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Innovative Approaches in Children Traffic Safety

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Transportation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2021) | Viewed by 14979

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Aleksandra Deluka-Tibljaš

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department for Transportation Engineering, University of Rijeka, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia
Interests: optimization of urban traffic infrastructure; traffic safety

Prof. Dr. Irena Ištoka Otković

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture Osijek, Croatia
Interests: traffic microsimulations; optimization of urban traffic infrastructure; traffic safety; prediction models

Dr. Sanja Šurdonja

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department for Transportation Engineering, University of Rijeka, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia
Interests: optimization and design of traffic infrastructure; traffic safety
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

According to a recent WHO Report (WHO, 2018), road traffic injuries are currently the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged between 5 and 29 years, and the conclusion is that there is an urgent need for change in the current child and adolescent health agenda which, to date, has largely neglected road safety. The situation, however, as is the case with traffic safety in general, varies significantly across the world depending on socio-economic and other conditions. According to an OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) report (Keeping children safe in Traffic, 2018), the gap between the safest countries and the highest-risk country is wide, varying from 1.5 (Sweden) up to 7.5 (Korea) deaths per 100,000 children under the age of 15. Due to the recognition of this problem, global research on the traffic safety of children has been developing in recent decades in different scientific fields and directions.

This Special Issue focuses on collecting examples of innovative approaches to the analyses of child traffic safety in different circumstances in which children regularly participate in traffic—as pedestrians, cyclists and vehicle passengers. The idea is to connect research conducted by scientist from different disciplines—transportation engineers, civil engineers, urban planners, psychologists, educators and pediatricians that work separately or in multidisciplinary teams. As children act in very different traffic conditions, and the research proved that their behavior is consequently different, a worldwide comparison of the results of previous studies will enable a consensus of possible general and more local measures that could help to enhance child traffic safety. Innovation is welcomed in the application of different methodologies, collaboration of scientist from different disciplines, comparison of parameters affecting child safety and proposals for innovative and effective traffic safety strategies and measures for children.

Papers based on applied, but also on theoretical, research will be considered. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

Child pedestrian safety;
Child cyclist safety;
Child safety in vehicle collisions;
Traffic infrastructure and child traffic safety;
Autonomous vehicles and child traffic safety;
Methods for analyzing child pedestrian safety;
Models of child traffic behavior;
Microsimulations of child pedestrian traffic;
Characteristics of children influencing their traffic safety;
Comparison of characteristics of children and other traffic participants;
The influence of child cognitive development on traffic safety;
Child traffic safety and social equity;
Education for child traffic safety;
Traffic planning and design for child traffic safety;
Urban planning and child traffic safety.

Prof. Dr. Aleksandra Deluka-Tibljaš
Prof. Dr. Irena Ištoka Otković
Dr. Sanja Šurdonja
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

child traffic safety
innovation in traffic safety
child pedestrians and cyclist
child traffic behavior
child traffic safety measures

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 6716 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Child Pedestrian Safety: Study of Street-Crossing Behaviour of Primary School Children with Adult Supervision

by Malik Sarmad Riaz, Ariane Cuenen, Evelien Polders, Muhammad Bilal Akram, Moustafa Houda, Davy Janssens and Marc Azab

Sustainability 2022, 14(3), 1503; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031503 - 27 Jan 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4911

Abstract

Road traffic accidents are the primary cause of injuries and fatalities among children. The current study focuses on children’s (un)safe crossing behaviour in a real traffic situation accompanied by an adult at a crosswalk in front of their school. The study aims to investigate if there are differences in crossing behaviour related to road infrastructure (i.e., one-way and two-way street, elevated and non-elevated street crossing), the gender of the child, and the effect of the accompanying adult’s behaviour on the child’s crossing behaviour. Primary school children from two urban schools in Flanders (Belgium) were observed for three days while crossing the street in front of their school in the morning and afternoon. A total of 241 child–adult pairs were observed. Descriptive analysis, Pearson chi-square tests, and binary logistic regression models were used to find differences between groups. More than half of the crossings exhibited two or more unsafe behaviours. Not stopping at the curb before crossing was the most unsafe behaviour, exhibited by 47.7% of children; not looking for oncoming traffic before and during the crossing was the second most unsafe behaviour, exhibited by 39.4% of the children. The only difference between boys’ and girls’ crossing behaviour was in stopping at the curb with girls 1.901 times more likely to stop before crossing as compared to boys. Adults holding hands of the child resulted in safer behaviours by children. The children not holding hands displayed significantly riskier behaviour in running or hopping while crossing the street and being distracted. The study reinforces the need to improve the transportation system through infrastructural interventions (elevated crosswalks), as well as educating and training children and the parents on safe crossing behaviour in traffic. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Approaches in Children Traffic Safety)

