Local residents’ consciousness to play on the street in the residential area

Abstract

It goes without saying that children’s play is an essential part of a child's healthy growth. Therefore traffic calming measures such as Woonerf have been implemented in foreign countries in order to create a street with the environment to allow children to play in residential area. However the play on the street sometimes causes troubles in Japan, and that is not always acceptable to the local community. Thus this study examined local residents’ consciousness to play on the street in the residential area, in order to clarify the characteristics of road spaces and situations where children’s play is acceptable or unacceptable in the area. The results show that, for example, time of day has an influence on the acceptance mind of local residents. In particular it has been clarified that on weekdays from 3 pm to 6 pm and holidays daytime are more acceptable than any other time.