ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the process of comparing how boys and girls who travel around their city by automobile on the one hand, and on foot on the other, gain an understanding and knowledge of urban space, and contrasting the cognitive structure that the different groups give to a series of easily identified places in their home town. It analyses the way in which boys and girls construct their cognitive maps. According R. M. Downs and D. Stea, a cognitive map is a product, a person's organized representation of some part of the spatial environment. The chapter also analyses differential aspects of the way in which boys and girls of different ages conceptualize urban space when they move around the city by automobile or on foot. It discusses the implications that this may have for urban planning, and the important role played by spatial knowledge in spatial interaction and the organization and accessibility of public services in our cities.
