Activating Childrens and Youths Active Travel in 15-minute Cities

Active mobility among children and youth, such as walking and cycling, has steadily declined despite its well-documented health and environmental
benefits. At the same time, the mobility sector remains a significant contributor to environmental challenges, particularly in urban areas. Promoting active
mobility is essential to addressing these challenges, and the 15-Minute City (15MC) concept aims to create urban areas where essential services are easily accessible on foot or by bike. However, even in urban areas with infrastructure designed to encourage active mobility, uptake among children and youth remains low, raising the question of what factorsbeyond infrastructureare influencing travel behaviour. Identifying and understanding the factors
influencing the uptake of active mobility is key to developing future 15MCs where children and youth are actively and positively engaged in walking and cycling.
ACTIVATE seeks to address this gap by investigating the social, environmental, and behavioural drivers of mobility choices among children and youth over time. Applying the social-ecological model, the project will explore the influence of policies, the built environment, interpersonal relationships, and intrapersonal factorsparticularly parental and peer dynamicson active mobility decisions at different life stages. Specifically, ACTIVATE will track how these factors shift from early childhood through adolescence, with a focus on key life events such as the move from daycare to primary school and from secondary to postsecondary education. ACTIVATE will provide insights into:
1. How policies and the built environment in different contexts shape travel behaviour across different urban contexts, focusing on socioeconomic
disparities.
2. The role of community dynamics and interpersonal relationships in the formation of travel-related attitudes and encouraging or discouraging active
mobility across different life stages.
3. How these urban (see 1.) and social (see 2.) factors vary across socioeconomic groups and how they affect individual active mobility choices.
4. Translating these findings (see 1., 2., and 3.) into a practical toolbox of actions to overcome barriers to active mobility for children and youth.
Through household surveys, interviews, and participatory approaches in four European cities, ACTIVATE will identify the barriers and enablers of active
mobility for children and youth. The project will deliver a toolbox of carefully crafted policy recommendations and strategies, designed to promote
inclusive, child- and youth-friendly mobility systems. ACTIVATEs outcomes will contribute to the development of climate-neutral, inclusive, safe, and
accessible urban environments, advancing the vision of 15-minute cities and supporting the transition to sustainable mobility systems for future generations.