Child pedestrian training : where and when to cross.

The experiments described here take the premise that child pedestrian accidents can occur for one, or both, of two obvious reasons; that the child chooses to cross the road at a dangerous place, or at a dangerous time. Child pedestrian accidents occur mainly on roads local to the child's home (Grayson 1981). It was therefore decided to examine the strategies that primary school children use to cross these roads which are familiar to them, and full details will be found in Ampofo-Boateng et al (in press). Tests were conducted at the roadside, and various locations chosen to include sites with poor visibility of oncoming traffic and junctions in which the traffic could emerge from various ctions. The tests were performed on 40 Edinburgh children from 4 primary school grades, with approximate mean ages of 5, 7, 9 and 11. At each site two starting points were used to which the child was taken, and two target places were marked by large road cones. The child was then asked what route they would use to get safely to each target. As there were four sites in all, sixteen crossing routes were recorded for each child at each session. The routes the child chose were placed into one of four categories: very unsafe, unsafe, fairly safe and safe. Analysis of the test results showed a steady and significant increase with age in the proportion of safe crossing routes chosen, reaching 75% in the 11 year old group. Two different training regimes were also tested, roadside training and classroom training with a table top model, to see if 5 year old children could be trained to perform more like the other children. Factors emphasized in the training were the children's understanding of the importance of visibility of oncoming traffic and the choice of crossing route. Results show that such training, irrespective of regime, is effective for a period of at least 7 months. Further training experiments using a pretend road and actual roadside situations are referred to in outline; results suggest that it is possible to train 5 year olds to perform like 6 year olds in their ability to select the moment to cross the road, improving their capacity to estimate approach time, distance and velocity of oncoming traffic. Such training is best organized in a school setting.