College - Author 1

College of Architecture and Environmental Design

Department - Author 1

City and Regional Planning Department

Degree Name - Author 1

BS in City and Regional Planning

Date

2026

Primary Advisor

Anahita Shadkam, College of Architecture and Environmental Design, City and Regional Planning Department

Abstract/Summary

This project proposes the Childhood Through Motion (CTM) Framework, which reimagines how everyday mobility corridors can support children’s development through repeated engagement with integrated interventions along key neighborhood routes. Building on existing approaches such as Safe Routes to School and Playful Learning Landscapes, the framework integrates mobility, play, learning, and social interaction into a connected system of corridors and nodes distributed throughout a neighborhood street network. Rather than treating mobility, play, and learning as separate, the framework explores how developmental opportunities can be integrated into the public spaces children use every day.

The framework is organized through five guiding principles and a four-phase deployment process that helps identify where different forms of interaction, movement, and gathering fit within a neighborhood network. Drawing from child development theory, urban design literature, and independent mobility research, it connects developmental needs to age-based corridor and node interventions that respond to different stages of childhood.

The framework is applied in King City, California, where existing mobility corridors are evaluated and redesigned to demonstrate how developmental opportunities can be distributed throughout an existing street network. In doing so, the project expands the role of mobility corridors beyond movement, characterizing them instead as developmental environments that contribute to children’s growth through everyday interaction with the built environment.

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