Building Cities for Young People: Why We Should Design Cities with Preteens and Young Teens in Mind

Abstract

As those with planning authority over large areas consider for whom they are planning, it is recommended that the prototypical citizen be an 11–15 year-old person. Some planners have argued for several decades that young people be taken into consideration when planning urban areas. Recent trends in overweight and obesity in young people have focused attention on children's ability to safely navigate the path to school. Environmental psychologists have long pointed out the connection between children's independent travel and self-confidence. However, recent advances in neuropsychiatry indicate the brain is undergoing a second period of growth through adolescence. Furthermore, the areas of the brain related to spatial perception and analysis are growing during this period and subsequent actions hardwire the brain. Therefore, this period of young people's interaction with the environment is a crucial time and cities should be built with that in mind.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Dr. John Oró, Medical Director of Neurosurgery Services at The Medical Center of Aurora, Colorado, for explaining neuroscience to a transportation planner. Any mistakes in interpretation and application of the brain development described in this paper are the author's own. The author also wishes to thank Katherine Heinrich for editing help. This paper benefited greatly from the input of two anonymous reviewers.

Notes

1. In order to detect the presence of poisonous gases in mines, miners used to take a canary with them into the mine. Since canaries are more sensitive to the presence of the poisonous gases they served as an early warning detector and if the canary died, the miners evacuated the mine.

2. This was part of a study of independent travel of a random sample of 13-, 14-, and 15-year olds in Austin, Texas, USA. Young people were asked to draw a map of their city.