How Pedal Cars Were Used in an Unique Experiment to Create Good Drivers

It's amazing that pedal cars, which are now regarded as activity toys for young children, were once used in an educational experiment!

This actually happened in Arizona, where pedal cars were used in a unique experiment to educate children in road craft and traffic awareness.

In the classroom, teachers taught road sense and the laws of the highway code: how to obey the traffic signals as well as the obligatory Stop signs; they learnt that if you did not obey them you could cause an accident. Even in a pedal car a crash could happen if the rules were not adhered to! Traffic lights were another factor taught; always wait for the green light and do not go through a red light- also, Give Way signs, they were taught to be considerate drivers and not pushy drivers. The speed laws were not really applicable but they had to be taught; that you could not go too fast.

A local policeman came to the school and reviewed road safety. By making the sessions entertaining as well as educational the police became a friendly force whose word was to be trusted and respected.

The children had a town road grid set up in their playground, with traffic lights, road signs. T junctions, cross roads, and they behaved as on proper roads. This is where the rules of the classroom were put into practice, and they could become careful and considerate drivers understanding the laws of the road.

The children really loved these lessons and became very proficient at driving their pedal cars. However, some of the children were occasionally carried away with their enthusiasm and drove too fast and had some accidents, so these children were "Road hogs" and had to have the next day off on the bench to cool down! Even in a pedal car you can be a road menace!

Etiquette at road junctions, hand signals, learning how to overtake, reverse and turn the car- in fact all the rules of the road were looked at.The pedal car was found to be an ideal vehicle for such early driving lessons. It was discovered that when the child became old enough to drive a motor car they had good road knowledge and were able to adapt their knowledge onto the road in a motor car!

It would be an interesting experiment for today's children to make them aware of the dangers of the road and not just learn how to be a good pedestrian and cross the road carefully or be a good passenger by using the seat belt and not being too noisy in the back seat and distracting the driver- but by actually driving their own pedal car in a road set-up (not the actual road of course) they learnt the signals and rules of the road through play. The children of the 1950s were a very different generation, brought up on minimum TV and no computers, but today's children are still enthusiastic to learn grown up skills and the pedal car would seem to be an ideal way to teach them the skills of the road.

As the saying goes: teach the child you teach the man.