Personally, I've also looked at the BABY ON BOARD signs as a heads-up that the person driving that vehicle may be more cautious or slower than other cars. I treat it like a student driver decal.
It can't be true.
My motorcycle foot pegs are mounted and hinged in a way that they fold up when they contact the ground, I believe this is typical of most motorcycles.
Your riding pegs are designed to fold so that you don't go flying when riding on the limit.
(Source: Used to ride MCs, and got through a low speed yet very expensive high side. Have also been dragging my knees and shaving the pegs at the Phillip Island GP Circuit.)
I don't think source means what you think it means.
Maybe they are all gifts given by people who want to signal that they care but consider it too boring to give something that is actually useful.
And who either don't care or understand or who secretly enjoy that they are forcing the receivers' hands into making a fool of themselves out of politeness.
The little customizable families with tall stick figures for adults and tiny stick figures for kids and stick figure cats/dogs drive me utterly insane, for some reason.
They probably work somewhat because people don't want to be aggressive around babies.
If they're truly risk adverse I'd also expect those drivers to either migrate right over to the HOV lane (far left) and use cruise control at the speed limit... or do something similar in either the non-passing lane or the second lane from the right (next to the merge lane instead of in it).
On the other hand, I've had 3 babies and never put up such a sign, despite feeling very protective of them, so my intuition may be signalling some other reason why such signs are useless.
I wonder if there is any stats around it actually having an effect? Do the police record the presence of such signs?
It's naive to think that anyone is going to drive more safely when they see one of those signs.
And frankly, anyone who actually does needs to reevaluate their priorities. If you see those signs and feel the need to change your driving style, then you know intuitively that your actions are putting people at risk. Yet you continue to drive like that when there aren't babies around?
Why is it acceptable to put everyone else's lives at risk except when you're told one of them is a baby?