Citation

Van Schagen I, Brookhuis K, Wierda M. J. Traffic Med. 1988; 16(1-2): 28-31.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1988, International Association for Accident and Traffic Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article describes a study undertaken to determine the reasons why young cyclists are more prone to accidents than adults, and whether such reasons vary according to age. About 45-50 cyclists in each of 4 age groups (9-11 years, 12-14 years, 15-18 years, and adults) completed a questionnaire on topics such as knowledge of priority rules, attitudes to rule compliance and opinions about the ability of cyclists themselves and other road users. Sixteen children aged between 6 and 7 were given a questionnaire on priority rule knowledge only. The test of highway rules consisted of 18 photographs of real life situations. In each situation the cyclist approached an intersection with other traffic. The respondent was asked whether the cyclist had to wait until the other traffic had passed. There were 26 questions on attitudes towards highway rule compliance. Half of these asked for a judgement on the importance of the rules, and the other on whether it was a nuisance to comply with them. It was shown that knowledge of the rules increased markedly with age. Furthermore, the results showed that secondary school children lack knowledge about priority rules, do not like to comply with them and consider them to be relatively unimportant.

Language: en

Keywords

Highway safety; Road safety; Compliance; Travel behavior; Road user behaviour