The Development of Child Pedestrian Training in the United Kingdom 2002–2011: A National Survey of Local Authorities

Abstract

Approximately two thirds of the children killed or seriously injured on Great Britain's roads are child pedestrians. Recognizing this issue, the Department for Transport introduced and evaluated a pilot child pedestrian training scheme, Kerbcraft, from 2002 to 2007. Kerbcraft aimed to teach roadside pedestrian skills to children between age 5 and 7 and was successfully trialled across 75 local authorities in England and Scotland. The UK government has since recommended Kerbcraft as the best practice example for roadside child pedestrian training. This article revisits a sample of local authorities that participated in the pilot and presents the findings from a new survey: identifying the status of child pedestrian training and assessing how the delivery, evaluation, and learning mechanisms have changed since the pilot. The results suggest that following on from the Kerbcraft scheme, the majority of local authorities continue to provide pedestrian training but in an adapted form—often delivering less training than that suggested by the Kerbcraft model. The implications are discussed.