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<br />between home and schoot as if he were "to describe it to someone." The result was a <br />series of disconnected paths that led separately from home to school, friends, or the <br />mall, with little detail or connection with the community within which he lived. <br />Another participant of the same study, a child who was also driven everywhere, was <br />unable to make any connection with his community between home and school and he <br />resorted to marking a line through the middle of the paper, drawing his school above <br />and his home below the line. <br />These examples show how neighborhood design - by placing schools, parks, <br />and playgrounds away from homes and providing inadequate sidewalks and bike <br />lanes to access them - can affect children's sense of place. As parents are forced to <br />chauffeur their children throughout their childhood, children can become cognitively <br />disconnected from their community. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Several studies have found that traffic and sprawling communities can impose further <br />negative impacts on youth livability: <br /> <br />· Heavy traffic reduces the independent mobility of children and youth.5 <br />· Opportunities and locations for spontaneous, non-structured play are severely <br />restricted by traffic. 6 <br />· Chronic traffic noise can stress children and raise their blood pressure, heart rates, <br />and levels of stress hormones/ <br />· In neighborhoods where traffic is a nuisance and a threat, children have a <br />limited range of play activities and spend less time outside. Children who live in <br />neighborhoods not dominated by traffic have a wider circle of friends, and so do <br />their parents.8 <br /> <br />7 NCBW Forum Article 3-7-05- March 2005 <br />