique Iglesias crosswalk signs?
• Eva Longoria crosswalk signs?
• Antonio Banderas crosswalk signs?

Put on your “thinking caps” and try it out!

Be sure to tag us (@SaludAmerica) with your experiments, and follow @CoachBalto for more great ideas!