Browsing by Subject "hazard perception"

Bicycling is a way of transport and a sport that is considered both healthy and environmentally friendly. It is also a convenient way to get around especially for children and adolescents who cannot drive cars. However, school-aged children are an overrepresented group in bicycling-related injuries. For Finnish children, bicycling injuries are the most common traffic injuries. One possible explanation for children's higher accident liability could be their less developed hazard perception skills. This thesis is based on a study about hazard perception, where a game-like hazard perception test with videos filmed from a bicyclist's perspective was designed and tested on participants of different age and exposure to bicycling. The videos contained natural, unstaged videos from traffic, and participants were instructed to point out targets such as road users on a potential collision course and locations where road users could emerge from (e. g. house corners).The test was done using a touch screen where participants were to point out targets while the video was rolling early enough to gain points. If a target was missed or pointed out too late, the video was paused and feedback given. Performance in the hazard perception test was tested on 3 groups: one group of 49 children from the 2nd grade (age 8-9) and two adult groups: 16 adults who cycle at least 3 times a week (experienced adults) and 15 adults who cycle never or only rarely (inexperienced adults). The adults performed better than the children both in terms of answer latency and percentage of correct answers. Adults were also significantly better at pointing out view blockers as potentially hazardous targets. No significant differences were found between the experienced and inexperienced adults groups, which suggests that the test might have been too easy for the adult group. A correlation between a high percentage of correct answers and a low answer latency was found on an individual level, which suggests that the game was successful in measuring hazard perception skills.