Journal of Environmental Planning and ...

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Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

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Commuting lives: children's mobility and energy use

Claire Freemana; Robin Quigga a Department of Geography, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

To cite this Article Freeman, Claire and Quigg, Robin(2009) 'Commuting lives: children's mobility and energy use', Journal

of Environmental Planning and Management, 52: 3, 393 — 412 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/09640560802703280 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09640560802703280

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Journal of Environmental Planning and Management Vol. 52, No. 3, April 2009, 393–412

Commuting lives: children’s mobility and energy use Claire Freeman* and Robin Quigg Department of Geography, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

Downloaded By: [University of Otago] At: 02:47 24 June 2010

(Received May 2007; final version received April 2008) Globally, the issue of energy use and climate change is at the forefront of many national and international agendas, and also an issue central to children’s lives and well-being. This paper examines how children are both affected by and contribute to the problems associated with unsustainable energy use as it relates to the growth of car dependent lives. The paper presents the findings of a study of travel as it relates to the everyday lives of children in the city of Dunedin in New Zealand. The study found that children currently lead complex car dependent lives. This extensive car reliance presents a serious and largely unrecognised challenge to the sustainable planning and management of the urban environment. The move towards more sustainable transportation can bring benefits for both the environment and for children’s lives. Keywords: children; commuting; travel; energy; New Zealand

1.

Introduction

This paper explores the everyday mobility patterns of children living in the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. The research reported on in this paper did not initially set out to explore the links between children’s lives and energy consumption. Its intention was more prosaic, to explore children’s everyday lives in relation to their use of their neighbourhoods and as appropriate the wider city. However, it became evident that the lives of the children in the study had clear energy implications relating to their extensive mobility patterns and car dependent lives. In this sense, the lives of children in Dunedin reflect patterns emerging elsewhere in the developed world. For many children in developed countries, their lives revolve around an expanded urban territory as they access wide areas of the city on a daily basis to attend school, sports, educational and cultural activities (Karsten and van Vliet 2006). Children’s lives also reflect the increasingly multifaceted nature of family life as they fit into complex family travel patterns dictated by factors such as work access, travel to activities undertaken by different family members, travel involving extended family and childcare arrangements, leisure activities and shopping. For many families, the local neighbourhood is no longer the primary focus of their daily activities as children and their families commute to school, work and for leisure, activities often dispersed across the wider city.

*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] ISSN 0964-0568 print/ISSN 1360-0559 online Ó 2009 University of Newcastle upon Tyne DOI: 10.1080/09640560802703280 http://www.informaworld.com


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C. Freeman and R. Quigg

As children’s daily lives become more car dependent, so too are children becoming significant, but to date largely overlooked, contributors to the climate change and energy depletion problem. At the same time, increasing car use is having major effects on children’s lives, their health, their independent mobility and their physical, mental and social development. Addressing the growing dominance of cars in our cities by reducing car use and dependence presents potentially positive opportunities to enhance environmental quality and children’s well-being. These opportunities include reducing energy consumption, reducing pollution and improving children’s social and physical health, through increased outdoor play opportunities and providing safer walking and cycling environments. The aim of the research reported in this paper was to map children’s everyday spatial lives. In the study, children were asked to draw a map of their neighbourhood, and then both children and their parents were interviewed and asked about the places they went to, why they went to those places and how they travelled there. A child-focused methodology was used that allowed the children to identify the places that mattered to them through their maps which formed the basis of their interviews. The children in the study were aged 9 to 11 years and attended five city schools. The paper begins by exploring the relationship between transport, the environment and children’s mobility. It looks at the wider environmental implications of children’s changing mobility patterns before presenting the findings from the Dunedin study. The paper concludes by looking at the implications of the study for urban environmental planning and management with particular reference to transport and energy use. Factors contributing to travel demand are assessed. In light of the discretionary nature of much of the observed travel demand, the paper asks what the implications of higher oil prices might be for the children and families in the Dunedin study? In their paper, ‘Children and peak oil’, Tranter and Sharpe (2007) contended that there has been very limited academic discussion on the implications of peak oil for children. Hopefully, this study makes some contribution to addressing this deficit. The findings of the study, especially the extensive but largely discretionary nature of many of the journeys children undertake have important implications for the planning and management of the urban environments in which they live. There is potential to reduce car use in families and to move towards more sustainable travel modes. 2. The environmental context and car use In a recent edition of Pacific Ecologist dedicated to the impending global energy crisis, Lucas et al. (2007) state: In the past few years, energy prices have escalated and global foreign policy was dictated even more than usual by desire to secure access to ever dwindling sources of oil and gas. As demand for oil continues to grow . . . high energy prices will stay the norm. (p. 18)

