Children’s travel as pedestrians: an international survey of policy and practice

A survey of OECD member countries was carried out to provide high level data on a consistent basis to identify and account for current patterns of child road safety . This paper reports the findings relating to children, aged 0-14 years, as pedestrians. Key survey elements included analyses of fatality data, relationships between socio-economic, demographic factors and fatality rates, and a questionnaire based survey. League tables based on average child pedestrian fatality rates were constructed for each OECD member country participating in our questionnaire enabling identification of the top five countries with the lowest pedestrian fatality rate as Sweden, The Netherlands, Finland, Germany, and Denmark. Few countries had quantitative information about children’s travel and its absence means that assessments are difficult about children’s safety and the relative risks they face, especially as pedestrians. There are large variations in the amount of walking between countries and growing car use is becoming an issue in one third of OECD countries. The main findings from the questionnaire survey were that the majority of countries did not have information on high risk groups but of those that did, the cross cutting themes of socio-economic and ethnic minority groups, young children and urban areas were identified. Three characteristics distinguish top countries in the League table from those doing less well: a strong approach to the introduction of infrastructure measures for pedestrian safety, including low speed limits in residential areas; conducting road safety campaigns at least once a year; and having legislation which assumes driver responsibility in an accident involving a child pedestrian. Having compulsory road safety education for children aged 6-9 years was a characteristic shared by most countries, as was the promotion of child pedestrian education and training initiatives and the commissioning of research. However there is lower research activity in less well performing countries

How cost-effective are direct payments to organic farms for achieving environmental policy targets?

Since 1993, the Swiss federal agricultural policy has been providing financial support for organic farming via area payments. Like other voluntary agri-environmental measures (AEM), these payments are intended as incentives for farmers to comply with defined production standards. Such payments lead to better environmental performance, as compliance with organic production standards averts negative and provides positive external effects compared to conventional or integrated farming (CRER, 2002). For instance, organic farming is largely not dependent on external inputs. This minimises the resource use of the farming system and limits the nutrient loads in the system, which in turn leads to less overfertilisation and reduced eutrophication risks involving nitrogen and phosphorus (Haas et al., 2001). Besides effectiveness, against the background of limited public budgets, efficiency in delivering environmental impacts plays a fundamental role in the further development of direct payment schemes (Swiss Federal Council, 2009). The targeting and tailoring of policies to achieve maximum effectiveness with a given budget is essential (OECD, 2007). It is therefore necessary to compare both environmental effects and the societal costs of AEM with each other in order to provide a basis for economically sound policy design (Pearce, 2005). Agricultural economists hold differing views on the cost-effectiveness of organic farming support payments. Von Alvensleben (1998) argues that the organic farming area support payments are not economically sound, as the policy goals could be achieved more efficiently using more flexible and targeted combinations of various AEM. The economic rationale behind this argument was introduced by Tinbergen (1956), who theorised that an efficient policy requires at least as many specific instruments as there are specific goals. However, the Tinbergen Rule may not apply fully in this case due to interactions between policies, conflicting goals and the limited determinability of different aspects of environmental performance. Furthermore, the multi-purpose character of organic agriculture could increase its cost-effectiveness due to its potentially lower transaction costs compared to targeted AEM (Dabbert et al., 2004). Empirical papers on this question lack. Thus, this paper aims to compare the cost-effectiveness of a) direct payments to organic farms and b) AEM, in providing environmental services. This is done, using the current Swiss agricultural policy scheme as a case study

Accident involvement of child pedestrians: A holistic study of relative risk

Mortality statistics show the need to investigate why children in the lowest socio-economic group are much more likely to be killed as pedestrians in road traffic accidents than their counterparts in the highest socio-economic groups. The objective of the present study is to assess the role of socio-economic and environmental factors in child pedestrians accidents. The literature review was carried out which indicated that exposure, attitude of the parent or adult carer and environmental hazard may explain the high accident rate of children in low socio-economic groups. A survey comprising in-depth home interviews amongst 152 school children injured as pedestrians and a control sample of 484 school children was carried out. A parent or adult carer for each child was also interviewed. A survey of environmental features of the roads where the children lived was also undertaken carried out. The surveys took place in Bradford, Bristol, London, Merthyr Tydfil and Reading. Data were collected about the child's exposure on the school journey and whilst playing in the street. The child's parent or adult carer was asked about their home environment and about personal characteristics such as ethnic origin, marital status and work situation. The parent's or adult carer's responses to statements about the accident risk of children in traffic and the responsibilities for safeguarding them were also recorded. Logistic regression modelling was used to analyze the data to identify characteristics associated with accident group membership. A breakdown of these characteristics by socio-economic group was also carried out. The implications of the findings are discussed with reference to other studies. Potential countermeasures are offered and areas requiring further research identified

