ROAD LICENCES FOR CHILDREN

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 29, 3 August 1939, Page 18

ROAD LICENCES FOR CHILDREN

SAFETY SCHEME AT LONDON SCHOOLS

One of the most original and practical schemes for teaching children safety first on the roads has just completed its first experimental year at the Wembley Council Schools in London, states "The - Sydney Morning Herald." At these schools a system of road licences has heen devised for the children, and each licence has a Hank space on the back for endorsements in case of breaking the rules. The licences are graded into three—infants, junior, and senior—and they are coloured to match the traffic lights. Red for infants signifies the time of greatest danger during school life. The junior licences .are amber, and green is,the colour for the responsible seniors.

j The red licence sets out a few simple instructions which the smallest children can memorise. But that is not all. The authorities have recognised that pictures have a strong appeal to small; children, so they have added three pages of pictures to the one of printed ' instructions. The pictures are reproductions of safety-first posters With slogans in bold type: Stop! Look both ways before crossing the road. Play in safe places. The children are already familiar with these posters, but it is felt that to include them in the child's own licence is to give them an added personal" significance. From seven years old to eleven is the age for the junior licence. This sets out eight important - rules for pedestrians. It displays two rather more sophisticated posters and asks in heavy print: "Have you a copy of the highway code?" It is felt that the children are old enough now to become acquainted with the basic traffic rules which affect them. The amber licence is called the learner's licence. This title has aj special significance for English children i who are used to seeing a large letter "L" displayed on motor-cars whose drivers have been granted a learner's licence from the Traffic Department, pending passings the examination for a full licence. i CYCLING RULES. j By the time the children are eleven and reach the dignity of a senior licence the main emphasis is laid on stifdying the highway code. They ; have now reached the earliest age at 'which.; the head teacher will allow them to cycle to school, and a cycle permit is attached to their licence. -- This contains special rules and hints for cyclists, and requires the co-opera-tion of the parent, who must sign a: declaration that the bicycle is of suit- J able size, has proper brakes in working j order, adequate front and rear lamps,! and that the child is a competent j cyclist, and has received instruction in the highway code for pedestrians and1 cyclists from the parent. j There is no space for endorsements on the cyclists' permit, but a clause ex- I pressly states that permission to cycle j to school will be withdrawn from pupils who break the cycling rules of Hie school or who are known to cycle i dangerously. I SCHOOLS ARE SATISFIED jlt will be seen that, this licensing j

system is quite an elaborate one, and just as the proof of the pudding is in the eating everything- here depends' on gaining the active co-operation of the children. < After a year's experimenting, the report of the schools on this aspect is very satisfactory. When the idea was first presented to the children it was made a very personal matter to each one of them that not only does the disgrace of endorsement follow any breaking of the rules, but a point of honour is involved in keeping them. The infants and juniors are given a safety-first badge to wear on their school- tunics. It consists of a red triangle on a white ground, and signifies their membership, of the school scheme. The small children take great pride in a distinctive badge, which they feel gives them some importance to rival the seniors who wear prefects' and house badges. There is another practical side to this teaching of safety first which the children enjoy enormously. They are given an opportunity at school to use - the rules they have .learnt. Many schools have now laid down roadways in their playgrounds. Here the different hazards of the road are set out, pedestrian crossings, traffic lights, road obstructions, dangerous corners, . etc., each with "their '-appropriate signs. j Small children bring their miniature : motor-cars and tricycles and drive about, others are appointed as the nolicemen for the day to direct the traffic, and others are the pedestrians, who must carefully observe the rules whenever they cross the roads. SPECIAL "TRAFFIC" PARK. In Tottenham, a very crowded London district, one of the small parks has been given over to just this type of traffic instruction. Four and a half acres have been scientifically laid-put with traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, and all the different road signs. Children who have cars and cycles of their own can bring them free, for others there are vehicles for hire at a halfpenny for every quarter of an hour. | There is plenty of pedestrian traffic, I because this is a playground as well as a model traffic park, and the roads have been cunningly arranged so that the children have to cross them to get from swings to see-saws, from snlash pool to slippery-slide.