Behaviour of preschool children when performing three pedestrian tasks. A study carried out within the framework of the Child Traffic Education Research Project by order of the Dutch Directorate for Road Safety DVV.

Preschool children were observed when they crossed roads unaccompanied at many sites in a quiet residential area with traffic intensities varying from 2 to almost 200 veh/h (ca. 30 on an average). By means of five analysis methods a detailed picture was sketched of the structure of road-crossing behaviour in three task situations: a) midblock without parked cars; b) midblock from between parked cars; and c) intersections. These behavioural structures could be interpreted in terms of information processing. Road-crossing behaviour for the three tasks could be described by seven general principles. From this study a number of conclusions were drawn concerning the formulation of objectives and evaluation procedures for child pedestrian training experiments, as well as conclusions concerning other road-safety measures.