Fatal injuries to car occupants: analysis of health and population data

Although this report was commissioned by the Department for Transport (DfT), the findings and recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the DfT. While the DfT has made every effort to ensure the information in this document is accurate, DfT does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of that information; and it cannot accept liability for any loss or damages of any kind resulting from reliance on the information or guidance this document contains

Inclusion of Ethanol Co-Products in Beef Cow Diets: Impact on Cow Performance and Developmental Programming of the Progeny

The main goal for a cow-calf producer is profitability, which requires optimum reproductive performance, while keeping feed costs low and ensuring that nutritional needs are met. Cow herds are grazed on pasture or crop residues, but these may not always meet nutritional requirements. Ethanol co-products such as dried distiller\u27s grains with solubles (DDGS) and condensed distiller\u27s solubles (CDS) may be supplemented to increase the energy and protein concentration of the diet. Recently it has been discovered that maternal diet can have long lasting effects on progeny growth and development. Thus, the effects of feeding the ethanol co-products DDGS and CDS to gestating or lactating beef cow performance and calf growth was investigated in several experiments. The hypothesis for this thesis was that feeding ethanol co-products to cows during gestation and/or lactation would improve cow performance and reproductive efficiency while improving the pre- and post-weaning growth of their calves relative to control diets that did not contain ethanol co-products. In the first experiment, cows with male progeny were fed isocaloric diets of DDGS or soybean meal (SBM) from calving until mid-lactation to determine the effect of DDGS on cow performance, milk composition and calf growth. Feeding DDGS increased conception (P \u3c 0.02) but not pregnancy rates (P = 0.64), did not alter cow BW (P ≥ 0.43), BCS (P ≥ 0.13) or milk production (P ≥ 0.75) but altered milk composition compared to diets that did not contain DDGS. Distiller\u27s grains with solubles had no effect on short chain fatty acids (FA) in milk (P ≥ 0.13), but did decrease medium chain FA (P \u3c 0.01) and increase long chain FA (P \u3c 0.01). Saturated FA content of milk was decreased (P \u3c 0.01) in DDGS cows, subsequently increasing monounsaturated FA (P \u3c 0.01) and polyunsaturated FA (P \u3c 0.01), including conjugated linoleic acid (CLA; P \u3c 0.01). Feeding DDGS to dams during lactation resulted in greater calf ADG (P \u3c 0.01) and heavier weights by the end of the trial (P \u3c 0.01). Post-trial ADG was similar (P = 0.90) and calves whose dams were fed DDGS remained heavier at weaning (P \u3c 0.01). In the second experiment, male calves from the first experiment were placed in a feedlot to examine the effect of maternal diet during lactation on long-term progeny growth. Maternal treatment during lactation had no effect on days on feed (P = 0.42), ADG (P = 0.80), DMI (P = 0.76) or feed efficiency (P = 0.90) during the finishing phase. Glucose (P ≥ 0.17) and insulin (P ≥ 0.16) clearance were not affected by maternal nutrition during lactation, nor was glucose area under the curve (P = 0.27), insulin area under the curve (P = 0.37) or the glucose to insulin ratio (P = 0.40). Hot carcass weight (P = 0.54), dressing percent (P = 0.50), fat thickness (P = 0.71), longissimus area (P = 0.17), percent kidney pelvic heart fat (P = 0.31) and yield grade (P = 0.19) were not impacted. Marbling, however, was decreased (P = 0.04) in progeny whose dams were fed DDGS compared to progeny whose dams were fed a control diet. In the third experiment, two studies were conducted to determine the effects of CDS inclusion with corn stover during gestation or lactation on beef cow and calf performance. Increased levels of CDS improved feed intake, although intake was hindered by high levels of corn stover. Cows lost weight (P = 0.05) when fed CDS during gestation but not lactation (P \u3e 0.22), which may have been due to the greater levels of corn stover in the gestation diet. While cows lost weight, pregnancy rates were not negatively affected (P = 1.00). Milk urea nitrogen (P = 0.08) tended to increase when CDS was fed during lactation, but no other changes in milk composition were apparent when CDS was fed during gestation or lactation (P ≥ 0.19). Feeding CDS during gestation had no effect on calf birth (P ≥ 0.29) or weaning weights (P ≥ 0.42), but calves whose dams were fed CDS during lactation grew more slowly (P = 0.05). In conclusion, these experiments demonstrate that feeding DDGS during lactation can improve cow efficiency and reproductive performance and may be an effective method for improving pre-weaning calf growth, but has little effect on long-term feedlot performance of male progeny. If CDS is fed to gestating or lactating beef cows, it should be included at increased levels or with higher quality forages to prevent decreased in intake and performance