Kids walking home from school have insights into neighborhood design

Tridib Banerjee & JungA Uhm & Deepak Bahl, "Walking to School: The Experience of Children in Inner City Los Angeles and Implications for Policy," Journal of Planning Education and Research 34 (2014): 2

The take-away: In opposition to much of the literature’s focus on neighborhood built environment, this study highlights that the dangers reported by minority children who walk to school in the inner-city more often concern their social environment. The following are some key take-aways: 1) “the trip to school and the trip from school are two distinct events,” as parents plan the first trip according to time concerns, whereas the second trip is more a function of how capable parents think their children are and the “social supports available in the neighborhood”; 2) these children often walked long distances, and took more circuitous routes than planners might expect; 3) what concerns parents about their children’s trip often differs from what concerns the children themselves—for example, whereas improvements to sidewalks and traffic safety may put parents at ease, these improvements “may not necessarily enhance children’s sense of safety or comfort” (134).

Abstract: Neighborhoods walkability has become an important public health concern. The child’s-eye view of safe and walkable environments is typically remiss from the literature. Particularly the experience of inner city kids, very different from that of suburban neighborhoods, remains unreported. The study reported here offers new insights based on the walking to school experience reported by the children of inner city neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Interviews with fifth-graders from five grade schools suggest that the dangers in their social milieu are a much greater concern for them than the physical milieu, which the walkability research typically emphasizes. The findings necessitate new policies.

Full article (requires access)