Purpose

The current study examined the impact on children’s street crossing behaviors of not having auditory-based information about traffic when crossing streets.

Method

Using a fully-immersive virtual reality system, numerous indices of children’s street crossing behaviors were measured both when they had auditory-based information about traffic and when this was lacking.

Results

The lack of traffic sounds did not influence the inter-vehicle gap size that children crossed into but it did result in slower initiations and, ultimately, more high-risk outcomes (close calls and hits).

Conclusion

Traffic sounds significantly contribute to enhance children’s safety when crossing streets. Cars with reduced sounds (e.g., electric) and anything that interferes with children accessing auditory-based traffic information (e.g., wearing headphones) could increase their risk of pedestrian injury.

中文翻译：

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缺乏有关交通的听觉信息时的儿童过街表演

目的

当前的研究研究了在穿越街道时没有基于听觉的交通信息对儿童过街行为的影响。

方法

使用完全身临其境的虚拟现实系统，可以测量儿童在获得有关交通的基于听觉的信息时以及在缺乏信息时的众多指数。

结果

缺少交通声音并不会影响儿童穿越的车辆间隙的大小，但确实会导致启动速度变慢，并最终导致更高的高风险结果（近距离呼叫和命中）。

结论

交通声音极大地提高了过马路时儿童的安全。声音降低的汽车（例如，电动汽车）以及任何干扰儿童访问基于听觉的交通信息的东西（例如，戴着耳机）可能会增加行人受伤的风险。