As a nation, New Zealand is particularly vulnerable to the impacts associated with decreasing availability of oil. Private car use is the dominant mode of transport, as is the case in many countries and even dominates for travelling short distances. In the USA, the average kilometres of motor vehicle travel per person per year has increased from 8710 in 1970 to 15,686 in 2000 (in Handy et al. 2005) and the car



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is also the dominant mode of transport for travel distances under 1 mile (in McMillan et al. 2006). In New Zealand there is similarly heavy and increasing reliance on car travel. New Zealand ranks fourth in the world in car ownership behind the USA, Italy and Australia. It has an ownership ratio of 620 cars per 1000 people, seven times the ratio in 1960 (all New Zealand car statistics are from Ministry for the Environment 2006). Approximately 92% of journeys are by car, where one-third of journeys are less than 2 km and two-thirds less than 5 km. The size of vehicles is also increasing. In the 1960s, a typical family car would have an engine size of 1.5 litres; the average in 2005 was 3 litres, with the 4-litre Ford Falcon and 3.6 litre Commodore being the two best-selling cars. Given that many of these larger cars are marketed as family cars, the implications of the rising use of cars for child related journeys is of environmental concern. Noticeable as well is the increasing use of four-wheel drives and sports utility vehicles (SUVs) as family cars. The average age of New Zealand cars is 12.4 years, which also has implications as older vehicles do not benefit from recent advancements in environmental technology around enhanced engine and fuel related efficiency. One positive statistic around cars relates to declining emissions in lead and sulphur. Between 2001 and 2005 there was a sixty-fold decrease in sulphur levels in diesel fuel (Ministry for the Environment 2006). Greenhouse gas emissions from transport in New Zealand are on an upward trajectory and likely to carry on increasing unless there is radical change. There is little evidence that New Zealand’s car reliance will reduce in the near future. At the policy level, New Zealand adopts a seemingly contrary approach. At the international level ‘‘New Zealand has played an important role in international negotiations – disproportionate to its size and contribution to greenhouse gases’’ (Boston 2006, p. 51). It is committed to the Kyoto Protocol (Hodgson 2006). However, at a national and local level, New Zealand adopts a complacent attitude to transport and the role of transport in relation to climate change and peak oil. For example, any significant attention to domestic transport is conspicuously absent from the proceedings of the New Zealand ‘Climate change conference’ held in 2006, which paid minimal attention to either a reduction in car use and/or developing better public transport (Chapman et al. 2006). New Zealand’s transport policies remain firmly rooted in the ‘free car economy’ mode, i.e. the right to unrestricted car use. By ignoring the implications of its transport use patterns, New Zealand does a disservice not only to the environment but also to children for whom the impacts of high car dependency can be especially profound. 3. Physical harm Cars are dangerous, particularly if you are a child pedestrian. In many countries pedestrian injuries are the leading cause of death amongst children (Roberts et al. 1992, cited in Kingham and Ussher 2007). In New Zealand between 2000 and 2005, there were 6004 pedestrian injuries and 259 fatalities (Ministry of Transport, 2005). Ironically, whilst cars are becoming safer, pedestrians are becoming more vulnerable, especially as many cars (notably the proliferation of SUVs and 4-wheel drives) are now bigger than previously. Children are still over-represented in the injury and fatality statistics as can be seen from Figure 1. The peak in casualties associated with times when children are going to and from school is also significant. In 2005 the highest number of crashes involving pedestrians was 133 between 3–4 pm, followed by 87 between 8–9 am, then 83 between 4–5 pm (Ministry of Transport 2005).

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Figure 1. Pedestrian casualties by age and sex. Source: Ministry of Transport (2005).

The correlation between accidents and school journeys is reflected at the local level in Dunedin. In a study of 345 recorded injury locations for children aged 5–15 in Dunedin between 1980 and 2002, 48.1% occurred within 250 m of a school (McGee and Ketchel 2003). The highest number of injuries occurred at times when children were going to or from school. The higher congestion levels now associated with school areas are exacerbated by increased levels of chauffeuring, creating what Tranter (2006) calls a ‘social trap’. As more cars congregate around the school, so the environment becomes more dangerous for child pedestrians. This congestion around the school gates encourages more parents to chauffeur their children, thus further enhancing the congestion and danger to any remaining child pedestrians. Although being a pedestrian is risky, it is also risky to be in a car. In 2005, there were 943 New Zealand pedestrians injured (31died), 8308 drivers were injured (204 died) and 3521 passengers injured (122 died) (Ministry of Transport 2005). Added to the risk of car related injury is the risk from air pollution, with children proportionate to their size being at greater risk than adults from air pollution (Rosenbaum 1993, p.20). In New Zealand, air pollution levels are generally low by international standards but there are areas of higher risk in cities such as Christchurch. The risk applies particularly to child pedestrians who breathe the polluted air associated with vehicle exhaust fumes. Less well known is the fact that child passengers are exposed to levels of pollution that exceed those outside where pollutants are diluted more quickly than inside the car (European Commission 2002, p. 15). Moreover, there is a correlation between the number of cars and the prevalence of childhood disease. For example, the risk of leukaemia is higher if the child lives in a place where more than 10,000 cars a day pass compared to 100 cars a day (European Commission 2002, p.14). Children’s smaller size and the fact that they are experiencing rapid growth combine to make them particularly vulnerable to the effects of air pollution. In addition to accidents and air pollution, physical harm also includes reduced physical well-being resulting from decreased activity levels through declining outdoor play, walking and cycling, and as a contributing factor to related problems of obesity. Car travel has been identified as having a major impact on psychomotor development. Lack of active (i.e. not driven) access to the environment


