● Research Trends and Results
A Method of Designing Reassurance from Crime in Urban Street
Spaces to Encourage Outdoor Activity by Children
Urban Planning Department
TAKAYANAGI Yuriko, Urban Facilities Division Senior Researcher
AKASHI Tatsuo, Urban Planning Division Director(Keywords) Urban street spaces, children, crime prevention through environmental design, Reassurance from Crime,
roadside usage
1. Focus on users’ evaluation of street spaces
In the Urban Planning Department, we regard urban
streets as three-dimensional spaces including
privately-owned roadside land as well as public openspace, and have been seeking effective ways to makestreet spaces comfortable for various pedestrians.
Here we introduce a study in which we analyze theuse of urban street spaces by children (elementaryschool 3rd graders), focusing on their parents’evaluation of reassurance from crime.
The study proved that whether children go outside alot or not is affected by their parents’ sense ofreassurance (from crime and car accidents), and that
90% of parents set restrictions on the directions androutes for children’s outdoor activities. In other words, it
is important that routes leading to parks and other places
frequented by children are spaces where parents can feelreassured. In that case, what are the compositional
elements of urban street spaces that contribute to a senseof reassurance?
2. Elements related to reassurance from crime
We conducted a questionnaire survey on children’s
outdoor activity and their parents’ awareness, in terms ofboth crime prevention and road safety. The survey
targeted the parents of children in all 3rd grade classes of
two elementary schools whose catchment areas included
ordinary residential areas developed by a land
readjustment project in a regional hub city (217 validresponses).
Figure 1 shows urban street
segments where anxiety is felt
Home Centerand those where reassurance isfelt, in terms of crime prevention,
Hair salonwith the individual responses Convenience
store
entered on the map aggregated foreach segment. The segments withDVD store
Clothing and general
goods store

Child-related use
Non-domestic use

Figures represent numbers of people
In sequence from “reassurance” to“anxiety”

Park B

FloristRestaurant

Restaurant

Domestic use

Bookshop

CrammerschoolButcher

Dry cleaners

Crammer school
Elementaryschool

Park A

Supermarket

Cake shop

Restaurant Children’s clothes store

Figure 1. Reassurance segments (blue) and anxiety
segments (red)the most respondents expressing reassurance are shownin blue, and those with the most expressing anxiety are
shown in red.
We also conducted a field survey to ascertain spatial
compositional elements (street structure and roadsideconditions) as well as the amount of street traffic. We
then used multiple regression analysis to analyze therelationship between these “physical factors” and“psychological factors” connected with reassurance oranxiety in terms of crime prevention. Fig. 2 shows theimpact of each spatial compositional element on theparents’ reassurance from crime (t value) (1%significance elements only, R2＝0.59).
Tendency towards anxiety

Tendency towards reassurance

Number of pedestrians
Type of store

Domestic-type business
Non-domestic type business

Street structure

Street with sidewalk plants
Wall-shaped structures
Vacant lots

Figure 2. Impact of each element on reassurance oranxiety
From this analysis, we identified urban street spaces
with elements that would give parents reassurance interms of crime prevention and persuade them to let theirchildren go outdoors. These are street spaces that haveservices for neighbors such as daily requisite storesarranged at the roadside, are structurally separate frompassing motorized traffic, and have pleasant sidewalks
containing plants.
As a result of this study, we found that the category ofland use along neighbourhood streets firmly affects thesense of reassurance among parents, so that it should beplanned carefully in order to encourage the soundgrowth of children.
[Reference]
Takayanagi & Akashi “Spatial Components on Safer
Street Space for Children in Terms of Crime
Prevention” Toshi Keikaku Ronbunshu (Papers on City
Planning). Vol.46. No. 3 (Oct. 2011)