Towards child-friendly and walkable cities: Children’s insights onneighbourhood design

By 2050, 70% of children and youth are expected to reside in cities (UNICEF 2012). Current car-centred urban planning and design discourage physical activities such as walking, cycling, and outdoor play among children. Contemporary urban strategies and practices often overlook the potential of streets as social, inclusive places (Jain and Moraglio 2014), restricting children’s freedom to enjoy public spaces (Frohlich and Collins 2024) and making them dependent on parental commuting choices.

The decline in active and independent mobility, as well as outdoor play, negatively impacts children’s mental health (Gray et al. 2023) and contributes to increased sedentariness, further exacerbating health issues like obesity, heart disease, and diabetes (Hills et al. 2007; Mavrovouniotis 2012). Additionally, car-dependent cities generate air and noise pollution, leading to asthma (Trasande and Thurston 2005; Beatty and Shimshack 2014), cardiovascular diseases (Münzel et al. 2021), increased blood pressure (Paunovic et al. 2020), sleep disturbance (Clark and Stansfeld 2007), and cognitive impairments in children (Dockrell and Shield 2006; Ljung et al. 2009).

Moreover, traffic accidents remain a leading cause of fatalities among children and adolescents in car-prioritised countries (Toroyan and Peden 2007), contrasting sharply with lower fatality rates in more walkable nations (Waygood et al. 2015). Hence, urban planning policies and urban design guidelines must prioritise healthy, child-friendly urban environments.

Although urban decisions significantly affect children’s health, development, and quality of life (Tillmann et al. 2018; UNICEF 2018; World Health Organisation [WHO] 2020), cities are largely designed by adult urban planners and architects, reflecting adult-centric values and needs. A report by the Royal Town Planning Institute in the United Kingdom indicated that ‘…children are most notable in national planning policies through their absence’ (p. 50; Wood et al. 2019), emphasising the need for children’s engagement in urban planning and design processes.

Source:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/23748834.2025.2494880?needAccess=true