Transport and Child Well-Being: Case Study of Quebec City

Abstract

Transport affects children’s well-being differently than adults. This is due to, amongst other things, their restricted use of motorized vehicles. The concept of well-being itself may also be different for children with the addition of cognitive and economic added to the usual physical, psychological, and social domains. Lastly, transport can interact with well-being through access to destinations (traditional concept of transport), during transport (recent considerations), and as an external impact (e.g. danger, air quality, etc.). Different modes will have different impacts on children’s well-being, and the use of these modes is known to be different by contexts such as the built environment. In this chapter, a summary is given of how past research has shown links between those five domains of well-being through the three means-of-influence. Then, a case study of children’s (aged 9–12 in grade 5 classes) travel in Quebec City, Canada will be examined with respect to those five domains of well-being by mode and built environment. The schools were located in three different types of built environments and children completed travel diaries for all trips during a day. Measures related to all five domains of well-being are examined by mode and built environment. Findings suggest a number of advantages with respect to active and independent travel, with some variation found by built environment type.