Community-Based Pedestrian Safety Training in Virtual Reality: A Pragmatic Trial

Child pedestrian injuries are a leading cause of mortality and morbidity across the United States and the world. Repeated practice at the cognitive-perceptual task of crossing a street may lead to safer pedestrian behavior. Virtual reality offers a unique opportunity for repeated practice without the risk of actual injury. This study conducted a pragmatic pre-post within-subjects trial of training children in pedestrian safety using a semi-mobile, semi-immersive virtual pedestrian environment placed at schools and community centers. Pedestrian safety skills among a group of 44 seven- and eight-year-old children were assessed in a laboratory, and then children completed six 15-minutes training sessions in the virtual pedestrian environment at their school or community center over the course of three weeks. Following training, pedestrian safety skills were re-assessed. Results indicate improvement in delay entering traffic following training. Safe crossings did not demonstrate change. Attention to traffic and time to contact with oncoming vehicles both decreased somewhat, perhaps an indication that training was incomplete and children were in the process of actively learning to be safer pedestrians. The findings suggest virtual reality environments placed in community centers hold promise for teaching children to be safer pedestrians, but future research is needed to determine the optimal training dosage.

• Record URL:
  https://stride.ce.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/STRIDE-final-report-2013-004S-Schwebel.pdf
• 
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/29103
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education Center (STRIDE)

  University of Florida
  365 Weil Hall
  Gainesville, FL  United States  32611

  University of Alabama, Birmingham

  Birmingham, AL  United States  35294

  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

  Chapel Hill, NC  United States  27514

  Alabama Department of Transportation

  ,    

  Research and Innovative Technology Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Schwebel, David C
  • Rodriguez, Daniel
  • Sisiopiku, Virginia
  • Combs, Tabitha
  • Severson, Joan
• Publication Date: 2015-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 28p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Children; Crosswalks; Education and training; Pedestrian movement; Pedestrian safety; Virtual reality
• Subject Areas: Education and Training; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01570396
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 2013-004S
• Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, RITA, ATRI, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Jul 21 2015 9:38AM