Distances, difficulties and travel cognition :

Spatial and psychological conditions

of children’s independant mobility

in urban environnements

Université René Descartes – Paris 5Institut de Psychologie

Laboratoire de Psychologie environnementale – CNRS UMR 8069-

 

Sandrine DEPEAU 

18th Iaps Conference EVALUATION IN PROGRESS

- Vienna

Is there a better place

to live for children and

to develop urban mobility?

Question

Overview

- 1/ Introduction / Issue

- 2/ Main questions

- 3/ Methods and data sources

- 4/ Results

- 5/ Discussion

To Understand differences in the emergence of autonomy

Spatial conditions Distances Difficulties

Spatial conditions Distances Difficulties

Social conditions Accompaniment

Cognitive map Spatial Structure

Environmental conditions

Urban structure

Environmental conditions

Urban structure

1

2

3

4

The study of home-school trip

- 83 children between 10 and 12 years of age

- interviewed at school

- different types of methods

Participants

Traditional site (1)

Few playgrounds Important social density Social heterogeneity Functionnal mixity Density of shops

Roads with high cars density Normative road safety system

Environmental conditions

Leisure outdoor spaces in each residential area.

Social homogeneityFunctionnal organisationGreen spaces

Traffic Functional separation

New Town (2)

Environmental conditions

Mixed site – (3)

Mixed roads: pedestrian and main street Few crossing-road on small streets

Few leisure spaces outside Pedestrian street transformed into leisure spaces

Environmental conditions

Sketch-map of home-school trip

Procedures

They map out their trip on a map…

École

Home-school trip distance quality and number of pedestrian crossings

Pedestrian-crossing difficulties

Difficulty +++: pedestrian crossings situated on small double-

way roads without any traffic signs or pedestrian priority signs.

Difficulty ++: light protected pedestrian-crossings on small or

double-way large roads.

Difficulty +: pedestrian-crossing protected by a traffic

policeman or protected by pedestrian-priority lights only.

No difficulty: without any pedestrian-crossings. 

1/ - Inter-environmental description on the social and spatial

conditions to characterize the home-school trip.

2/ - Bayesian results answering to the main questions

Social conditions and distances

Social conditions and road difficulties

Social conditions and the stucture of cognitive map.

Results / Overview

Mean distance: 397 meters

Mean of pedestrian crossings: 3,53

Traditional site (1)

Parents escorting: distance

New town site (2)

Mean distance: 303,7 meters

Mean of pedestrian crossings: 2,25

Peers escorting: pedestrian crossings

Mixed site (3)

Mean distance: 285,7 meters

Mean of pedestrian crossings: 2,63

1548.4%

Totaux

Intermediary]250-450 m]

516.1%

619.4%

947.4% (+)

631.6%

14

Metric distancesHome-school trip

Accompaniment

 Parents Peers Alone Siblings Total

population

Low0-250 m

618.2%

1339.4%

721.2%

33100%

31100%

Long]450- 900 m[

210.5%

19100%

21

721.2%

516.1%

210.5%

14 34 83

Distances and social conditions

Accompaniment for home-school trip

Cognitive map Parents Peers Alone Siblings

Survey map n % Column

  7 33,3

  4 28,6

  17 50,0

  6 42,9

Route map n % Column

  11 52,4

  6 42,8

  13 38,3

  5 35,7

Intermediate map n % Column

  3 14,3

  4 28,6

  4 11,7

  3 21,4

Social conditions and structure of cognitive map

  1 7,1

Accompaniment

Pedestrian crossing difficulties

 Parents

 Peers

 Alone

 Siblings

Difficulty ++ n % in line

  834,8

 1448,3

  620,7

No difficulty n % in line

Difficulty +++ n % in line

  529,4

  8 (+)47,1

  3 (-)17,6

  1 5,9

  1 4,4

 1043,4

  417,4

Difficulty + % in line

  517,2

  4 13,8

  321,5

  7 50,0

  321,4

Difficulties and social conditions

Micro-environmental exploration => - ways of learning to move around in the city

- normative traffic system => spatial legibility - peers group

There is no best environment just environment where children develop different competencies.

- traditional context => cognitive comlpetencies?- new town context => social competencies.

Traffic seems better handle in traditional context than in New town where mobility functions are separated.

Conclusions