The (objective) traffic hazard in residential areas poses considerable problems for its inhabitants. Children can no longer play safely outside and parents are anxious about them when they journey to and from school. These problems can assume such proportions that they are no longer acceptable to the inhabitants of these areas. The degree of inacceptability is at this stage by no means always based on objective arguments. The present study can be regarded as an attempt to relate the experience of traffic hazard (= subjective traffic hazard) to traffic behaviour on the one hand and to the objective traffic hazard on the other. Behaviour in unsafe and control locations can be interpreted in terms of the constant risk theory. According to this theory higher risks are accepted in locations that are subjectively safe than in locations that are subjectively unsafe. Risk acceptance is operationalized in terms of whether adults accompany their children, whether children cycle or walk, whether they play on the kerb or on the street and whether or not they look when crossing. Some of the results agree with the predictions made on the basis of the theory.
Abstract