Factors associated with parental safe road behaviour as a pedestrian with young children in metropolitan New South Wales, Australia.

A cross-sectional population-based randomised telephone survey of parents with children aged between 5 and 12 years was conducted to investigate factors associated with safe road behaviour of parents as pedestrians with their young children in Sydney metropolitan and near by cities in New South Wales, Australia. Parental perception of the road environment as hazardous associated significantly with their safe road behaviour as pedestrian while with their children. This held true even after adjusting for the non-English speaking background and the age of the child. Knowledge of road rules, on the other hand, was not associated with parental safe road behaviour. The results of this study suggested that parental safe road behaviour require much attention in future research and in programme development. The perception of the road environment is a very important factor in motivating safe road behaviour. This should be taken into consideration in designing road safety campaigns.