Building Cities for Kids Benefits Everyone
Photo by: Nicole Roach, Winnipeg, 2020
Do you remember where you grew up as a kid? Maybe it was in a downtown core, a suburban neighbourhood, or maybe even in the country? Wherever it was, that environment shaped your interests, who your friends were, and many more things about you.
Today, the majority of kids are growing up in cities, as 81% of Canadians live in urban centres (as of 2020). Unfortunately, many cities in Canada have not been designed with kids in mind. This has resulted in car-centric transportation systems, sprawled suburbs, and a lack of spaces to safely play. All of this negatively impacts children’s independence, health, happiness, social well-being, and development - which yes, also impacts women.
Women are the primary caregivers of children, being largely responsible for feeding, clothing, caring, etc. for children. Parenting is hard and our built environment makes it even harder for many women. For example, mothers may need to spend more time escorting their children around due to car-centric design, or they may feel isolated from a support system caused by urban sprawl, or they may not be able to provide desired recreational activities for their kids due to a lack of access to play space.
Here are a few examples of how our cities are failing kids (and women) and what we can all do about it.
Places to go
Just like everyone else, kids have places to go. They have to get to daycare or school, soccer practice or violin lessons, doctors appointments, and so on. To get to these places, kids are largely dependent on their parents and caregivers to escort them by foot, bike, bus, or car. Due to the built environment, the majority of these trips are taken by car.
Photo by: Saltwire.com
While there is little data available on kid’s travel behaviours, past survey data has indicated that nearly three of four children aged 5-14 are being driven to school in Canada. These high rates of driving cause dangerous school zones, air pollution, and high-stress environments for everyone before and after school. Many parents and caregivers opt to drive their kids due to fears of other vehicles, distance, convenience, safety concerns (bullying or abduction), and a lack of quality walking and cycling infrastructure. This leaves kids sitting for long periods of time, contributing to a lack of exercise. ParticipACTION’s 2020 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth gave Canadian’s a D+ for overall physical activity and sedentary behaviours. This report also found less than one in five children and youth are meeting national movement behaviour guidelines.
Photo by: Nicole Roach, Winnipeg, 2020
Kids want to get outside, to walk, jump, or wheel to school, but our current infrastructure makes this difficult for many families. It takes away independence, social time, and physical activity from children, and places further time burdens on parents and caregivers to escort their children everywhere.
Much needs to be done to address these trends, with a focus on infrastructure changes (through interventions like School Travel Planning and Vision Zero designs), programming to encourage and support active school travel (like walking or biking school bus programs, celebration days, crossing guards, buddy systems, etc.), and other interventions, like bike racks, walking and wheeling skills training, and much more.
People to see
Kids also have people to see, like friends, family members, and neighbours. This is crucial to their social development, that they have close access to friends and that they are exposed to diverse groups of people on a regular basis.
Currently, many communities are spread out, making it difficult to walk around or spend time in public spaces in a way that facilitates “bumping” into people. This is referred to as “bump zones”, which serve as places for people to meet, like the sidewalk, café, park, community centres, libraries, and much more. This is very important for kids to meet other kids in the neighbourhood that they can play with, and especially for mothers and caregivers to find community support, because, as they say, raising kids takes a village.
Photo by: Nicole Roach, Winnipeg, 2020
This also speaks to the importance of connectivity within neighbourhoods. Unfortunately, many neighbourhoods, particularly new suburban developments, are disconnected, with maze-like configurations. These confusing designs make it hard for kids to independently visit their friends or access green spaces, with dead ends, highways, and other physical barriers dividing communities and separating kids from the people they want to see. Furthermore, many developments do not have sidewalks or cycling infrastructure, so even if a friend lived nearby, it still wouldn’t be safe for a child to travel there alone.
Photo by: Environmental Defence
Kids want independent access to their friends and families, which requires complete, connected communities. Without this, kids miss out on meeting new people, visiting their friends, and developing essential social skills - all while heavily relying on their parents to drive them everywhere.
Addressing issues of connectivity are large-scale and complex, requiring a reevaluation of municipal by-laws, development permitting, transportation master plans, community services, housing policy, and much more. Fortunately, solutions can also be small-scale, as everyone can make efforts to socialize with neighbours, and actively participate in community-led initiatives and events.
Spaces to play
Kids tend to have a lot of energy and need ways to tire themselves out. Outdoor exercise and play are some of the healthiest ways to do this. For some kids, they have access to expansive private backyards, with pools, swing sets, trampolines, sand boxes, and sporting equipment. Plenty of fun to be had there! For many other kids, they do not have access to a private backyard and are dependent on public spaces for play.
Unfortunately, many cities lack sufficient access to greenspace, parks, trails, playgrounds, sport pitches, and other recreational facilities. Furthermore, a majority of these recreational assets are concentrated in affluent neighnbourhoods that already have private backyards, forcing those in low-income areas to travel further distances to access recreation opportunities. This leads to kids staying indoors - playing video games, on their phones, etc - which leads to adults saying “the kids these days!”. As we know, it’s not the kids, it’s the built environment - one that discourages play, socialization, and exercise.
Photo by: Sustainable Calgary
Accordingly, there needs to be more safe places for children to play. These spaces can be found on the sidewalks, using them for activities like hop-scotch, dance zones, chalk drawing, skipping, and visiting little free libraries. Taking things a step further, streets should also be for play. Streets can be reclaimed from speeding vehicles and parked cars through popular interventions, such as play streets, school streets, the Dutch ‘woonerf’, reduced speed limits, open streets, and more.
Photos by: Ecologie Urbaine
Utilizing sidewalks and streets should also be paired with the development of more playgrounds, community centres, parks, trails, and so on - especially in historically underserved areas. These interventions help to reclaim public spaces for play and make it safer for families to access other amenities across the city.
Good for kids, good for everyone
Building cities for kids that makes them safe, connected, and fun creates more vibrant, livable spaces for everyone.
Designing active transportation infrastructure fit for an 8 year old also makes it comfortable for an 80 year old. Making communities denser and better connected for kids to see friends helps anyone with mobility challenges to more easily access amenities and to socialize. Reclaiming streets from cars for kids to play creates space for people of all ages and abilities to exercise, create art, sit, and so on - all without the noise, fumes, and danger of vehicles.
As said by Gil Panalosa, founder of 8 80 Cities, “What if everything we did in our cities had to be great for an 8-year-old and an 80-year-old? Surely, we would end up with fantastic cities for all!”. We certainly agree - just like making cities great for women!
What does a city for kids look like to you?
