KICCO
Kids’ Interactive Comic Cartography for sustainable urban mobility
- Category
- Project
- Call
- DUT Call 2025
- Duration
- –
- Project coordinator
- Institut für Geographiedidaktik, Universität zu Köln
Urban mobility planning faces the challenge of creating safe, sustainable, and inclusive transport systems that address the needs of all users. However, children remain one of the least represented stakeholder groups in planning processes, although they are particularly affected by transport infrastructure and public space design. Increasing traffic volumes, unsafe routes, and fragmented transport networks often prevent children from travelling independently, especially to school, leading to greater reliance on private cars and reduced opportunities for active mobility. Existing planning approaches rarely capture children’s experiences, perceptions of safety, or everyday mobility needs in a systematic way. At the same time, municipalities lack effective methods to integrate children’s perspectives into decision-making, creating a significant gap between transport planning, social inclusion, and sustainable urban development.
KICCO addresses this challenge by developing and validating an innovative participatory toolkit that enables children to contribute directly to sustainable urban mobility planning. The project begins with a comprehensive needs analysis of children’s mobility experiences and planners’ requirements, providing the foundation for the KartoComica visual language. Building on these findings, partners from Germany, Spain, and France will develop the KICCO App, educational materials, and participatory mapping methods. These tools will be piloted and evaluated in schools, where children will map their daily routes, identify barriers, and propose improvements. The resulting geospatial data will support municipalities in evidence-based planning, while educational activities strengthen mobility awareness and civic participation. Final outputs include the public KICCO App, teaching resources, a toolkit, and international dissemination.
KICCO is expected to contribute to more inclusive, sustainable, and child-sensitive urban mobility planning by making children’s experiences and perspectives visible in decision-making processes. The project will provide municipalities with innovative tools and spatial data that reveal children’s perceptions of safety, accessibility, and barriers in their everyday environments. The KICCO App, KartoComica symbols, and educational materials will create a transferable framework for participatory mobility planning across European contexts. Schools and pupils will benefit by strengthening spatial thinking, mobility awareness, and democratic participation skills in line with Education for Sustainable Development. Urban planners will gain new insights to design safer routes, improve public spaces, and support active mobility. Overall, KICCO will foster stronger connections between education, citizen participation, and sustainable urban development.
France
Germany
Spain
Ruhr Universität Bochum, Université Paris XII Val de Marne, Universidad de Castilla de la Mancha
City of Solingen
Contact
Prof. Dr. Alexandra Budke
alexandra.budke@uni-koeln.de