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Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Using a Virtual Reality Walking Simulator to Investigate Pedestrian Behavior
Published on: June 9, 2020
Brief report: Increasing children's safe pedestrian behaviors through simple skills training
Benjamin K Barton1, David C Schwebel, Barbara A Morrongiello
1University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA. bbarton@uoguelph.ca
Objectives:
Hundreds of American children are killed and thousands more injured annually as pedestrians. Simple and effective interventions targeting behavioral changes in children are needed.
Methods:
The present study tested a simple, skill-based training method for increasing safe pedestrian behaviors. Eighty-five children ages 5-8 participated.
Results:
Children behaved more safely following training, indicating very brief training can produce at least short-term improvements in pedestrian behaviors.
Conclusions:
Results are discussed with regard to the involvement of parents in the practical application of a simple training procedure and future directions for pedestrian interventions.