397

has been identified as an inhibiter of children’s developing mental mapping activities and ability to negotiate their environment effectively (Halseth and Doddridge 2000). Cars, thus in a range of ways, can be construed as constituting a hazard to child safety and long-term health.


4.

Social harm and social benefit

Cars provide significant benefits and dis-benefits for children. Safety fears have resulted in parents withdrawing their children from what is seen as a threatening environment, namely the outdoors (Freeman 2006, Karsten and Van Vliet 2006). Where children have limited independent mobility, especially at local neighbourhood level, they lose the socialisation opportunities that occur naturally when going to school or when out and about in the neighbourhood (Freeman 2006, Holland et al. 2007). A study in Zurich found that children who play out in the street have a wider circle of friends and their parents also know more people (European Commission 2002, ESRC 2007). Children with car dependent lives remain dependent on their parents to undertake daily activities such as going to school, to shops, to friends and to activities, delaying the development of children’s own autonomous decision making. Physical activity has been identified as a positive factor in enhancing selfesteem, self-image and sense of achievement, independent mobility even relating to everyday activities such as walking to school can be instrumental in this regard (European Commission 2002). However, counter to this negativity, cars have enhanced children’s lives by opening up a wide range of additional opportunities, especially leisure opportunities (Scottish Executive 2003, Johansson 2006). Children themselves recognise the value of cars and put pressure on parents to take them to places not easily accessible otherwise (Handy et al. 2005, p. 187). There is evidence that children’s travel behaviours and attitudes closely follow those of their parents (Scottish Executive 2003) and they also internalise parental attitudes; thus the chauffeured child becomes a chauffeuring adult (Mitchell et al. 2007). Alternatively, positive parental attitudes to the environment, regardless of traffic levels and character, combined with higher levels of independent mobility can serve to enhance children’s environmental experiences (Johansson 2006, p. 167). Although cars have enhanced opportunities by providing access to a number of usually non-localised activities, they have also contributed to the decline of activities that were once available such as street play, and the closure of local sports and play facilities and their replacement by larger decentralised facilities. The critical question is, do these enhanced opportunities offset the other losses that car use brings? 5.

Changing mobility

In the social sciences, there is growing awareness of a major gap in research and understanding relating to changes in mobility. Whilst much of societal life, particularly in Western countries is now car dependent: ‘‘industrial sociology, consumption studies, transportation studies and urban analyses have each been largely static, failing to consider how the car reconfigures urban life’’ (Sheller and Urry 2006, p. 209). This view is supported by Pooley et al. (2006), whose research represents a rare attempt to study how mobility has changed over time and how it relates to changing family life and life-course constraints. The most obvious example


