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Section 2:
Teaching students to recognize Situations of Uncertainty

there are Situations of Uncertainty where you cannot be certain whether or not there is a crossable gap in traffic;
there are also Situations of Confidence where you can hear the traffic well enough to be confident that whenever it's quiet, it's clear to cross;
there are no simple rules for determining if you are in a Situation of Uncertainty, and the situation can change at any given crossing;
the only way to determine if you are in a Situation of Uncertainty is to observe how well you can hear / see the approaching vehicles;
O&M specialists are responsible to teach their students to recognize Situations of Uncertainty and deal with them.

Hearing or looking?

What's next?

teaching

WHAT IS EXPECTED of our students after training:

will realize that Situations of Uncertainty exist, and
will know how to recognize them, regardless of whether they use hearing or vision.

not

They have an intuitive understanding of their crossing time for various widths of streets;
If the crossing is unfamiliar, they can determine the probable width of the street by listening to the traffic; and
They can judge whether it is a Situation of Uncertainty by merely

the situation can change from day to day and sometimes even minute to minute and therefore
Situations of Uncertainty can exist at a given crossing at some times and not at others.

they take a moment to observe and judge whether it is a Situation of Uncertainty at that time.

analyze the level of risk, and
decide if the risk is acceptable;
- where the risk is acceptable, they reduce the risks as much as possible and go ahead and cross, and
- where the risk is not acceptable (or not preferable), they implement alternatives.