Driven by digitalisation and by urban paradigms such as the 15-minute cities, planners, decision makers and academics alike develop and apply metrics that measure safety, comfort, access, and well-being. Although these metrics go beyond a demand-based approach toward mobility, some groups, such as children and young adolescents (YA), are still not adequately represented.
Children and YA experience mobility differently from adults. Their needs extend beyond movement and efficiency, requiring places of pause, play, and exploration. However, existing metrics for both walkability and bikeability are grounded in adult perspectives and do not include what the young population aspires to in everyday mobility. This contribution aims at stimulating the discussion on how the prevalent underrepresentation of child-centred perspectives in urban design can be addressed. We will share insights from an extensive literature review and participatory workshops with more than 50 students, aged 13-14 years from a secondary school in Salzburg, Austria. In these interactive workshops that included various indoor and outdoor activities, young adults expressed their concerns, perceptions, and lived experiences of the streets and their everyday journeys. The findings reveal that the mobility experiences of young people are shaped by perceptual and experiential factors such as attractiveness, colors, presence of engaging places for pause and play, and motivation to walk/ bike, highlighting the overlooked dimensions of current mobility frameworks. Guided by these insights, we are currently developing a derivative from the well-established NetAScore tool, which is made for large scale bikeability and walkability analysis. We incorporate learnings from workshops with children and YA, as well as collected feedback from the CRBAM community in a "NetAScore4Kids" model. The model enables the evaluation of mobility through “child-centred metrics” by translating the child-rich insights into quantifiable indicators. This ensures that mobility assessment frameworks are truly "inclusive" and systematically represent children's needs and experiences. This study supports the reimagining of urban spaces through the lens of children and invites reflection on mobility systems and metrics that are truly people-centred, i.e., that include young populations and better account for inclusivity, well-being, and everyday life.
People-Centered Metrics: Quantifying Access, Equity, and Well-being
Room 2 (Lecture Room 2.1)
