To examine children's competence while cycling, as demonstrated in mistakes in performance and failure to comply with safety rules.
METHODS:
Children in three age groups (8, 10, and 12 years) participated in a realistic yet simulated traffic environment.
RESULTS:
The boys' cycling speed increased steadily with age, while that of the girls increased from 8 to 10 but decreased at age 12. Most children had adequate motor control by age 10, and the youngest compensated for their less developed skills by cycling slowly and braking early at junctions. Serious mistakes, often related to the children's age and gender, consisted of the children failing to stop at signals or stopping too late, especially at short stopping range.
CONCLUSIONS:
There are considerable individual differences in children's cycling competence that are related to biological factors, such as age and gender, and psychological factors, such as rule compliance and choice of cycling speed.
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ASTRACT
Accidents involving young pedestrians often have consequences which are both serious and expensive. One of the important factors involved in reconstructing these accidents is the speed of the pedestrian. There are limited data on the walking and running speeds of children but they are related to age and sex. Young children of any given age can vary substantially in height and weight, and this can influence their walking and running speeds.
In some instances, the children move from a standing start only a short distance to the point of collision. In these cases, their acceleration is at least as important as their steady speeds. Little data on the acceleration of children are available.
A study has been conducted of elementary school children to measure their acceleration characteristics, walking speeds and running speeds. Accelerations and speeds related to pedestrians’ age, sex, height and weight have been documented. Empirical formulae have been developed for various combinations of these variables. Implications for accident reconstruction are discussed.
ASTRACT
Collisions with young pedestrians often have serious traumatic and financial consequences. Allegations of negligence are frequently made against the drivers of involved vehicles, on the basis that they failed to take evasive action. A key element in determining the time available to the driver to avoid a collision is the speed of the pedestrian. In some instances, the young pedestrian is initially stationary in full view of the driver and then runs into the path of the vehicle. When this occurs, the acceleration of the pedestrian is an important element in determining the available time.
This paper reports on accelerations from a standing start and associated walking, jogging and running speeds of pedestrians 5 – 17 years of age. Because children can vary considerably in height and weight for a given age, the effects of height and weight on acceleration and speed are also reported.
The characteristics and limitations of the mathematical model used for calculating acceleration are discussed.
Empirical equations have been derived which enable calculation of acceleration and speed ranges for pedestrians of different ages, heights and weights. Similar equations have been derived from United States and German data. Comparisons between the data sets are made.
Errors in accident reconstruction from improper assessment of pedestrian acceleration effects are quantified and discussed. The paper provides a source of base data for analysis of pedestrian accidents.
Traffic accident and vehicle technology 46 (2008), pp. 280 – 282 (issue 9)
Within the framework of an expert’s report, the accident investigator was asked to determine the speed at which an eleven-year-old boy was travelling on his bicycle and the distance covered in order to reach this speed. As hardly any information on this subject was available in the literature, the Institute for Accident Analysis IFU in Hamburg carried out its own tests.
A series of experimental studies were made to determine the operating performance of a single bicycle, and the traditional traffc flow characteristics of a stream of bicycles and compare them to observed data. The bicycle was considered a road vehicle i.e., it operates in some general but unmarked travel lanes and is constrained by other bicycles. The details of the experimental procedures and results are described. Comparisons are made with other studies, and conclusions drawn from the studies are presented. It was found that under certain conditions, bicycle flow can be treated as vehicular flow, and the findings are presented for maximum capacity of bicycle paths, their level of service, width of a cycle pathway, the radius of turn for a path, and grades