Distances, difficulties and travel cognition : Spatial and psychological conditions of children’s independant mobility in urban environnements Université René Descartes – Paris 5 Institut de Psychologie Laboratoire de Psychologie environnementale – CNRS UMR 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 Social conditions Accompaniment Cognitive map Spatial Structure Environmental conditions Urban structure 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 homogeneity Functionnal organisation Green 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

% Totaux Intermediary ] m] % % % (+) % 14 Metric distances Home-school trip Accompaniment ParentsPeersAloneSiblings Total population Low m % % % % % Long ] m[ % % % % % Distances and social conditions

Accompaniment for home-school trip Cognitive mapParentsPeersAloneSiblings Survey map n % Column 7 33,3 4 28, ,0 6 42,9 Route map n % Column 11 52,4 6 42, ,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 8 34, ,3 6 20,7 No difficulty n % in line Difficulty +++ n % in line 5 29,4 8 (+) 47,1 3 (-) 17,6 1 5,9 1 4, ,4 4 17,4 Difficulty + % in line 5 17,2 4 13,8 3 21,5 7 50,0 3 21,4 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