398


in this regard is the increasing separation of home and work where being able to access work can be dependent on having access to a car (Pooley and Turnbull 2005) and long work commutes can result. The closure of local doctors, neighbourhood sports clubs, corner shops and other services, and their replacement by more distant, larger agglomerated service centres such as big box shopping centres and leisure centres, exacerbates mobility differentials in favour of those with accessible private transport. Whilst mobility research generally, is lacking, there is a particular lack of mobility research as it relates to children (notable exceptions include European Commission 2002 and Scottish Executive 2003). Where research has been done, it has been chiefly around children’s travel to school (Tranter and Pawson 2001, Pooley and Turnbull 2005, Pooley et al. 2005, 2006, Kerr et al. 2006, McMillan et al. 2006, Mackett et al. 2007). The focus in this research has been threefold. First, the focus has been on charting the decline in children’s independent mobility over time. It has been led by Hillman et al.’s classic study (1990) which examined children’s declining rates of walking to school and other independence related ‘licences’ including crossing roads, going to leisure places and using buses alone. The decline in children walking to school is now well documented. In New Zealand, it is known that, whereas in 1960 most children walked or biked to school, being driven is now the most common transport mode. The number of car trips overall has risen from 19 million trips in 1989–90 to 37 million trips in 1997–98 and is very likely to have increased substantially since then (Ministry for the Environment (MfE 2006). Second, in the last few years there has been much attention devoted to redressing the walking decline through intervention, in particular through walking school buses (Engwicht 1999, Kearns and Neuwelt 2003, Collins and Kearns 2005, Kingham and Ussher 2007). Finally, the focus has been on physical activity and the contribution of walking to school to overall activity levels, with much interest from the health professions (Sallis et al. 1998, Hohepa et al. 2004, Kerr et al. 2006). The rising level of overweight and obese children has been given particular attention. It is estimated that 13–14% of USA children are obese, with declining activity levels seen to be an important contributing factor (Strauss 1999, cited in Frank et al. 2003). The New Zealand Children’s Nutrition Survey identified rising obesity rates (Hohepa et al. 2004) with 33.6% of children aged 11–14, and 27% of 15–18 year olds being overweight or obese, with a disproportionate number of Maori (41%) and Pacific Island children (62%) being so (Ministry of Health 2003). A number of government-supported initiatives have been undertaken in an attempt to encourage greater activity levels in light of the ‘obesity’ problem, such as ‘Walking Wednesdays’, and ‘Feet First Walk to School Week’ (Land Transport New Zealand 2007). Research has been undertaken charting changes in children’s play and the decrease in free roaming play for children in many developed countries (Freeman 1995, Cunningham et al. 1996, Valentine 1996, Karsten and van Vliet 2006). Children’s loss of free play and the loss of childhood experiences, notably play in natural environments have been identified in these studies. Childhood licences (e.g. licence to walk to friends alone); affordances (i.e. physical, social, emotional and cultural opportunities) and opportunities for children to experience their environment are receiving greater attention (Tranter and Pawson 2001, Kytta 2004). Increasing recognition is also being given to children’s mobility as it relates to leisure activities. In a Swedish survey of 357 parents Johansson (2006) reports that 88% of children participated in organised leisure activities, on average one to three times a


399

week where 50% of the journeys were made by car, 25% by walking and 3% by public transport. The European Commission study, ‘Kids on the Move’, reports a similar finding, in that school journeys are mirrored by a similar number of recreation related journeys (European Commission 2002). Not only are children experiencing greater car travel to school, but this increase is being reflected across their life experiences, to recreation activities, play and activities such as shopping, visiting the doctor and relatives.


6.

Getting around

In addition to the question of where children go and what they experience when they get there, central to the mobility issue is the ‘how they get there’ question. Fundamental to the ‘how’ are changes in family life. Pooley et al.’s long-term study of mobility change in England (2005) identified causative factors such as dispersal of kin. The presence of relatives locally is identified as a positive influence on independent mobility. Increased rates of separation and divorce are leading to multiple family locations necessitating increased travel between two homes. Greater maternal workforce participation tends to require additional travel as children are taken to childcare and fit in with the family, especially the mother’s work pattern and location. Time compression, where more activities are fitted into each day, leads to the prevalence of a process known as ‘trip chaining’ where collecting or taking children is combined with journeys to other locations (Johansson 2006, McMillan 2007). Trip chaining means that children are likely to be taken on a greater number of journeys (Pooley et al. 2005). Increased ‘real’ incomes allow greater numbers of people to become car owners. As can be expected, the fewer cars a family owns the higher the level of independent travel (in Johansson 2006) thus, walking rates are highest amongst low-income families (Pucher and Renee 2003, cited in McMillan 2007). Car ownership, Tranter and Sharpe (2007) suggest, may decline with increasing oil prices. The next section explores the patterns of mobility of children in Dunedin and implications arising from the trend towards increasing reliance on cars in children’s daily lives. 7.

Dunedin research

The data in the Dunedin research was obtained from five schools, including 71 children aged 9 to 11 years, their parents and teachers. Schools were chosen to represent a range of socio-economic circumstances, two schools were high decile schools (i.e. high socio-economic status), one was middle decile, two low decile. One was located in a predominantly state housing area. Two schools were located in outer suburbs physically separate from the main city (satellite high decile – Bayside, and satellite low decile – Portland), one school was located in an outer suburb at the edge of the built up area (hill low decile – Brooks), and two were within the main city (flat middle decile – Saints and hill high decile – Maitland). Each school nominated the class to take part in the study. Pseudonyms are used in this paper and are not the real names for the schools. In order to protect the identity of the children, it has been necessary to remove the air photo used as the base on which the data was mapped as it shows the children’s homes. It was also necessary to produce the maps used in this paper at a scale where individual homes could not be identified. As a consequence, some of the finer details associated with the data is not evident in this publication,


