Parents in four Baltimore neighborhoods chose speed bumps as the most
effective method for preventing child pedestrian injuries, but also supported
measures such as better traffic enforcement and trained crossing guards,
say Andrea Carlson Gielen, Sc.D., Sc.M., of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health and colleagues.
Many parents also said that they were willing to donate money for the
speed bumps, volunteer as crossing guards and attend meetings on traffic
and pedestrian safety. Parents who lived in high risk neighborhoods were
often the most likely to say that they would volunteer.
“They are optimistic that solutions can be implemented and are willing
to be involved in getting changes made in their communities to protect
child pedestrians,” Gielen says.
The researchers surveyed 723 parents or caregivers and interviewed smaller
focus groups for four Baltimore neighborhoods of varying income and incidence
of child pedestrian injuries.
More than 63 percent of the parents supported speed bumps
as a way to prevent injuries. Half of those surveyed said that all the
solutions
offered in the study — from crossing guards to parent safety classes — would
work well.
Parents who lived in neighborhoods that were both high-income and high-risk
areas were significantly more likely to think that crossing guards and
parent safety classes would work, according to the researchers.
Sixty-seven percent of the parents said they were willing to volunteer
for crossing guard duty and 83 percent said they would donate money for
a speed bump.
Eighty-eight percent said they would attend a meeting about traffic enforcement
and 81 percent said they would go to a meeting about traffic safety for
kids.
But parents had mixed opinions about the best way to make these changes,
the researchers found. Parents had no significant preference as to whether
letters to the mayor, city council and community meetings would be more
effective.
Gielen and colleagues acknowledge that their survey may not be representative
of all parents, since those most interested in the problem were probably
more motivated to participate in the survey.
“But our results provide evidence that parents and other caregivers
can be eager partners in the effort to reduce child pedestrian injury,” Gielen
says.
