The Perception of the Ideal Neighborhood: A Preamble to Implementation of a “Street Use Code”

In a French town, the implementation of a street use code implies speed limits and the development of “30 km/h zones”. In order to see if this new regulation meets the inhabitants’ expectations, a study of the representation of the ideal neighborhood was carried out. This was conducted with a group of inhabitants (N = 48) and with a group of students mostly living outside the neighborhood (N = 363). The theoretical framework is that of the structural approach of social representations and the methodology used is the inductive method of free associations. For the inhabitants as well as for the students this representation is organized around the same central nucleus. Nevertheless, significant differences in the discourse concerning the lifestyles of the two groups leads to the conclusion that there exists a link between the ideal neighborhood and real life in the minds of the respondents. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015