Young children in traffic.

Traffic accident statistics in various countries show that young children are one of the age groups which are most affected, both as pedestrians and as cyclists. In Sweden, when accidents involving children are discussed it is often said that these accidents are caused by children's carelessness, incautiousness, and rashness. Such points of view are put forward in verdicts in traffic cases in which children have been involved. It would seem that young children are regarded in approximately the same way as ordinary adults, and held responsible for their incorrect behaviour. Similarly, this identification of children with adults has produced the belief that the behaviour of young children in traffic could be made perfect by instruction, and demands for this have often been raised in some quarters in the name of accident prevention. But what happens if children are too immature to be able to derive any benefit from traffic instruction? What can be regarded as 'normal' behaviour in traffic for children of different ages? The Research Institute of Child Psychology at the University of Stockholm has, since 1960, been carrying on a series of investigations dealing with traffic maturity in children. These investigations are still incomplete but an account ofthem has been given in a book entitled Young Children in Traffic (in Swedish) published by Laromedelsforlagen, Stockholm, 1968. This paper gives a summary of the book. A start was made with a survey of Young children's play habits and ranges of action in modern urban areas. This survey took the form of a series of exploratory studies, carried out by the institute in conjunction with the Department of Town Planning at the University College of Technology, Stockholm: (a) A study of young children (of preschool age), their play habits out of doors, and the number of times they went in and out alone with a play group or with an adult through the door of the building in which they lived, in relation to the planning of the building (high rise or low rise blocks of flats). (b) The main investigation which aimed at finding out where the children played, how far they wandered fromhome andhow their area of activity and selection of play areas was affected by the planning of the housing environment. This test was carried out partly as a random investigation in various out of door environments, and partly as an interview investigation among the mothers of young children in the areas in question. (c) Field investigation of the attendance habits of the children at the communal playgrounds in one of the housing areas. Only the main investigation (b) will be dealt with here. In a high rise and low rise housing area in the suburbs of Stockholm, 13 similar observation points were selected. These were distributed among playgrounds, park areas, areas ofhigh traffic density, streets, and shopping centres. During a period of three weeks in May and June, 1960, these points were visited once every hour between 8 am and 6 pm by one of the institute's workers. Notes were made of how many children there were from each area who were at the point when the research worker arrived, as well as the child's name, age, and address. The date, weather, and time of day were also noted. Approximately 550 children were observed. The results from both areas