Kids in the City: Children's Use and Experiences of Urban Neighbourhoods in Auckland, New Zealand

Cities are largely designed for adults and cars, not children. Auckland City's new ‘children first’ approach signals a shift in policy focus to consider the needs of children. The authors' ‘Kids in the City’ research is helping inform this approach by providing policy-relevant information about children's use and experiences of nine Auckland neighbourhoods, suburban and inner-city, using trip diaries, child-led walk-along interviews and discussion groups. The children were neighbourhood key informants and co-producers of knowledge who reported on their environments, discussed what they liked and disliked, their safety concerns and their limited mobility, and made suggestions for more ‘child-friendly’ neighbourhoods.