CoFoKids

The active, independent mobility of children and young people has decreased more and more in recent decades. Journeys that used to be made on foot or by bike are increasingly being made by car due to specialised school choices, complex everyday routines and parental concerns about safety. This has a negative impact on children's physical health and fitness, restricts their cognitive and sensory development, use of public spaces and sense of direction and leads to increasing road safety problems in the school environment and a lack of traffic education. At the same time, young people themselves are not systematically involved in mobility planning, their parents are often consulted on their behalf and their own wishes and requirements of the mobility system are insufficiently taken into account.

'CoFoKids' has therefore set itself the goal of involving children and young people themselves as active co-researchers in mobility research and taking their perspectives into account at an early stage in the design of sustainable, safe and inclusive mobility spaces, thereby strengthening their voices in mobility transition processes. To this end, the joint project between Goethe University and the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) is investigating the mobility of children and young people between the ages of six and fifteen. In the context of everyday family routines and spatial reorganisation processes to promote active, healthy mobility on the way to school and during leisure time in urban and suburban areas.

The overarching goal is to explore the extent to which mobility research and planning focussed on children and young people and participation in transformation processes can advance the mobility transition and contribute to sustainable and resilient urban-rural regions for all residents.

From 'Generation Backseat' to active researchers of mobility

Using the city of Frankfurt a. M. as an example, the influence and potential of transport transformation processes aimed at young people will be analysed in a transdisciplinary manner in a real-world laboratory and the findings will be transferred to the Rhine-Main region and Berlin.

As part of the real-world laboratory, empirical data is collected on three main topics:

• Firstly, the mobility practices of children and young people on their way to school and in their leisure time will be investigated. The study examines how these practices change over the course of life and under the influence of personal, temporal and social contexts as well as transport reorganisation measures. In addition, the perspective of young people will be contrasted with that of their parents, family mobility will be examined and the role of teachers and their influence on young people's mobility practices will be investigated.
• Secondly, current planning practices in the area of child and youth mobility will be examined and factors of the built environment that influence child and youth mobility will be explored. In co-research with children and young people, transport interventions are developed and implemented on site and digitally in a virtual reality in order to promote a change of perspective in planning practice and to investigate the influence on young people's appropriation of space and health.
• Thirdly, participation practices are explored in order to involve children and young people in mobility planning and research as well as in transformation processes. Current participation processes will be reviewed and analogue and digital participation formats will be further developed. The formats adapted to the needs of children and young people will be trialled in a real-world laboratory and scientifically evaluated.