In recent years, many countries have been giving more attention to the traffic safety of children. Unfortunately in most developing countries, the situation is still relatively neglected. Of all factors contributing to child accidents in developing countries, the most significant are poor traffic behaviour and non-compliance with traffic rules by children due to flawed traffic perception and attitudes, inadequate traffic knowledge and training, and lack of skills. In this research, a strong emphasis is given to analyze the effect which age, gender, socioeconomic background, and type of schooling differences have on children's traffic behaviour in Cairo. Traffic behaviour of children is known to be affected by traffic perception, attitude, skills, and knowledge. A stratified random sample of 1615 school children representing various degrees of affluence, age, gender, and type of schooling were surveyed and results were analyzed. In addition, traffic behaviour of school children, in particular walking and crossing patterns, was videotaped to assess their actual traffic behaviour and validate stated behavioural patterns. The research concludes that socioeconomic background is the leading factor affecting children's behaviour followed by type and stage of school. Child gender was found to affect only traffic perception and attitude with no significant difference between boys and girls in traffic knowledge and skills. Of all categories investigated, children in the primary school stage who live in less affluent districts and attend public schools were found to be the most exposed to traffic and have the worst traffic behaviour. The research concludes with a selected set of policy recommendations and countermeasures that could be investigated further to accommodate differences in age, gender, socioeconomic background, and type of schooling.(A)
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