|
Other Measures 59. Education Programs Education can make the difference. Through education, pedestrians of all ages can develop their skills learn about traffic laws and about how their behavior contributes to safety. Implementing an education program that targets all pedestrians and motorist is one of the most cost-effective steps you can take to improve safety and encourage walking in your community. In most communities, pedestrian education is limited to elementary school visits from "Officer Friendly", perhaps once a year featuring a lecture on the rules of the road. Occasional bicycle rodeos are held which mix a healthy dose of fun into the education effort...but these are few and far between. Once past elementary school. people receive no additional bicycling and walking safety education. The State of Florida estimates that it spends /approximately $0.63 per child on traffic education between birth and age 15, although, the average family of four pays out over new research and safety education pro-f grams for bicyclists and pedestrians.$80,000 in its lifetime in auto insurance, and medical insurance and taxes to cover indigent medical care. Settlements in pedestrian and injury lawsuits can run into the millions! Even if we consider only the economic perspective on traffic crashes, wouldn't a bit of preventive education be a wise investment? Fortunately, there is increasing focus on the. importance of education. Federal agencies, such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, have been actively developing new research and safety education programs for bicyclist and pedestrians. This course session will provide you with information about the types of errors that most commonly lead to crashes, safety education messages designed to modify the behavior that causes these errors and resource materials available to education programs. Key Education Issues In developing a viable pedestrian education program, the same issues arise again and again. You should be aware of these issues and be prepared to address them as your program takes shape. Does education work? Yes! States and cities with active pedestrian programs that incorporate strong educational components report declines in fatality rates. Many State and local agencies have made effective use of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's "Willy Whistle" program. An article on child pedestrian injuries and the use of Willy Whistle in Los Angeles; Columbus, Ohio; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin reported that:
Education, clearly, can have a strong influence on crash reduction. 2. The importance of ongoing education There is no quick fix. The days of getting annual safety inoculations are over. The amount of real learning and behavior modification that takes place in a one-hour safety lecture may not be worth the effort. One of the course instructors recounts an experience during an observation study at a Tempe, Arizona elementary school to deter-mine the effects of safety lectures on child bicyclist behavior. As long as the police officer was standing near the bicycle racks or at the schoolyard entrance, the children were perfect models of correct bicycling behavior. They could recite chapter and verse of the "rules of the road." Once the officer left, however, they exploded into an entirely different mode. They zipped along the curbs, jumped mid-block into the streets, avoided the crosswalks and school patrol and generally rode (fast) in every direction at once. Clearly, this program did not have an immediate impact on behavior. Whatever program you choose to offer, make certain that it has continuity and depth. - A traffic education program that has a full \ . range of curricula, from grades K through 6;; or, better yet, grades K through IO or 12 make should be considered. At the very least, offer at least three years of pedestrian education. 3. Importance of reaching ALL ages and types pedestrians Pedestrian and safety education is not just for kids! If we want to meet goals of increased walking and bicycling for transportation, adults, the elderly, people with disabilities and motorists must be trained to operate compatibly and safely. The scope of most education programs is presently limited to elementary school-age children. A cooperative community effort is generally involved in reaching adults, teens and special audiences within those groups. Increasing percentage of the population is relying on bicycling or walking for transportation due to disabilities or age-related conditions. In addition to removing environmental barriers, training and other educational activities that focus on their specific needs will enable them to maintain independence and fitness levels with confidence and safety. 4. Motorists need education As more people walk for transportation, the need for education also increases5 . In some States, driver education programs available to high-school students include procedures and responsibilities related to pedestrians. The State of Texas curriculum, for example, includes instruction units on "the driver, the passenger and the pedestrian," and "two wheeled vehicles in the traffic pattern." NHTSA and FHWA have developed information a driver needs to know to avoid crashes with pedestrians and bicyclists. This information is directed at writers of driver education texts, State licensing authorities and developers of driver education curricula. The American Association of Retired Persons "55 Alive/Mature Driving" course targets the older driver. It teaches driver improvement skills related to bicyclists and pedestrians in three of its six sessions. Other courses and materials are designed for professional drivers of trucks, buses, school buses and delivery vans; and driver license manuals generally include at least some coverage pedestrian issues. Although these represent a good start, additional efforts are needed to educate this growing segment of the population. 5. Reaching the professionals -teaching the teachers, designers and enforcement personnel The National Bicycling and Waking Study's Case Study No.2 -- The Training Needs of Transportation Professionals Regarding the Pedestrian and Bicyclist presents a detailed look at the status an resources available for engineers, planners and other "transportation professionals." It finds that:
In addition to the "transportation professionals", classroom teachers, law enforcement officers, service organizations, community groups and all others who can potentially be active in pedestrian safety programs should receive some level of education. Even school crossing guards and school bus drivers often violate safe intersection-crossing procedures. Every day, children at most schools are asked by crossing guards to step into the street without searching. In many cases, children are rushed across the street, or even permitted to run, to shorten the time motorists must wait. Every day, children leaving their school buses fail to stop and search at the edge of the bus before moving into the street...and the driver just watches. Until and unless you develop your expertise and knowledge as a pedestrian you will have little effect in the class room 6. Juggling jurisdictions-- the school district. parents, the city and community groups--who educate? In many cities, the school district, police department, service organizations, bicycle clubs: and local agencies do not coordinate their efforts to any substantive extent. For an education program to be most effective, a comprehensive effort involving all these (and other) agencies, individuals and organizations is in order. No one group can be expected to do it all. Cooperation, recognition of the importance of pedestrian education and a positive attitude are the keys! 7 . Making time for education in schools Educators are continually bombarded with demands for addition of activities, curriculum topics and other time-consuming expansions of their responsibilities. They just don't have time or the budget to accommodate every-one! If classroom or activity time is to be set aside on any regular basis for pedestrian education in the schools, a concerted community campaign is generally required. School board members and education professionals must be convinced of the need. Funds must be found and priorities reconsidered. It isn't easy and may require a substantial contribution of community support on an on-going basis. Administrators may try to convince you that school-based education is unnecessary because the local recreation department or boy scout troop offers bicycling or hiking activities. These activities can be fun, but are no substitute for more structured education programs Among typical non-school-based pedestrian activities are: After-school programs Some of these can be excellent. Keep in mind, though, that many of the children your program ought to reach may not have the money or time to participate. If they can't join the program, they will just continue to copy the actions of their peers.