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17 pages, 2588 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of Child Traffic Safety near Primary School Areas Using UAV Technology

by Anton Renard, Luka Novačko, Karlo Babojelić and Nikola Kožul

Sustainability 2022, 14(3), 1144; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031144 - 20 Jan 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2568

Abstract

Road safety in primary school areas is a delicate issue due to the vulnerability of children as road users. They are inexperienced traffic participants and sometimes their behavior in traffic situations is unpredictable. This paper reports a safety analysis conducted using video processing of conflict trajectories of vehicles and active transportation users (AT users). The videos were collected using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as this technology does not affect the actual behavior of traffic participants. Due to their airborne position, UAVs can conveniently gather information about driving behaviors and the exact positions of various participants. The safety analysis was conducted using surrogate indicators suitable for evaluating the risk of potential collisions as they incorporate both spatial proximity and speed. Three conflict indicators were used in the safety analysis: (i) time-to-collision, (ii) post-encroachment time, and (iii) heavy braking. The methodology was tested in a primary school area in the city of Zagreb. With the applied methodology, a total of 43 potential conflicts were identified in the school area (14 time-to-collision, 23 post-encroachment time, and 6 heavy braking). Based on the determined potential conflicts, safety measures were proposed to decrease the number and severity of potential conflicts and to increase traffic safety near school areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Approaches in Children Traffic Safety)

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16 pages, 3749 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Safety Analysis of Young Pedestrian Behavior at Signalized Intersections: An Eye-Tracking Study

by Chiara Gruden, Irena Ištoka Otković and Matjaž Šraml

Sustainability 2021, 13(8), 4419; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084419 - 15 Apr 2021

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 2724

Abstract

Smartphones have become an integral part of our everyday lives and keep us busy while doing other primary activities such as driving, cycling or walking in traffic. The problem of digital distraction among drivers has been largely addressed, and interest is growing also on vulnerable road users as well. In fact, high percentages of pedestrians and cyclists are accustomed to checking their devices while moving in traffic. This research links to the presented theme and aims to investigate the extent to which digital distraction in the form of social media app checking influences pedestrian behavior. The focus of the study is specifically on signalized intersections. An outdoor, eye-tracking experiment was conducted on a specific route consisting of various elements typical of urban areas. Participants were asked to walk the predefined route twice, encountering three signalized intersections: the first time they were asked to walk with their smartphone in hand, the second time without. The recordings of each participant’s route were then analyzed, examining reaction time, crossing time and speed, fixations and gaze paths. The results show a clear impact of digital devices on pedestrians’ attention by increasing their reaction and crossing times and decreasing crossing speeds. In addition, the analysis of fixations found that 82.54% of the time was devoted to the smartphone, while interest in other street elements decreased from 16.64% to 4.03%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Approaches in Children Traffic Safety)

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Review

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23 pages, 2941 KiB

Open AccessReview

Child-Pedestrian Traffic Safety at Crosswalks—Literature Review

by Aleksandra Deluka-Tibljaš, Sanja Šurdonja, Irena Ištoka Otković and Tiziana Campisi

Sustainability 2022, 14(3), 1142; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031142 - 20 Jan 2022

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3529

Abstract

Child pedestrians make up 30% of the total number of children injured in road traffic in the EU. They are a particularly vulnerable subgroup because they exhibit specific traffic behavior related to cognitive and physical development, sociodemographic characteristics, and environmental conditions. This paper provides an overview of research of parameters that affect the safety of children in the conflict zones of the intersection—crosswalks. The overview was undertaken targeting available research mostly conducted in the last 10 years all over the world, related to the identification of parameters that affect the safety of child-pedestrians, and models developed for the prediction of pedestrian and child-pedestrian behavior. Research conducted on various urban networks provides insight into locally and more widely applicable impact parameters connected to child characteristics and infrastructural and traffic elements, but also distractors (e.g., electronic devices) as new phenomena influencing children’s road safety. A review of pedestrian behavior-prediction models suggests that models are being developed for the general population, and models for children’s behavior, with specific parameters, are missing. For further research, more detailed analysis of the impact of distractors and of COVID–19 pandemic non-mobility, as well as an analysis of possible infrastructural solutions to increase children’s road traffic safety, is suggested. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Approaches in Children Traffic Safety)

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