400


however, the trends and characteristics of the spatial data provided are still evident and valuable. To map children’s everyday spatial lives, each child was interviewed individually. All children drew a map of their neighbourhood and the places that mattered to them. The children were given minimal instructions on drawing their map, merely being told to draw a map that showed their home and the places they go to in Dunedin. Whilst children may regularly visit places outside Dunedin, especially children with a parent living elsewhere, the focus of the research was on Dunedin and the child’s home neighbourhood. It was important that the map represented the local neighbourhood and/or wider city from the child’s perspective. Some children drew just their immediate neighbourhood, perhaps just their block, others drew the whole suburb and some drew the wider city. One of the child’s parents or guardians was also interviewed by telephone to gain additional information around places children visit, their travel patterns and the reasons for these patterns. The information given by children and their parents was treated in confidence and no information passed between them. The children all agreed to participate in the study and signed their own consent form in addition to that completed by their parents. What was clear to us as researchers in undertaking this project, was that the children generally have a very good spatial knowledge of their lives and most importantly of the reasons why journeys are undertaken in a certain way, why some places are permitted and others not, and the factors impacting on their own independent mobility patterns. All participants demonstrated strong interest in and attachment to the places in which they live. 8.

The Dunedin context: how much travelling?

Dunedin is a provincial city with a population of 114,342 (Statistics New Zealand census data for 2006). The climate is temperate with warm summers and cold winters with occasional snow, regular frosts and icy roads. The topography is highly varied with a clear distinction between the flat areas close to the sea and the hill suburbs. Transportation is strongly focused on the private vehicle. In Dunedin some 86% of households have access to at least one car, i.e. 65,000 cars for a population of 122,400 with the growth rate in cars being in the order of 3% per annum since 2001. As the transport strategy states ‘‘use of public passenger transport is low at the present time’’ with 63% going to work by car, 9% walking, 3% by bus, 2% by bike, 1% by motorbike and 22% other, which includes those working at home, those not going to work or no information given (Dunedin City Council 2006). A recent study of the journey to school in Dunedin records that on the study day only 34.5% of children walked to school and only 36.8% intended to walk home. The study identified the strongest predictors of walking to be: living less than 1 km from school, not having a car in the household and attending a school with a low decile rating (Yelavich et al. 2008). There are no statistics on the number or proportion of journeys undertaken by cycling or walking outside of the journey to work, in itself suggestive of the low priority given to these modes of transport generally. The children in the study travel extensively across the city as indicated in Figure 2. It shows all the places in the city that the 71 children in the study said that they go to on a regular, weekly basis. The information on the map shows accompanied journeys, which with rare exceptions means journeys by car. The map shows an intensive and geographically extensive pattern of journeys, especially for


401


children living in the outer suburbs who undertake regular journeys to the central city. Multiple journeys to the same place were only mapped once. Thus, in many ways all the maps are a conservative indicator of travel. The next map (Figure 3)

Figure 2. Car travel. Note: Places in the city that the children go to on a regular weekly basis. A line is drawn from the child’s home to the destination. Each journey is only given one line even if multiple journeys are made to that destination.

Figure 3. Independent travel – walking, cycling, public transport. Note: Places in the city that the children go to on a regular weekly basis.


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shows journeys undertaken independently, that is where the children travel to without an adult, usually walking (except for a few bus journeys) and shows a much more limited range and number of journeys. Very few journeys are made independently outside the children’s own suburb. The travel patterns become much clearer when children’s travel patterns are mapped individually. Detailed spider web maps were drawn which show, as the crow flies, all the places that an individual child said they visit, on weekly basis. The travel activity of one child that does not attend their local school but travels across the city to school is shown in Figure 4. The school journey is only indicated once, whereas, in reality this journey will be repeated 10 times each week. For this child, all school journeys and social activities such as visiting friends are car dependent. The travel maps for children from Portland, Brooks and Bayside reveal more intensive independent and active travel in their local suburbs than the independent travel maps for children in the city schools of Maitland and Saints. The reasons for this appear to be based around the stronger community networks in the suburbs, the presence of more relatives in the case of Brooks and Portland, and the lack of through traffic creating what is perceived to be a safer environment. 9. Travel to school The journey that children generally make most often is the journey to school. The city is well served with primary schools and nearly all children living in the city will have a primary school within walking distance of their homes. The schools in the study were selected as they were known to be schools attended largely by children living in the local neighbourhood. In the study, all the children at Brooks school

Figure 4. Individual travel map for a child attending a distant school. Note: The spider map shows high levels of accompanied travel (solid line) with no independent travel.


