A roadside simulation of road crossing for children

A simple and safe method is proposed for giving children practical experience similar to crossing the road and for assessing their performance. The method comprises a ‘pretend road’ laid out on the pavement, which the child crosses as if crossing the adjacent road in the face of oncoming vehicles. A comparison of adult performances in crossing through gaps in traffic on pretend and real roads indicates that the pretend task adequately simulates real road crossing. Similar experiments on pretend roads with 5-10 year olds crossing through gaps in traffic indicated that children are able to understand the simulation task and perform sensibly on it. Moreover, there were children of all ages who consistently performed at close to an adult level indicating that the visual timing required in the skill is not beyond young children. The results suggest that children should be trained in crossing in the presence of traffic at an early age. The pretend task could prove a valuable aid to training.

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