Fighting teenagers' sedentarity: The challenges of mobility in exurbia

Abstract

This paper is about car dependency among teenagers living in ‘exurban’ locations, where the city meets the countryside. It combines the results of a study on teenagers’ mobility (Bachiri, 2006) with a physical analysis of Quebec City’s exurbia (Moretti & Vachon, 2005). Both studies were conducted by the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Suburbs (GIRBa_Groupe interdisciplinaire de recherche sur les banlieues). This qualitative research explores the link between urban sprawl and the mobility of 30 teenagers aged between 12 and 18, living in six exurban territories within the Quebec City metropolitan area. The results point to teenagers’ strong dependency on being accompanied by their parent(s) or other significant adults to come and go in settings where, for the most, public transportation is absent or deficient, and where biking is often considered dangerous and walking inefficient. Teenagers spent several hours a week sitting in a school bus or in the back of their parents’ car. The results suggest adult-dependent and potentially sedentary lifestyles, with eventual hazardous impacts on teenagers’ health and socioaffective development. Key-words: Teenagers, urban sprawl, dependent mobility, independent mobility.

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