Aspects of children's road crossing behaviour

This paper describes a qualitative study of children's perceptions of safety in the road environment combined with observations of their road crossing behaviour outside schools recorded on video. The results showed that children's main concern was that drivers do not always comply with the children's set of learned rules for crossing the road, and that drivers could not be relied on to stop at designated crossing points. Children sometimes misperceived the functions of engineering measures and our study showed that sometimes they interacted with them in ways that a designer may not have anticipated. In addition, some children's preferred pattern of movement near schools caused them to cross near to, but not on, a designated crossing where they were at greater risk. The choice of crossing point was influenced by perceptions of distance travelled or by social interaction. This paper highlights the need for these factors to be taken into account in the design and placement of road crossing facilities where a high a degree of use by children is anticipated.