This report is based on a research study focused on junior schoolchildren aged 7 to 11, and senior schoolchildren aged 11 to 15. It explores their travel patterns and levels of personal autonomy, and the links that these have with their parents' perception of the danger to which their children are exposed when travelling on their own. The findings and conclusions are drawn from surveys carried out in 1990 in English schools in five areas of England (Islington, Nottingham, Stevenage New Town, Winchester and Oxfordshire) replicating surveys carried out in 1971 by the Policy Studies Institute in the same schools, and in five matching areas in Germany (Köln (Innenstadt), Bochum, Chorweiler New Town (Köln), Langenfeld/Schwelm (Wuppertal) and Witten). Chapter 1 discusses the inadequacy of road accident statistics as measures of safety and danger, and the need for an alternative. Chapter 2 sets out the main results of the surveys in England and compares them with the Political and Economic Planning (PEP) surveys in 1971. Chapter 3 presents the same evidence for Germany and describes the most important differences between the two countries. In Chapter 4 the implications of this evidence for road safety and transport are considered. Chapter 5 outlines the theory of risk compensation, as the data presented here on the reduction in children's independent mobility area prime example of this mechanism at work, and demonstrates the need to consider safety measures from this perspective. Chapter 6 contains the conclusions, and a proposal for a new set of behavioural measures of road safety.
Abstract