Bicycle and Pedestrian camps These camps often take place at city parks as part of a city's summer recreation program or at a 4-H, scouting or other camp in the country. They can be full of good learning, fun and skill development. Do not assume, however, that the bicycle or pedestrian camps are meeting the children's total safety education needs. Less than 20% of all kids ever get to go to these camps.
These programs and activities are valuable supplements to school education programs but should not be used to replace them.
8. People just aren't interested -- safety is boring Once teenagers catch scent of their learner's driving permit, walking or bicycling assumes a really "uncool" aura. THE CAR is the thing! This attitude frequently carries over into adulthood. Cars are left to the "kids" and walking is something you do only if you run out of gas or are "hiking" (not walking) on this really swell wilderness trail. Besides, what is there to KNOW? It's as easy as a walk in the park, isn't it! Safety is boring. It really is. Children learn early on that having near misses is the stuff Real Heroes are made of. They see this in television every afternoon. Name one cartoon character or police hero you know who teaches safety in an exciting way that kids will remember. Kids enjoy swapping tales of - near misses and exciting adventures. Attempts to stay safe will put a child in the category of being a "sissy." If kids are taking steps to make sure they are safe, they often don't want any of their friends to know about STEALTH safety....the new concept! Another issue in child safety education is the children's limited attention span. Kids are used to being exposed to repeated, intense, short, flashes of information, presented as vivid sound and color images. Sitting through a half-hour safety film about crossing streets can lead to a certain amount of fidgeting and daydreaming. Classrooms, however, are good places to teach -- one of the few environments where you can maintain discipline and control. You have the opportunity to make excellent use of visual aids -- not quite up to Steven Spielberg, perhaps, but still capable of holding attention and getting the message through. Using a variety of media is one technique. If you use one of the better videos now becoming available, you can stop and start it frequently -- about every 30 to 90 seconds. Take the opportunity to ask the students to identify the key point being made, to tell what they would do next or to identify a hazard in the scene being presented. The trick is to add variety and involve the children, giving them a reason to pay close attention to the film. The teachers presentation can make all the difference. Given the fact that many kids think safety is boring and uncool and that bicyclists have been historically seen as "dweebs" or "nerds on wheels," it is important to increase the intensity of your sessions and to show walking and bicycling in a vivid, positive light that will make it exciting and a desirable activity for the kids. 9. The importance of active, skill-based learning People of all ages learn best when they are directly involved in an activity. If we ask you to tell us how much money you spend annually on trips that you could make on foot or by bicycle, you have to stop and think about what these costs would be. You are actively involved and thinking about the problem. Listening to someone lecture and then having to memorize lists of traffic laws is passive learning. Learning should give people first-hand experience in acquiring new skills. If people have to actually walk to the edge of the curb, stop and look left-right-left again before stepping into the street, they are more likely to remember and use that skill than if they had seen a teacher do it in a classroom. The young pedestrian needs to be taught baselines or curb lines that delineate safe and unsafe areas near traffic. As the child pedestrian gets older and begins to journey farther from home, he or she needs to be able to scan and to judge traffic and the gaps in traffic accurately --to figure out when it's safe to cross. Practicing these skills imprints them in the child's memory. Some programs include actually getting children into real traffic situations. Many children are ready to take part in this type of program as part of a closely supervised program at ages nine and above. The primary drawbacks of on-road training are budget, time, liability concerns and instructor availability. At present, only a few communities are qualified to offer this level of instruction. You can, however, develop program elements aimed at parents that encourage them to take time to ride or walk with their children and to teach them essential skills such as roadway positioning, stopping, navigation, searching, emergency turns and observation of the surrounding conditions. 