Using simulation to teach concepts of traffic movement

One strategy for teaching concepts of traffic movement is to simulate an intersection while the student and I pretend to be vehicles or pedestrians going through the movements ourselves. The 20-minute video to the right shows excerpts from a 90-minute session with Shawn, who is 16 years old and has been totally blind since he was 6.

Using "live-model" simulation has been be more effective for me to help children and adults understand what's going on at intersections than using a model of the intersection with toy cars to demonstrate the movements. A good example of how physically "being there" can help conceptualize traffic movements and positions is shown in the video (at the 14-minute mark), when Shawn struggles to figure out where a vehicle (represented by me) should be if the driver wants to turn right. He thinks about it long and hard until the moment that I ask him to imagine that he himself wants to turn right, and then he gets it.

I think that people learn better when they discover information themselves, so I didn't explain the traffic patterns to Shawn, I asked him to figure them out. I wish I had thought of making car sounds as we moved and playing recorded crashing sounds each time we bumped into each other -- it would have been more fun!

In the video we can see Shawn getting an understanding of:

Which side of the road vehicles travel on;
How vehicles move or turn through the intersection;
Two common traffic timing patterns for modern traffic signals; and
Where and when pedestrians are usually allowed to walk in each of these timing patterns.

Although it is not shown in the video, he also used simulation to learn:

How the right-turn-on-red (RTOR) vehicles move and where the drivers are usually looking;
Some of the risks for pedestrians (such as from left- or right-turning vehicles from the parallel street, or RTOR drivers) and ideas for reducing them, including the strategy of going around the intersection to avoid a crossing with high risk from turning traffic.

If you would like to see the simulation training for understanding pedestrian risks and RTOR, contact me -- if there is enough interest I'll assemble another video to accompany this one.

Transcript of video

The entire transcript of the video, plus descriptions of our movements, is posted below. Enjoy!

Narration: This video shows excerpts from a 90-minute session using simulation to teach concepts of traffic patterns to Shawn, who is 16 years old and has been totally blind since he was 6. We set up carpets to simulate an intersection while we pretended to be vehicles. Shawn preferred to explore the intersection and do the simulations without his cane.

I have done this simulation for many years to teach the basic traffic movements of signalized intersections to adults, often using intersecting carpets or sidewalks, but I prefer to use intersecting hallways because they have physical boundaries that are easier for blind people to hear and feel with their bodies than it would be for them to identify with their feet and cane on floor surfaces.

This was the first time that I planned to teach more complex movements and include pedestrians, so we ran into problems because the carpets were not wide enough to represent more than one lane going each way. We also needed more than two of us to simulate some of the vehicle and pedestrian movements and positions, so we were fortunate to have Shawn's mother join us when needed - it would have been even better with more students or participants in the simulation.

Traffic patterns are all based on rules that were developed to avoid having people bump or crash into each other, so of course our simulations involve lots of scenarios where we can potentially bump into each other and have to figure out rules that would avoid that.

We started with traffic's most basic rule by standing at each end of one of the streets and moving toward each other. Of course I bumped into him, so we needed to figure out what kind of rule would avoid that. To help him think of the rule, I confused him by asking what kind of rule they used in his school so that students would avoid bumping into each other, which made him wonder if I was asking about pedestrians or vehicles.

[agreeing]

[starts to move forward]

Narration: Once he thought of the rule, we passed each other with no problems.

Narration: Next, we each started at the ends of different streets and considered what would happen if we each wanted to move through the intersection at the same time. As Dona walked back and forth along one street in front of Shawn, she said,

[laughing]

[my street]

[Shawn moves forward across the intersection]

[Dona moves forward across the intersection]

Narration: To no one's surprise, when Shawn and I each took turns crossing the intersection, we had no problems. Next Shawn practiced approaching the intersection from one direction and turning, while still staying on the right side of the road. After he got the hang of that, we faced each other at opposite ends of one street and both of us approached the intersection to turn or go straight. We found out that there was no problem unless one of us wanted to turn left, and then there'd be another crash.
[Shawn moved forward to turn right, Dona came from the opposite direction, turned left and crashed into Shawn. They return to where they had started, facing each other]

[Dona moves forward toward Shawn, Shawn moves forward and turns left, bumping into Dona]

[they move toward each other, Shawn turns left and bumps into Dona]

[Shawn says something inaudible]

[Shawn pivots to face left and guides Dona forward to pass him, leaving space for him to proceed moving left behind her]

[Dona backs up]

[Dona passes him]

[Shawn turns left behind her]

[Shawn gets back in place]

[the street they are traveling on]

[Sherly gets behind Dona]

[Dona and Sherly move forward, Shawn moves into the intersection waiting to turn left and then turns left after Dona passes but before Sherly does, and brushes against her]

[Grinning]

[everyone gets back in place]

[laughing]

[Shawn moves into the intersection and waits, Dona and Sherly go through the intersection, but Shawn hesitates before moving behind them.]

