IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i18p11555-d914407.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Tale of Two Cities: Unpacking the Success and Failure of School Street Interventions in Two Canadian Cities

Author

Listed:
  • Laura E. Smith

    (Department of Geography and Planning, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada)

  • Veronique Gosselin

    (École de Santé Publique (ESPUM), Centre de Recherche en Santé Pulique (CReSP), Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC H3N 1X9, Canada)

  • Patricia Collins

    (Department of Geography and Planning, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada)

  • Katherine L. Frohlich

    (École de Santé Publique (ESPUM), Centre de Recherche en Santé Pulique (CReSP), Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC H3N 1X9, Canada)

Abstract

One innovative strategy to support child-friendly cities is street-based interventions that provide safe, vehicle-free spaces for children to play and move about freely. School streets are one such innovation involving closing streets around elementary schools to vehicular traffic to improve children’s safety as they come and go from school while providing opportunities for children to play and socialize on the street. Launching these initiatives in communities dominated by automobiles is enormously challenging and little is known about why these interventions are successfully launched in some places but not others. As part of a larger research project called Levelling the Playing Fields, two School Street initiatives were planned for the 2021–2022 school year; one initiative was successfully launched in Kingston, ON, while the second initiative failed to launch in Montreal, QC. Using a critical realist evaluation methodology, this paper documents the contextual elements and key mechanisms that enabled and constrained the launch of these School Streets in these cities, through document analysis and key informant interviews. Our results suggest that municipal and school support for the initiative are both imperative to establishing legitimacy and collaborative governance, both of which were necessary for a successful launch.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura E. Smith & Veronique Gosselin & Patricia Collins & Katherine L. Frohlich, 2022. "A Tale of Two Cities: Unpacking the Success and Failure of School Street Interventions in Two Canadian Cities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-17, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:18:p:11555-:d:914407
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/18/11555/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/18/11555/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nisha D. Botchwey & Nick Johnson & L. Katie O’Connell & Anna J. Kim, 2019. "Including Youth in the Ladder of Citizen Participation," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 85(3), pages 255-270, July.
    2. Buttazzoni, Adrian N. & Coen, Stephanie E. & Gilliland, Jason A., 2018. "Supporting active school travel: A qualitative analysis of implementing a regional safe routes to school program," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 181-190.
    3. Cajaiba-Santana, Giovany, 2014. "Social innovation: Moving the field forward. A conceptual framework," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 42-51.
    4. Charlotte Jelleyman & Julia McPhee & Mariana Brussoni & Anita Bundy & Scott Duncan, 2019. "A Cross-Sectional Description of Parental Perceptions and Practices Related to Risky Play and Independent Mobility in Children: The New Zealand State of Play Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-19, January.
    5. Mackett, Roger L. & Lucas, Lindsey & Paskins, James & Turbin, Jill, 2005. "The therapeutic value of children's everyday travel," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 39(2-3), pages 205-219.
    6. Mark S. Tremblay & Casey Gray & Shawna Babcock & Joel Barnes & Christa Costas Bradstreet & Dawn Carr & Guylaine Chabot & Louise Choquette & David Chorney & Cam Collyer & Susan Herrington & Katherine J, 2015. "Position Statement on Active Outdoor Play," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-31, June.
    7. Checkoway, Barry, 2011. "What is youth participation?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 340-345, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yuhui Liao & Katsunori Furuya, 2023. "A Bibliometric Analysis of Child-Friendly Cities: A Cross-Database Analysis from 2000 to 2022," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-25, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zwerts, Enid & Allaert, Georges & Janssens, Davy & Wets, Geert & Witlox, Frank, 2010. "How children view their travel behaviour: a case study from Flanders (Belgium)," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 702-710.