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lived in the local neighbourhood. The other schools had between 70–80% of the children in the study attending their local school. Given the high percentage of children living close to the school, the travel statistics are interesting. The statistics are categorised under active travel (walking, bus, cycling or scooter), mixed (active and car) and car travel; 30 children are active travellers, 12 mixed (usually car one way and walking the other) and 29 are car passengers The high numbers for car use can be explained in part by two reasons. The first is the presence of trip chaining where parents drop children off at school before continuing to work or to drop other children at childcare or a different school. The second is parents concern about strangers and traffic danger, so see chauffeuring as a safer mode of school travel. The following quotes from child respondents indicate a range of influences on the mode of travel used to travel to and from school:


Dad drops me off because basically he is going past. Mum drives us. Little brother goes to morning kindergarten on her way to work. Mostly drive. Could walk, but mum prefers J . . . to go in car and she’s late for work. On Fridays we sometimes ride our bikes. Mum just crosses us over the road. On sunny days, I want to walk, but have to get driven. Mum on her way to C. Usually walk, but get driven too. Mum walks with us with my little brother because he is too young for me to walk with. If running late, mum will drive me. Me, L, F and M used to meet in summer. L and I would scooter to school. M and F would walk. Now picked up in car because little brother now at school and he’s too difficult for me to control. Next year we’ll walk home.

The primary determinant of travel mode is parental attitude, and family circumstances, notably siblings and convenience around the journey to work with some children being driven even though they live very close to the school as can be seen in Figure 5. 10.

Active lives

The study was particularly keen to look at the totality of children’s travel patterns, which contrasts with many studies which focus solely or primarily on the journey to school. Children were asked about the activities they undertook and where they were undertaken. Children were very active participants in out of school activities as the following statistics indicate; 18 children did one formal out of school activity per week, 17 did two, 8 did three, 8 did four, 8 did 5 and 1 child did six activities, 11 did none. In Table 1, weekday participation activities for selected children are shown. In retrospect, questions should have asked more directly about weekend activities, as sports such as soccer and rugby have weekend matches on sports grounds all over the city and are significant generators of car travel. The children profiled in Table 1 whilst being active are indicative rather than exceptional in terms of the activities they undertake. There was no obvious difference noted between activity levels of children from higher and lower decile schools. What is striking is how often children from the outer suburb schools of Bayside and Portland commute into the central city for after school activities and only rarely is this commute by public transport.


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Figure 5. The driving culture. The prevalence of the car culture, even over short distances is clearly revealed in this map. Note: Map produced by a child in the study. Any possible identifying features have been removed from the children’s maps.

Table 1 also shows the complexity of some journeys and the involvement of different parents and relatives. This can be seen in the examples of: (1) Maitland child 03011003 on a Friday. (2) Saints child 05021016 who co-ordinates three levels of involvement, the carer, activities including tuition, friends and rugby and parents collecting them. (3) Saints child 05021008 whose travel involves parents in two homes, sports activities and the home of a third relative ‘nana’. The journeys indicated for the children in the study are frequently replicated for siblings. Often on a daily basis parents are involved in extensive car based commuting, involving complex trip chaining to support their children’s out of school activities. It is in the consideration of out of school activities that the energy consumption dilemma is most apparent. Parents are immensely supportive of their children’s activities, as indicated in the time spent chauffeuring children and in the sheer number of activities many children and their siblings undertake. Although some activities are local and children can walk to them, most children will undertake activities that involve driving. Even if the weekly practise is local, the weekend matches are invariably not. The richness of children’s sporting, social and educational lives has its own costs not just in terms of parent’s time and resources but environmentally, through the vehicular travel generated. Many activities, especially city centre based activities such as dancing, music and tuition are predicated on the assumption that children can be driven to the

home

home

home-taekwondo-home

home-bus violinlibrary-home

04021002

04021014

home netball (coach) home-bus townswimming

home home-pony club

home-maths Childcare

home-netball

home-friend home-Guides home-ballet-busChildcare childcare-club

home- walks dog-dog agility nana-rugby-dad

rugby prac netball- neighbour

Tuesday

03021107 03011109 Portland 04011001

home

nana-dad-boxing-with neighbour

01021007

Maitland 03011003

home- walks dog-jazz

01021006

home-hockey home-hockey-friend-home home-tap

home home

Brooks 01021009 01011108

Bayside 02011011 02011010 02011013

Monday

home

home- brother hip-hop

home

home-rugby home

home

home-sister dancing home home-music

home-walks dog choirtutoring nana

rugby prac home-nana-Guides

Wednesday

Activity schedules for selected children for Monday to Friday.

Child ref

Table 1.

home

home-rugby-home

home-piano

home-baseball home-music-nana

home

home-hockey-carpool home-hockey music home-singing-ballet

rugby-nana nearby (town) home- sister netballmarching- home with coach home-walks dog hockeycarpool nana-rugby-dad

Thursday


home (continued)

home (bus)- horse ridinghome home-taekwondo

home-sport-sister musicdads work-mum takes sister to sport home-baseball mum/nana

home-friends home-friend home-dance-bus with friends-home

home-walks dog Youth group-bookbus nana-youth group-nana

Youth group-friends home-swimming

Friday

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 405

Monday

home

home-swimming-friends

home home

carer-tuition with carerparents collect aunty-home

Child ref

Saints 05021008

05021012

05020914 05011017

05021016 aunty-swimming

hockey-home home-netball-drop friend carer-home

home-rugby

hockey-dads-home

Tuesday

aunty-soccer

carer-friends-rugby

home-dads and collect sister-nana-mum paper run local streets, mum does rest by car home-hockey gym

Wednesday

aunty-cricket

carer-home

hockey gym

rugby

home-hockey

Thursday

Notes: Unless otherwise stated the destination after the activity is home. Italics means travel to that activity is accompanied and by car unless otherwise stated. Non-italics means the mode of travel is walking. Note that in cases where the child did not state what the mode of transport was, when there was any doubt walking was assumed. Bookbus is the mobile library bus.

