Geographies of inequality: Child pedestrian injury and walking school buses in Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract

In the face of mounting concern at traffic congestion in the vicinity of schools and the associated risks of child pedestrian injury, the ‘walking school bus’ (WSB) idea has been rapidly adopted within metropolitan Auckland. WSBs involve volunteers guiding children to and from school in an orderly manner following established walking routes. This paper reports on a survey of the 34 Auckland primary schools which had adopted the scheme by November 2002. Despite rates of child pedestrian injury being highest in areas of socio-economic deprivation, our survey found WSB developments highly concentrated in low deprivation neighbourhoods. The inequitable socio-spatial distribution of WSBs in Auckland suggests that the ability to respond to road safety issues is closely correlated with socio-economic privilege. While our respondents identified a number of individual and community health benefits accruing from WSBs, we conclude that the initiative has a limited ability to address public health challenges originating within an inequitable and car-dominated urban political system.

Introduction

Pedestrian accidents are a leading cause of serious injury and death among children in developed countries. International research has consistently found that these accidents do not occur in a uniform distribution across space, but are concentrated in areas of socio-economic deprivation (Coupland et al., 2003; Haynes, Reading, & Gale, 2003). In this way child pedestrian injury contributes to the systematic inequalities in health status that are well-documented in the population health literature (e.g., Wilkinson, 1996; Hayes, 1999). The unequal socio-spatial distribution of children's life chances have been known to geographers since at least the time of the ‘urban expedition’ to Detroit, which found a four-fold range in infant death rates between the central city and the suburbs (Bunge & Bordessa, 1975). This study also noted that suburban children's opportunities were bolstered by the relative availability of recreation space, by better equipped schools and libraries, and by reduced risk of being struck by a car while at play.

Many parents have responded to the risks that traffic poses by restricting their children's uses of the streets. Increasingly, children are placed within the seemingly safe confines of the private motor vehicle for most day-to-day journeys, including that between home and school (Tranter & Pawson, 2001; Hillman, 1993). However, such chauffeuring behaviour contributes to congestion, and to the restriction of children's experiential geographies (Barker, 2002). This phenomenon has arguably contributed to the increasingly marginal status of walking in some urban areas (Solnit, 2000), and is antithetical to the notion of the ‘active city’, in which opportunities for safe and convivial walking and cycling are prioritized (Low, 2003).

One initiative that gets children back on their feet and on the streets is the ‘walking school bus’ (WSB). It involves groups of children walking to and from school under adult supervision, typically along a set route complete with ‘stops’ at which ‘passengers’ may embark and disembark. WSBs usually involve at least two adults: a ‘driver’ at the front and a ‘conductor’ at the back. These adults are generally, but not always, parents, and it is their job to guide the bus between its farthest stop and the school, while maintaining discipline and remaining alert for potential hazards and obstacles (Kearns et al., 2003).

By offering a safe and reliable alternative to car travel, the WSB potentially (re)legitimates and endorses walking by children (Kearns & Collins, 2003). It may also help to alleviate vehicular congestion, especially in the vicinity of schools, and enable children to accrue health benefits (Giles-Corti & Donovan, 2003). Moreover, recent research demonstrates that city streets become safer for walkers the more people walk (Jacobsen, 2003). In this paper we examine the phenomenon of child pedestrian injury, and its inequitable social geography, before considering the rapid and widespread development of WSBs in Auckland, New Zealand. Our specific goal is to report on, and seek to understand, the socio-spatial distribution of both injuries and WSBs within a rapidly growing urban area.