Walking to School: The Experience of Children in Inner City Los Angeles and Implications for Policy

Neighborhoods walkability has become an important public health concern. The child’s-eye view of safe and walkable environments is typically remiss from the literature. Particularly the experience of inner-city kids, very different from that of suburban neighborhoods, remains unreported. The study reported here offers new insights based on the walking to school experience reported by the children of inner-city neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Interviews with fifth-graders from five grade schools suggest that the dangers in their social milieu are a much greater concern for them than the physical milieu, which the walkability research typically emphasizes. The findings necessitate new policies.

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