[Sherly leaves]

{Dona speaks to Shawn again]

[Laughing]

[Dona pats herself]

Narration: So it turned out that Shawn himself had actually introduced the very problem that I had wanted him to figure out - that is, what kind of traffic patterns did the engineers design so that left-turners wouldn't have to wait forever for their chance to turn left. I wanted him to figure out the two most common traffic patterns for modern signals - that is, the one in which left-turners from both directions are allowed to go at the same time while all other vehicles have the red light, and the one in which all vehicles from one direction are allowed to go while all other vehicles have to wait. For each of these patterns, I wanted him to figure out what the engineers planned for the pedestrians. So let's see how he puts everything together to figure out these two common traffic patterns for modern signals.
[Shawn and Dona are facing each other again]

[Shawn said yes]

[Shawn said no]

[Shawn said yes, and both of them entered the intersection and started to turn left]

Narration: Now we need to figure out what happens to pedestrians when vehicles from both directions are turning left. Earlier, Shawn had figured out that when he turns left, pedestrians crossing parallel on his left would be in danger, but the ones crossing parallel on his right would be safe. He wasn't sure what would happen to those safe pedestrians if a vehicle was turning left from the other direction, so I asked him to come to the other end of the street and turn around and then turn left to find out what happens to the pedestrians who had been safe when he turned left from the other side.

[Dona starts to inch across the carpet as Shawn moves forward into the intersection and turns left, bumping into Dona, who says "oh no, oh no, ha ha!" Then they return to where they had originally started]

[Shawn indicates yes]

[inaudible - Dona says, "What?"]

[points to the perpendicular street, Charles Street, coming from his right]

[Dona goes to where he was pointing, at the end of Charles street]

[after thinking]

[thinks some more]

[Dona slaps her hands]

[Dona returns to standing at the end of 33rd facing Shawn]

[Shawn agrees]

[Dona stands next to Shawn on his right, facing the same way he's facing]

[Dona and Shawn start to move forward]

[they both turn away from each other]

[pointing to his left]

[Dona goes to stand on Shawn's left, facing the same that he's facing]

[thinking]

[Dona starts to move toward Shawn's right and have him stand on her left]

[immediately responds]

[facing the camera]

Narration: In order for Shawn to conceptualize which other vehicles can go when traffic from only one direction is turning left, I moved a carpet to add another lane going the same way as the left-turning vehicles.

[Shawn moves to one of the ends, and stands on the left side of the road, facing the intersection]

[he does]

[he moves to the right and stands on the new strip of carpet]

[Dona moves to stand next to Shawn, on his left]

[pointing to the carpet where Dona is standing]

[they switch places]

[yes]

[they start to move forward]

[Shawn agrees]

[Dona moves to stand in front of Shawn]

[Shawn starts to move forward]

[Dona and Shawn stand next to each other and both move forward, Dona going straight and Shawn turning left]

[Shawn comes back to stand in the left lane, Dona stands facing him to talk]

[Shawn agrees]

[Dona moves to stand next to Shawn, on his right]

[Dona moves forward and turns right]

[Dona returns and then goes straight]

[Shawn moves forward and turns left]

[Dona goes to the other end of the street and turns around to face Shawn]

[thinking]

[Dona agrees]

[inaudible]

[thinking]

[Shawn starts to beckon his mother to join]

[pause]

[Shawn holds out both arms to point to both sides of his street]

[Dona moves a strip of carpet to replace the one that had been Charles Street, the perpendicular street to the right of the intersection]

[everyone gets in place; Dona and Sherly walk forward straight, and Shawn walks forward and turns left]

[Everyone gets back in place to approach the intersection]

[Dona agrees]

[Sherly goes to the left of Shawn to stand at the corner to cross Charles Street]

[Shawn turns to face the camera] . . .

[laughing]

Narration: You've just seen SOME of the simulation to teach Shawn about typical traffic patterns at modern signals. We also spent about 15 minutes learning about right-turn-on-red vehicles and which way the drivers would be looking when they turn right on red.
The rest of the time was spent thinking about pedestrians, including the risks of crossing and how to reduce those risks. This is important because you may have noticed that when we were teaching Shawn about the common traffic patterns, we had focused only on traffic movement and the rules and laws that determine who has the right of way. He needs to realize that drivers do NOT always obey the law and yield to pedestrians when they should. This was addressed when we discussed risks of crossing, and how to make it more likely that the drivers will see and yield to him when he has the right of way.
More information is available from the self-study guide "Preparing Students who have Visual Impairments and other Disabilities to Cross at Modern Traffic Signals" at www.sauerburger.org/dona/signal
Special thanks to Shawn and his mother Sherly.