From Douglas Stewart, University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Three years ago you ran a story and an editorial on my work on the driver’s
optical illusion that causes children to be killed or injured in road accidents
(This Week, 18 June 1994, p 4 and Comment, p 3). This work had wide coverage.
What should have followed was research and development by the Department of
Transport, but they seemed unable to appreciate the significance of my findings,
despite the evidence of several different tests and the huge potential for a
reduction in child casualties.
In my work I made one prediction which could only be tested recently. I
suggested in technical papers that the danger to children from this perceptual
error “should be greatly reduced by lower traffic speeds” and that “it can
therefore be predicted that the reduction in pedestrian casualties will be
greater for children than for adults”, although at that time I had no way of
testing this.
A few months ago, however, the Transport Research Laboratory published a
study of the effects of reducing speed limits from 30 mph to 20 mph. It showed
that pedestrian casualties decreased by 70 per cent for children but only 45 per
cent for adults, despite the fact that more children are allowed on to streets
when traffic calming is applied.
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These figures add further support for my conclusions and emphasise the need
to reduce urban traffic speeds.
