School of Built Environment Department of Urban and Regional Planning Built environment auditing, active mobility and children’s wellbeing Courtney W Babb This thesis is presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) of Curtin University March 2014 Declaration To the best of my knowledge and belief this thesis contains no material previously published by any other person except where due acknowledgement has been made. This thesis contains no material that has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university. Courtney Babb………………………………………………………………………... Page | ii Abstract Emerging evidence regarding the influence of the built environment on children’s rates of active mobility has highlighted the importance of urban planning, transport planning and urban design. For children, active mobility – mainly walking and cycling – provides many opportunities to enhance their wellbeing through better health, access to activities, and developing independence. This thesis examines the relationship between children’s wellbeing and the built environment, as mediated by walkability audits, built environment audit tools used by urban planners. The objectives of the thesis were to explore the relationship between the built environment, children’s everyday active mobility and children’s wellbeing, and to understand how built environment audits address children’s wellbeing through facilitating active mobility. The research objectives were considered via a number of different scales – individual, household, neighbourhood and policy. The research methods included surveys of children and parents, a photo-voice method, content and thematic analysis of the local newspaper, interviews with planners, and an evaluation of the built environment using a walkability audit. The research focused on a case study – a primary school in Western Australia. The research findings revealed that, despite most children and parents valuing active mobility and the neighbourhood being perceived as good for walking and cycling, children’s mobility was predominantly shaped by the car. Synergies between evaluations made by the walkability audit and those made by the children and their parents were identified, indicating that audits have the potential to offer meaningful evaluations of built environment supportiveness for children’s active mobility. However, auditors need to pay careful attention to the design of audits so that they can capture meaningful information relating to the full range of barriers to children’s active mobility and understand the potential of audits as a tool to challenge automobility. An ongoing critical reflection of the role of audits in practice is necessary in order for built environment audits to be valuable tools for planners to improve the capacity of cities to support children’s wellbeing through active mobility. Page | iii Table of Contents List of Figures .............................................................................................................xi List of Tables ............................................................................................................ xiv Glossary and abbreviations ..................................................................................... xvii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................. xix Publications resulting from the work presented in this thesis ................................... xxi Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 1.1 The research problem ................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research approach ....................................................................................... 3 1.3 Research aims and objectives ...................................................................... 4 1.4 Significance of the research .......................................................................... 5 1.5 Research design and methodology ............................................................... 7 1.6 Key terminology ............................................................................................ 8 1.6.1 Children’s Mobility, Active Mobility and Sustainable Mobility .................. 8 1.6.2 Urban environment, built environment and neighbourhood .................... 9 1.6.3 Wellbeing ............................................................................................... 9 1.6.4 Urban planning and policy ...................................................................... 9 1.7 Thesis structure ........................................................................................... 10 Chapter 2: The built environment and children’s mobility and wellbeing: a review of the literature ............................................................................................................. 14 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 14 2.2 Children’s mobility and wellbeing ................................................................ 14 2.2.1 The link between subjective wellbeing and mobility .............................. 15 2.2.2 The link between needs and mobility ................................................... 16 2.2.3 The link between capabilities and mobility ........................................... 19 Page | iv 2.3 Influences on children’s mobility .................................................................. 20 2.3.1 A conceptual model of children’s active and independent mobility ....... 20 2.3.2 The individual ....................................................................................... 22 2.3.3 Household dynamics and the licence to travel ...................................... 23 2.3.4 The urban environment......................................................................... 25 2.3.5 Automobility and the socio-political domain .......................................... 27 2.3.6 The built environment and children’s active and independent mobility . 29 2.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 38 Chapter 3: Auditing the built environment for children’s mobility: a review of the literature ................................................................................................................... 42 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 42 3.2 The policy context of planning for children’s mobility .................................. 43 3.2.1 The policy domain ................................................................................ 43 3.2.2. Policy, wellbeing and children’s mobility ............................................... 44 3.2.3 Examples of policy responses to children’s mobility .............................. 46 3.3 Walkability audits ........................................................................................ 49 3.3.1 An overview of walkability audits .......................................................... 49 3.3.2 Auditing the built environment: A brief history ....................................... 50 3.3.3 Audit culture .......................................................................................... 54 3.3.4 Methodological issues of built environment audits ................................ 56 3.3.5 Built environment audits, ethics and wellbeing ..................................... 57 3.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 61 Chapter 4: Research methodology and design ........................................................ 64 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 64 4.2 Theoretical framework guiding the research design .................................... 65 4.2.1 Socio-ecological theory......................................................................... 65 Page | v 4.2.2 Key socio-ecological concepts .............................................................. 66 4.3 Research objectives .................................................................................... 71 4.4 Research methodology ............................................................................... 72 4.4.1 Case study methodology ...................................................................... 72 4.4.2 Research design framework ................................................................. 73 4.5 Case study description ................................................................................ 76 4.6 Description of research methods ................................................................. 77 4.6.1 Children’s and parents’ survey ............................................................. 78 4.6.2 Photo-collage ........................................................................................ 80 4.6.3 Local newspaper analysis ..................................................................... 84 4.6.4 Practitioner interviews........................................................................... 85 4.6.5 Audit and evaluations of the walkability of the neighbourhood. ............ 87 4.6.6 Summary of methods ............................................................................ 87 4.7 Analysis ......................................................................................................