10. What about the RISK involved in active skill training? The issue of liability is often mentioned, What if you are teaching a skill and someone gets hurt? Are you liable? It is important to train children in a safe environment and to minimize risk while teaching, 11. Working with the Other E's Education is only part of the Big Picture. As we pointed out in the Education Overview session, the "E's" of engineering, enforcement, encouragement and education go hand-in-hand. Enforcement professionals will have good insight into behavior and crash characteristics that will be useful to the education programs. Engineering and planning staff can build facilities that help make the walking environment legible, comfortable and accessible. People involved in encouraging walking know that education is an important factor. If people learn how to walk skillfully, if they can operate safely in a wide range of traffic conditions, they are much more likely to leave that car in the garage and give muscle-powered transport a try! Knowledge is the enemy of fear. Pedestrian Education Pedestrian education has as its primary objective, the reduction of crashes, injuries and fatalities. To develop effective pedestrian education programs, a good understanding of the most-common types of crashes is important. If we know the characteristics of these crashes, safety messages, activities and other countermeasures can be created that focus on the most-applicable crash types 1. Educating Children Adults should always remember that a child's perception of traffic is very different from their own. Because children are not as tall as adults, for example, they sometimes cannot see past parked cars and therefore, may not see approaching vehicles until they dangerously close. The child (and some adults) also thinks that because he or she can see a vehicle, that its driver can also see them. Children's peripheral vision is up to one-third less than that of an adult and even though children hear well, they have a difficult time in discerning the direction from which a sound is coming until they can actually s the vehicle. Children's visual perception is different from that of adults in other ways, too. Because they see little movement by the visible parts on an approaching vehicle, children cannot determine its speed accurately and may decide that it is not moving (since they can't see are any parts moving). Very young children see vehicles as living creatures and from the ages of six years and older, they have little sense of fear or caution. a. Pre-school children Very young children should be taught the basics of curb lines, looking left-right-left again and avoiding dart-out type crashes by practicing recognition of curbs, sidewalks and the edges of roads. Most pedestrian crashes involving children under the age of five occur in places where children should not be --where they are playing in the roadway, in driveways or riding into the roadway on play vehicles. These play vehicles ("Big Wheels" or "Hot Wheels") pose special problems. They are toys and should never be used in the street. A child can build up a substantial amount of speed riding down a driveway and into the street on one of these toys. The child may ride into the street so fast that an oncoming driver cannot possibly react in time. Pre-school children should only cross streets with adult supervision. They should not allowed to play in driveways or near streets. When teaching searching behavior at curb lines, remember that children have a hard time distinguishing left from right and judging the speed of oncoming vehicles. b. Elementary school children, grades K through 3 More than half of all pedestrian deaths and injuries to children ages five to nine involve crossing or entering the roadway between intersections on residential streets. The child is generally hit while in the first half of the roadway where the driver often does not see him or her in time because of parked cars or other visual obstructions. The child may have been taught not to cross the street alone, but may be involved in playing. When a ball, for instance, goes out into the street and the child goes after it, he or she is thinking of the activity as play, not as crossing the street. Children of this age are also frequently involved in the "intersection dash" type of crash. They run into the street at a marked or unmarked crosswalk and are struck by a vehicle. This age group is most often involved in school bus and ice cream vendor crashes. c. Elementary school children, grades four through six Children in the upper elementary grades are still very vulnerable to pedestrian crashes. The mid-block dart-out is a problem but occurs less often than with younger children. Intersection crashes increase since children of this age are more likely to be crossing at intersections alone. They are faced with complexities such as multiple-threat situations, cars turning left at intersections and vehicles making right turns on red. In commercial parking lots, they make must learn how to find a safe route through the parking lot without getting hit. Upper elementary school children have more freedom than younger children so they are more often involved in crashes that occur while they are walking in the roadway.They may be out after dark and therefore need to use retro reflective materials or a light source to themselves seen. 2. Educating Adults Almost two-thirds of all pedestrian fatalities in traffic crashes involved adults ages 16 to 64 Historically, education programs have focused on children rather than on adult pedestrians has been informal most education for adults has been informal--based on observation of peers and remembrance of childhood experiences. Educating adults about pedestrian safety is important for several reasons:
Types of crashes The most frequent adult pedestrian crashes include:
Older adults are not necessarily involved in more pedestrian crashes, but because of physical vulnerabilities, they are much more likely to die from their injuries. Even though studies have proven that pedestrians can prevent most crashes themselves, drivers must share the responsibility for pedestrian safety. Yet while pedestrians and drivers alike are required to obey traffic laws, the places responsibilities on the deriver to exercise "due care" and to take "proper precautions" at all times to avoid hitting a pedestrian. Injuring or killing a pedestrian places a great deal of guilt on the driver regardless of who was at fault. |