    2. Petteri Repo & Kaisa Matschoss, 2019. "Social Innovation for Sustainability Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    3. Baran Grzegorz, 2020. "Social Innovation Living Labs as Platforms to Co-design Social Innovations," Journal of Intercultural Management, Sciendo, vol. 12(1), pages 36-57, March.
    4. Xie, Xiaoxia & Huang, Chien-Chung & Chen, Yafan & Hao, Feng, 2019. "Intelligent robots and rural children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 283-290.
    5. Julia Maria Wittmayer & Tessa de Geus & Bonno Pel & F. Avelino & Sabine Hielscher & Thomas Hoppe & Marie Susan Mühlemeier & Agata Stasik & Sem Oxenaar & Karoline K.S. Rogge & Vivian Visser & Esther Ma, 2020. "Beyond instrumentalism: Broadening the understanding of social innovation in socio-technical energy systems," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/312323, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    6. Cristina Dalla Torre & Elisa Ravazzoli & Marijke Dijkshoorn-Dekker & Nico Polman & Mariana Melnykovych & Elena Pisani & Francesca Gori & Riccardo Da Re & Kamini Vicentini & Laura Secco, 2020. "The Role of Agency in the Emergence and Development of Social Innovations in Rural Areas. Analysis of Two Cases of Social Farming in Italy and The Netherlands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-25, May.
    7. Chenyu Lu & Changbin Yu & Xiaowan Liu, 2024. "Evaluating the Quality of Children’s Active School Travel Spaces and the Mechanisms of School District Friendliness Impact Based on Multi-Source Big Data," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-18, August.
    8. Ana Clara Mourão Moura & Ashiley Adelaide Rosa & Paula Barros, 2024. "Children’s Independent Mobility in Urban Planning: Geospatial Technology with a Technical Approach and Citizens’ Listening," Geographies, MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-26, February.
    9. Tjahja, Nadia & Potjomkina, Diana, 2024. "An agent of change: Youth meta-participation at the internet governance forum," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(5).
    10. Kajikawa, Yuya & Mejia, Cristian & Wu, Mengjia & Zhang, Yi, 2022. "Academic landscape of Technological Forecasting and Social Change through citation network and topic analyses," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    11. Gazit, Matan & Perry-Hazan, Lotem, 2020. "Disadvantaged youth’s participation in collective decision making," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    12. Matschoss, Kaisa & Mikkonen, Irmeli & Gynther, Lea & Koukoufikis, Giorgos & Uihlein, Andreas & Murauskaite-Bull, Ingrida, 2022. "Drawing policy insights from social innovation cases in the energy field," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    13. Attila Havas & Doris Schartinger & K. Matthias Weber, 2022. "Innovation Studies, Social Innovation, and Sustainability Transitions Research: From mutual ignorance towards an integrative perspective?," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 2227, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    14. Christopher Lim & Andrew M. Donovan & Nevin J. Harper & Patti-Jean Naylor, 2017. "Nature Elements and Fundamental Motor Skill Development Opportunities at Five Elementary School Districts in British Columbia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-9, October.
    15. Nir, Tal & Perry-Hazan, Lotem, 2016. "The framed right to participate in municipal youth councils and its educational impact," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 174-183.
    16. Valentino Marini Govigli & Sophie Alkhaled & Tor Arnesen & Carla Barlagne & Mari Bjerck & Catie Burlando & Mariana Melnykovych & Carmen Rodríguez Fernandez-Blanco & Patricia Sfeir & Elena Górriz-Mifsu, 2020. "Testing a Framework to Co-Construct Social Innovation Actions: Insights from Seven Marginalized Rural Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-26, February.
    17. Chiara Certomà, 2020. "Digital Social Innovation and Urban Space: A Critical Geography Agenda," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 8-19.
    18. Maria Luisa Jaramillo Gomez & Alvaro Turriago Hoyos & Ulf Thoene, 2015. "Financial inclusion from the perspective of social innovation: The case of Colombia," Proceedings of Business and Management Conferences 3104801, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    19. Deirdre Horgan, 2017. "Consultations with Children and Young People and Their Impact on Policy in Ireland," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(3), pages 104-112.
    20. Fyhri, Aslak & Hjorthol, Randi & Mackett, Roger L. & Fotel, Trine Nordgaard & Kyttä, Marketta, 2011. "Children's active travel and independent mobility in four countries: Development, social contributing trends and measures," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 703-710, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:18:p:11555-:d:914407. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.