Blame the children?

A half-heard news item on Today was about 11 year-olds immersed in their mobile phones being three times more likely (than 10 year-olds?) to be hit on the roads. No doubt the usual suspects will blame children’s lack of awareness. But children are not to blame. The rules of the road are to blame. They put the onus on the child to beware the motorist when it could, and in any civilised society should be the other way round. We need to change the basic rule of the road from priority to equality. “After you” instead of “Get out of my way!” As well as endangering the vulnerable road-user, the current system gives rise to expensive traffic regulation which treats the symptoms, never the root cause of our  problems on the road.