The Importance of Teaching Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety to Children
This post was written by Andrea Girones:
We all do our best to keep our children safe. One of the most important safety lessons that we can teach our young children is how to stay safe in traffic. Young children should know not to cross the street without an adult. However, it won’t be long before your youngsters are heading off without you. It is important to start teaching road safety to children at a young age so that safe habits become ingrained.
Take advantage of the times when you walk with your children to teach them how to cross the road safely. Explain to them that drivers of cars may find it difficult to see children walking and that some drivers may not be paying attention at all. This may make it easier for young children to understand the importance of the lessons you are teaching. Children should understand the importance of:
- Stopping and looking both ways before entering the street
- Never crossing the road between parked cars
- Making sure that vehicles are stopped before entering a cross walk
- Making eye contact with drivers to be sure that the drivers see them
- Paying special attention to vehicles turning at intersections, vehicles backing out of driveways and vehicles exiting narrow laneways
- Walking on the sidewalk or against traffic where there is no sidewalk, and well away from the traveled part of the road
- Obeying road signs and traffic lights.
In addition to understanding the rules, make sure that your children can put them into practice. It might be helpful to quiz your children on what they should do in certain situations while you are out walking, to make sure that they know how to stay safe, even when you aren’t with them.
Children should be taught the importance of wearing a helmet from their very first bike ride. Teaching a child how to use hand signals to communicate with other cyclists and drivers is also important.
Whether biking or walking, children must be taught to remain alert when they are near traffic. It is important for children to behave predictably when they are near the road. Even if a driver sees a child, he or she may not expect the child to dart out in front of a moving vehicle. Teaching your child how to behave in a way that drivers expect and enforcing basic traffic safety rules will help keep your child safe.
