Objective and Perceived Traffic Safety for Children: A Systematic Literature Review of Traffic and Built Environment Characteristics Related to Safe Travel.

Yasser Amiour,Pauline E W Van Den Berg,E O D Waygood

doi:10.3390/ijerph19052641

Abstract

The literature on children’s active transportation has shown the influence of the built environment characteristics on walking and crashes. Various reviews have examined those two questions. One influence on walking is the perception of traffic safety. However, it is not clear how, or even if, the built environment affects such perceptions. This research aims to understand which traffic and built environment characteristics influence objective and subjective/perceived traffic safety for children based on the analysis of previous studies in the field. Two types of research were used: the first examines the association between traffic and built environment characteristics and child pedestrian and/or cyclist collisions/injuries; the second relates to the perception of safety by parents and children for active transportation and, where studied, its relationship with built environment characteristics. A systematic review was conducted using five electronic databases. The total number of articles retrieved was reduced to 38 following the eligibility criteria and quality assessment, where 25 articles relate to injuries among children and 13 articles pertain to perception of safety. The results showed that high traffic volume and high vehicle speed are the main reasons children and parents feel unsafe when children use active travel, which matches the main findings on objective safety. Few articles on perception of safety related to the objective built environment were found. However, consistent findings exist. The presence of sidewalk was related to the safety of children. The presence of a crossing guard was positively related to perceived safety but was associated with higher rates of injuries among children. Intersection density was related to unsafe perceptions but was not statistically associated with objective traffic safety. Additionally, population density was found to be positively related to injuries among children, but not to perception of safety. The results help policy strategy to enhance the safety of children when using active transport modes.

Highlights

Introduction iationsChildren need to be able to safely travel in the environment where they live whether it is to go to school, play with friends, or engage in other activities
A total of 25 articles related to child pedestrian or bicyclist collisions, and a total of 13 articles related to perception of safety (Appendix B)
Parents’ and children’s perception of traffic safety indicated that they feel that high vehicle speed and high traffic volume are the key dangerous factors for traffic safety children when walking or cycling

Summary

Introduction

Children need to be able to safely travel in the environment where they live whether it is to go to school, play with friends, or engage in other activities. Considerable research has been focused on children’s active transportation to school and how it relates to physical activity [1–6]. CIM is described as: “Children’s freedom to travel around in their neighborhood or city without an adult or parental supervision” [9]. A key component of CIM is both perceived and objective traffic safety [10]. Parents are one of the determinants for children’s independent mobility by making decisions on whether or not to let their children walk or bike to school or to other destinations [11]. Parents judge traffic, which they do not have control over, but they train

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Results

Conclusion