Four dimensions of neighbourhood form related to children's walks to school

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Romero, Vivian (2011) Four dimensions of neighbourhood form related to children's walks to school. In: 5th State of Australian Cities Conference 2011. Think Business Events, Melbourne.

Abstract

The disciplines of town planning and public health have investigated the connection between walking and neighbourhood form (e.g., Frank et al. 2003; Frumkin et al., 2004). In particular, Terri Pikora and her colleagues (2003) created a schema to classify a range of potential elements that may influence an adult’s decision to walk. By reviewing the health, urban planning and transport-related literature, they created a socio-ecological framework to classify a range of potential elements that may influence an adult’s decision to walk. This framework identifies four dimensions of neighbourhood form related to walking: functionality, safety, destinations and aesthetics. Functionality relates to the efficiency of movement provided by the layout of the streets and footpaths for its pedestrian users. Safety relates to those features that affect personal safety and traffic safety. Destinations relate to the availability and accessibility of neighbourhood facilities. Aesthetics describe the features that create “interesting and pleasing physical environments” (Pikora et al., 2003, p. 1696). Collectively, these four dimensions “collate all potentially relevant factors” (ibid, p. 1697) and provide a framework that could be applied to school travel research to assist in the understanding of the physical factors that affect walking. The applicability of these dimensions have been tested in studies and have been found to affect the likelihood of adults walking for transport or recreation (e.g., Hoehner et al., 2005; Pikora et al., 2006; Badland et al., 2009). These four dimensions, however, have yet to be applied to children’s school travels on foot.

Additional Information

Conference held: University of Melbourne; on 29 November – 2 December 2011

Item type Book Section
URI https://vuir.vu.edu.au/id/eprint/9580
Official URL http://soac2011.com.au/full-papers-list.php
ISBN 9780646568058
Subjects Historical > Faculty/School/Research Centre/Department > Institute of Sport, Exercise and Active Living (ISEAL)
Historical > FOR Classification > 1205 Urban and Regional Planning
Historical > SEO Classification > 970112 Expanding Knowledge in Built Environment and Design
Keywords ResPubID23515, town planning, city, cities, towns, urban planning, walking, public health, schools, pedestrians, Pikora
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