Improving the Mobility of Children

[i]CALL FOR PAPERS[/i] [b]The deadline - 20 October 2006 [/b] 2007 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers April 17-21, 2007 San Francisco, CA In car-oriented cultures the mobility of children has seriously declined, with major impacts for both them and their families. Children are at risk from lack of safe pedestrian and bicycle travel in auto-dominated transport systems, as well as suffering from the air pollution produced by these systems. Families with children face tremendous transport challe nges as children often have to be driven everywhere: to schools, after-school activities, day-care, friends? homes, recreation locations, etc. Through an excessive propensity by adults to drive, children are exposed to values that will increase the difficulty of achieving sustainable transport systems which are based on trips by walking, cycling and transit. This session is intended to stimulate research on children?s transportation for the present and in the future. Potential topics include, but are not limited to: ·Spatial aspects of children?s mobility ·Land use patterns and their role in school transportation ·Strategies for promoting alternative modes to reduce car use for trips to school ·& nbsp; Children?s independent mobility and accessibility to recreation and other facilities, and resulting impacts on health and quality of life ·The effect of parental lifestyle and family structure on children?s mobility ·Restrictions on children?s independent mobility at different stages of development ·Regarding children as experts in transport planning ·Programs to improve the safety of walking and cycling by children ·Effect of transport-related air pollution on children ·The impact of automobile-dominated cities on children and parents wi th disabilities Send an abstract of no more than 250 words and your personal identification numbers (received from the AAG after applying online at www.aag.org) to Selima Sultana by [b]October 20, 2006[/b]: [b]Selima Sultana[/b], Department of Geography, University of North Carolina, Gre ensboro, NC 27402, E-mail: [url=mailto:s_sultan@uncg.edu]s_sultan@uncg.edu[/url], Phone: (336) 334-3895 For more informations: http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/SF2007/index.cfm