Study on Children's Independent Mobility 2013
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1 Children’s independent mobility: a comparative study in England and Germany (1971-2010) was researched and written by Ben Shaw, Ben Watson, Björn Frauendienst, Andreas Redecker, Tim Jones, with Mayer Hillman. It was published by the Policy Studies Institute, London, 2013. Suggested citation: Shaw, B., Watson, B., Frauendienst, B., Redecker, A., Jones, T. with Hillman, M., 2013. Children’s independent mobility: a comparative study in England and Germany (1971-2010), London: Policy Studies Institute. © Policy Studies Institute 2012. Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Copyright of the photos on the front cover of this report belongs to Theseedco at Dreamstime.com. The photos were purchased under a Royalty Free Licence on 12 November 2012: http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-skipper-image2239633# and http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-young-girl-looking-out-window.-image21444891 This research was funded in the UK by the former Department for Children, Schools and Families, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Rees Jeffreys Road Fund and, in Germany, the DeutscherVerkehrssicherheitsrat (German Road Safety Council). The views expressed reflect the research findings and the authors’ interpretation; they do not necessarily reflect the funders’ policy or opinions. This research was co-funded by the former Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) before the new UK Government took office on 11 May 2010. As a result the content may not reflect current Government policy. The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has now been replaced by the Department for Education (DfE). The views expressed in this report are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department for Education. All other images, graphs and tables are the authors own unless stated otherwise. ISBN 9780853748526 (pdf) ISBN 9780853748557 (print) Policy Studies Institute 50 Hanson Street, London, W1W 6UP Telephone: +44(0)20 7911 7503 Email: [email protected] Web: www.psi.org.uk 2 Acknowledgements Many people and organisations have contributed to the production of this report and the research that underpins it and we would like to note our appreciation for all their valuable contributions, without which the work would not have been possible. In particular we would like to acknowledge and thank: Our funders: in the UK, the former Department for Children, Schools and Families, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Rees Jeffreys Road Fund and, in Germany, the DeutscherVerkehrssicherheitsrat (German Road Safety Council). The members of the project’s advisory group: Prof. John Adams, Dr. Belinda Brown, Steve Close, Tim Gill, Dr. Mayer Hillman, Dr. Tim Jones, Prof. Roger Mackett, and Catherine Prisk. The children, parents and staff of the schools we surveyed in England and Germany, who made this research possible. Our thanks also go to the staff at the five local authorities in England, who provided useful advice while we prepared for the survey. The fieldworkers who assisted in collecting the data from the children and their parents: in England, Sarah Bell, Dr. Christine Bertram, Annalisa Fagan and Matt Shaw and, in Germany, Rainer Benien, Corinna Berger, Dennis Edler, Prof. Manfred Hommel, Katharina Meyer, Markus Müller, Stefan Philipp, and Manuel Schneider. We would also like to thank Dr. Alice Dalton, University of East Anglia, who generated distance to school data for the English sample. We would also like to acknowledge our debt to Mayer Hillman who carried out the research for the 1971 and 1990 studies – in 1971, together with Anne Whalley, and in 1990, together with John Adams and John Whitelegg. The solid foundation of these reports and his continued involvement in the current study have been critical to our more recent investigations. Any errors and omissions in the work are, of course, the responsibility of the authors. 3 Table of contents Table of contents Table of contents .................................................................................................................................... 4 List of Figures .......................................................................................................................................... 6 List of Tables ......................................................................................................................................... 12 Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................... 15 Summary of findings ......................................................................................................................... 19 1. Children’s independent mobility: a comparative study in England and Germany (1971-2010) - Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 24 1.1 Research aims and objectives ............................................................................................... 26 1.2 The content of this report ..................................................................................................... 26 2. Survey approach and methods ..................................................................................................... 27 2.1 Approach to the Surveys ....................................................................................................... 27 2.2 Limitations of this study ........................................................................................................ 31 3. The literature on Children’s Independent Mobility ...................................................................... 34 3.1 What is Children’s Independent Mobility? ........................................................................... 34 3.2 Why is children’s independent mobility an important issue? .............................................. 36 3.3 Review of studies on trends in children’s independent mobility ......................................... 41 3.4 Review of studies considering the factors that affect children’s independent mobility ...... 46 3.5 Future approaches to the study of children’s independent mobility ................................... 59 3.6 Conclusions and key issues emerging from the review ........................................................ 60 4. Children’s Independent Mobility in England 2010 ....................................................................... 62 4.1 Licence-holding for independent mobility ............................................................................ 62 4.2 The journey to and from school ............................................................................................ 65 4.3 Non school travel and activities ............................................................................................ 73 4.4 Influences on independent mobility ..................................................................................... 78 4.5 Summary of findings in England in 2010 ............................................................................. 103 5. Children’s Independent Mobility in England 1971-2010 ............................................................ 106 5.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 106 5.2. The Six Licences in 1971, 1990 and 2010 ............................................................................ 107 5.3 Children’s travel and activities ............................................................................................ 121 5.4 The influences on independent mobility ............................................................................ 129 5.5 Summary of findings ........................................................................................................... 132 4 Table of contents 6 Children’s Independent Mobility in Germany 1990-2010 .......................................................... 135 6.1 Children’s independent mobility in Germany from 1990-2010 .......................................... 135 6.2 Concluding comments on the German 2010 findings ........................................................ 156 7 Children’s Independent Mobility: Comparison of England and Germany, 1971-2010 ............... 159 7.1 Introduction and Limitations .............................................................................................. 159 7.2 Findings from comparison of England and Germany in One False Move (1990) ............... 159 7.3 The six licences of independent mobility in England and Germany, 1971-2010 ................ 160 7.4 Children’s travel and activities ............................................................................................ 170 7.5 Summary of findings ........................................................................................................... 178 8 Summary of findings and discussion of the implications of findings for policy and future research .............................................................................................................................................. 180 8.1 Summary findings – England 2010 ...................................................................................... 180 8.2 Summary findings - England