05021120

(Continued).

Table 1.


aunty-cricket-aunty

carer-home

cricket home-swimming

home-dad’s every 2nd weekend

Friday

406 C. Freeman and R. Quigg


407

activity, whilst other activities especially sporting activities presume parental chauffeuring by car to weekend match fixtures. Some children will be involved in multiple weekend sports and some families will have multiple children engaged in different sporting, cultural or club activities all of which can demand complex chauffeuring manoeuvres. Informal activities, namely play and visiting of friends, may also involve extensive use of the car. The Brooks children primarily walked to friends and to play, but seven children from Maitland were reliant on parents driving them to visit their friends. The one factor that most enhances car dependency for the children in the study is not attending the local school. These children are highly dependent on parents support to undertake any sports or other activity; their friends are likely to live further apart and thus are dependent on parents even for accessing play.


11.

Family influences on car use

All the families in the study had cars. The total number of cars for the 71 families was 129, an average of 1.8 cars per family, several families had three cars. Parents’ responses indicated overwhelmingly their own car reliance; they mostly drove to work, all used a car for the weekly grocery shop and most drove to access neighbourhood facilities. A number of factors were identified that encouraged high levels of car travel for children. Freedom to choose a school regardless of geographic location and proximity to the child’s home has environmental consequences because such freedom is directly associated with higher levels of school commuting and child chauffeuring in general (for example, see Figure 4). Concern with children’s safety increases parental chauffeuring, no child had freedom to travel beyond the suburb except on clearly delimited prearranged journeys, such as by bus to ballet or horse riding. Rural children had lowest overall levels of independent mobility. As one parent explained she was ‘‘Concerned about traffic on our road, no verges, very narrow, windy, cars come quickly. They’re country kids, don’t think they have good road skills’’. The issue of changing family lifestyles is one that is clearly having a major influence on car travel. Trip chaining was mentioned by many children and often included journeys where children were collected or dropped off or collected as part of a longer family journey as one child explained they were ‘‘Far away from town, have to leave early and get up early as Mum and Dad work in town’’. One factor that was of particular importance for children in Brooks and Portland schools was that of children with more than one home. Children with two homes where both homes form a significant part of their lives do generate higher levels of commuting, and can have lives that in travel terms, are highly complex. The children revealed low levels of independence overall. With the exception of some Bayside parents (eight parents said they had similar or more freedom, five less), most parents of children from all schools rated their children’s independence as lower (48 parents) than that which they experienced as children. A number of parents, particularly in Bayside, indicated that the perceived safety of the suburb for their children had been a factor in their choosing to live there. Parents did mention issues of safety as being important determinants of their child’s independent mobility and a number of parents actively encouraged developing independence as indicated in the following parent’s quote: ‘‘It is a safe community. I trust him. These are age appropriate things but I still worry’’. Use of cars and considerations around the use of cars did not appear to be a concern for the parents of the children in the study.

408


Parents’ primary concern was to facilitate their children doing what they wanted to do and keeping them safe even if it meant high levels of parental chauffeuring. 12. Implications for children’s lives In terms of the children’s well-being, the study indicates that children are missing out on what Mackett et al. (2005) terms the ‘therapeutic value of everyday travel’. These include benefits from active travel, walking and cycling and free outdoor play with friends. As Mackett et al. (2007) note:


Being with an adult affects children’s spatial behaviour. They tend to walk faster, more energetically and straighter. Without an adult, they tend to ‘potter about’ in a much more exploratory way. (p.15)

With car travel, it can be harder for children to determine the journey, its timing, the route used, places accessed and its overall speed. The adult driver has primary control of the vehicle, even though the journey undertaken may be one whose purpose is to transport the child. The extent to which children’s conceptions of their environment are car dominated could be seen in many of the maps produced by children in the study. The dominance of roads is evident in the maps shown in Figures 6 and 7. The map shown in Figure 7 shows that the child clearly experiences a range of city amenities but is unable to demonstrate understanding of the spatiality of these features or the location of their own house in relation to these features. There is considerable evidence to support the notion that children’s travel behaviour mimics that of their parents (Scottish Executive 2003, p.24). In Dunedin, with its heavily car dependent population, it is unlikely that children will be motivated towards developing active travel behaviours as part of their everyday life. Children have been described as ‘transport’s ‘canaries’’. They are more vulnerable to

Figure 6. Dominance of roads: child demonstrates good understanding of place linkages, but roads are the dominant feature. Note: Map produced by a child in the study. Any possible identifying features have been removed from the children’s maps.



