Hazard perception in young cyclists and adult cyclists.

Child bicyclists are at greater risk to get involved in a traffic accident. Although hazard perception tests between inexperienced and experienced car drivers revealed significant differences in perceptual-cognitive skills, a similar test for bicyclists is not yet existent. Therefore this study aimed to compare visual search patterns and reaction times of child bicyclists and adult bicyclists utilizing a hazard perception test for cyclists. Seventy-five children and forty-one adults were presented with eleven video clips filmed from the perspective of the bicyclist. The participants were required to press a response button whenever they detected a hazardous situation. Children were found to have significantly delayed reaction times and time until the first fixation on the latent covert hazards compared to adults. The inefficient visual search patterns in children may be attributed to an immature visual system. However, the finding that children fixated later on the hazards and only responded to the covert latent hazards when they became salient indicate difficulties with identifying possible hazards. Altogether, the findings of this study suggest that children's situation awareness is dependent upon experience too, and not just maturation. Therefore, implications for training young bicyclists will be discussed.

[1]  Eliane Albuisson,et al.  Vertical and horizontal smooth pursuit eye movements in children with developmental coordination disorder , 2014, Developmental medicine and child neurology.

[2]  Ilkka Salo,et al.  Developmental aspects of children's behavior and safety while cycling. , 2004, Journal of pediatric psychology.

[3]  Zeuwts Linus,et al.  Associations between cycling skill, general motor competence and body mass index in 9-year-old children , 2015, Ergonomics.

[4]  D. Whitebread,et al.  The contribution of visual search strategies to the development of pedestrian skills by 4-11 year-old children. , 2000, The British journal of educational psychology.

[5]  Jean Underwood,et al.  Visual attention while driving: sequences of eye fixations made by experienced and novice drivers , 2003, Ergonomics.

[6]  Tal Oron-Gilad,et al.  Are child-pedestrians able to identify hazardous traffic situations? Measuring their abilities in a virtual reality environment , 2015 .

[7]  R. Shephard.  Is Active Commuting the Answer to Population Health? , 2008, Sports medicine.

[8]  Qing Yang,et al.  The latency of saccades, vergence, and combined eye movements in children and in adults. , 2002, Investigative ophthalmology & visual science.

[9]  Mica R. Endsley,et al.  Toward a Theory of Situation Awareness in Dynamic Systems , 1995, Hum. Factors.

[10]  Tal Oron-Gilad,et al.  Age, skill, and hazard perception in driving. , 2010, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[11]  Benjamin J Chihak,et al.  Perceiving and acting on complex affordances: how children and adults bicycle across two lanes of opposing traffic. , 2013, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[12]  B. Giles-Corti,et al.  On your bike! a cross-sectional study of the individual, social and environmental correlates of cycling to school , 2011, The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity.

[13]  M S Horswill,et al.  The development and validation of two complementary measures of drivers' hazard perception ability. , 2010, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[14]  Jodie M Plumert,et al.  Children's perception of gap affordances: bicycling across traffic-filled intersections in an immersive virtual environment. , 2004, Child development.

[15]  Lynn Huestegge,et al.  The development of hazard perception: Dissociation of visual orientation and hazard processing , 2010 .

[16]  A. Bauman,et al.  Health benefits of cycling: a systematic review , 2011, Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports.

[17]  Mark Mon-Williams,et al.  Eye movements, prematurity and developmental co-ordination disorder , 1998, Vision Research.

[18]  Mark S Horswill,et al.  The development and validation of a hazard perception test for use in driver licensing. , 2011, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[19]  J. Thomson,et al.  Children's perception of safety and danger on the road. , 1991, British journal of psychology.

[20]  M. Raschke,et al.  Bicycle accidents - do we only see the tip of the iceberg? A prospective multi-centre study in a large German city combining medical and police data. , 2012, Injury.

[21]  David Crundall,et al.  VISUAL SEARCH WHILE DRIVING: SKILL AND AWARENESS DURING INSPECTION OF THE SCENE , 2002 .

[22]  K J Rothman,et al.  No Adjustments Are Needed for Multiple Comparisons , 1990, Epidemiology.

[23]  Eileen Kowler.  Eye movements: The past 25years , 2011, Vision Research.

[24]  W. Vlakveld.  A comparative study of two desktop hazard perception tasks suitable for mass testing in which scores are not based on response latencies , 2014 .

[25]  Fridulv Sagberg,et al.  Traffic hazard perception among children , 2014 .

[26]  W Vlakveld,et al.  Hazard anticipation of young novice drivers , 2011 .

[27]  Matthieu Lenoir,et al.  Children's cycling skills: Development of a test and determination of individual and environmental correlates. , 2013, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[28]  D L Fisher,et al.  Can novice drivers be trained to scan for information that will reduce their likelihood of a crash? , 2006, Injury Prevention.

[29]  E R Hoffmann,et al.  Children's Estimates of Vehicle Approach Times , 1980, Human factors.

[30]  Jodie M Plumert,et al.  Changes in children's perception-action tuning over short time scales: bicycling across traffic-filled intersections in a virtual environment. , 2011, Journal of experimental child psychology.

[31]  Greet Cardon,et al.  The implications of low quality bicycle paths on gaze behavior of cyclists: a field test , 2014 .

[32]  H. Nijland,et al.  Do the Health Benefits of Cycling Outweigh the Risks? , 2010, Environmental health perspectives.

[33]  M. Land.  Eye movements and the control of actions in everyday life , 2006, Progress in Retinal and Eye Research.

[34]  Tal Oron-Gilad,et al.  Can child-pedestrians' hazard perception skills be enhanced? , 2015, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[35]  Sabarish V. Babu,et al.  Synchronizing self and object movement: how child and adult cyclists intercept moving gaps in a virtual environment. , 2010, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[36]  Tova Rosenbloom,et al.  Hazard perception test for pedestrians. , 2015, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[37]  W Maring,et al.  Age dependence of attitudes and knowledge in cyclists. , 1990, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[38]  Simon G Hosking,et al.  The visual search patterns and hazard responses of experienced and inexperienced motorcycle riders. , 2010, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[39]  D. L. Gallahue,et al.  Understanding Motor Development : Infants, Children, Adolescents, Adults , 1994 .

[40]  Tal Oron-Gilad,et al.  Towards understanding child-pedestrians' hazard perception abilities in a mixed reality dynamic environment , 2013 .

[41]  L. Boyle,et al.  Age-related differences in visual scanning at median-divided highway intersections in rural areas. , 2009, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[42]  G Underwood,et al.  Visual attention and the transition from novice to advanced driver , 2007, Ergonomics.