Section 4: Teaching to determine crossable gaps --
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When you can hear/(see) traffic at a distance:
ALTERNATIVE when you cannot judge whether the traffic is far/slow enough to allow you time to cross:
Each of my students who could see the vehicles at a distance but were unable to judge their speed and distance were able to use this alternative easily for determining when the traffic is far and/or slow enough to allow them to cross.
This alternative for students who are unable to judge the speed and distance of the vehicles is to choose a landmark (such as a driveway, or pole, or tree) at a distance such that, from that spot, even the fastest vehicles take more time to reach them than they need to cross.
The TMAD can be used to help determine if the landmark is far enough.
If it is, then you can be confident there is enough time to cross if there are no vehicles closer to you than that landmark.
Note: This is an alternative strategy for those who are not able to judge the speed and distance of the vehicles.
While students are still trying to learn to judge the speed and distance of the vehicles, do not suggest that they start the timer whenever the vehicle passes a certain landmark.
Note: People who do not have binocular vision (for example, have only one functioning eye) have done very well with judging the speed and distance of the vehicles.
Those who cannot do it are more likely to be people with very small visual fields than people with monocular vision.
Perhaps this is because, for judging speed and distance of an approaching vehicle, even more important than binocular vision is the ability to see what is around that vehicle, such as the trees, bushes, and poles that it is passing.