409

Figure 7. Extensive use of the city’s amenities but map reveals child has extremely limited understanding of their relative location in the wider city. Note: Map produced by a child in the study. Any possible identifying features have been removed from the children’s maps.

environmentally adverse impacts, e.g. air pollution, and thus provide warnings of heightened unsustainability (Centre for Sustainable Transportation 2003, p. 1). The long-term environmental implications of this intensive car use is a concern for the management of energy sources and its relationship to climate change. However, on the positive side, are the findings of a study by O’Brien (2006), who found that few parents are aware of the extensive nature of the impacts of cars on their children’s well-being, but are deeply concerned when they learn about these. This understanding can then be used to motivate parents in making changes towards reducing their own car use. 13. Moving forward: implications for environmental planning If it is accepted that the rising dominance of car based lifestyles is not in the interests of children, and if it is accepted that rising levels of car use are not sustainable environmentally due to declining oil supplies and the impact on climate change, then what are the options? There are a number of design options, transport policies and other methodologies being promoted globally to redress the balance in favour of more sustainable travel. Reduction of discretionary trips seems to be an obvious move in this regard. The rising price of oil and petrol may encourage attention to be focused on more sustainable travel modes, a process now often referred to as ‘demand destruction’. The Netherlands has instituted a national level policy designed to curtail urban growth and to consolidate growth in its cities where sustainable travel can be supported (Schwanen et al. 2004). Within cities internationally, home zones/living streets/Woonerf (in the Netherlands) and other initiatives are being embraced in an effort to reclaim the street from the car. Huge investments are being


410


made internationally by both developing and developed countries to reduce problems arising from rising car use, such as rising air pollution and congestion. In New Zealand there is no such investment. The Dunedin Transport Strategy for 2006 has no real policies aimed at reducing car use and offers little in the way of investment for its low-level public bus service. However, the marked rise in the cost of petrol, a 20.5% increase between March 2007–2008 (Statistics New Zealand 2008) may act as an incentive for considering moves towards more sustainable transport developments in the longer term. To date, little research has been published that addresses the complexity and range of family travel, especially as it relates to travel connected to children’s daily activities. The focus in travel research has been on work commuting, and assumes travel based on single function commuting journeys rather than on the complex travel patterns increasingly associated with daily family life in New Zealand. This study provides an insight into children’s travel patterns and the reasons for those patterns as they relate to the lives of children and their families. The data from this study, small though it is, should be of value to planners, policy makers, community development workers, and to those whose work and interest relates to energy planning. Knowledge emanating from a better understanding of children’s travel is relevant to planning in a number of ways: the development and location of new housing; school zoning; school closure and school building; developments relating to public transport; traffic management as it relates to roads in family neighbourhoods (home zones and traffic calming are two effective measures); and planning and decisions relating to local service provision such as sports centres, shops and play centres. Policies directed towards effective energy reduction from decreased family car use benefit from an understanding of the reasons behind current patterns of car use. Families will need support if they are to reduce car dependency in response to oil depletion and to issues of affordability if petrol price rises continue. Local government and national government resources and expertise are critical in this regard. However, reduced energy use and car travel demands a major reappraisal of many aspects central to the lives of our Dunedin children. Harsh decisions will need to be made, for example, on whether children should attend their local school; whether Saturday morning sports fixtures are appropriate when they demand cross city travel; whether children should be free to access any activity in the city regardless of the travel implications; whether parents should ensure that they live within walking distance of school, work, shops and leisure opportunities; whether lifestyle blocks on the city perimeter should be permitted, and so on. The car has brought advantages in terms of freedom of choice and has vastly expanded social networks, and brought cultural, sporting and other opportunities to children and their families. These advantages need to be assessed against the disadvantages to children through the loss of freedom, the dangers they pose to children’s safety and to the environmental effects associated with rising traffic levels. The study here detected no concern on the part of children or their parents with the high levels of car use. At present, there are limited incentives for parents of children in the Dunedin study to switch to more sustainable travel methods, petrol is still relatively affordable, there is little congestion, and access by car around the city is generally swift and unproblematic. Rising problems around car use, such as escalating petrol prices, increased understanding of the noxious implications of car generated pollutants, combined with positive incentives such as recognition of the


411

health benefits of walking, may assist parents embrace more active less car reliant lifestyles for themselves and their children. Nonetheless, the move towards more sustainable transportation is one that will require lifestyle changes that many families may at least initially find hard to accommodate.


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