Children experience street infrastructure uniquely. However, how we design streets doesn’t always consider children’s needs. This blog spotlights two successful street interventions in Fortaleza, Brazil and Santiago, Chile, which made streets more safe, active and sociable, benefitting children and adults. The Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI) Streets for Kids team is a group of urban Read more ā
Mobility
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), road traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for children and young people aged 5 to 29 years. The Streets for Life and #Love30 campaign was the focus of the 6th UN Global Road Safety Week (UNGRSW). As we approach the 7th UNGRSW, hereās another look at Read more ā
Pedestrian Space is a media and advocacy platform that celebrates and promotes walkability in cities. In the last two years, Pedestrian Space has grown exponentially. We spoke with the founder Annika Lundkvist to find out more about her journey, why she feels pedestrian solutions are so critical, and how one person can generate content at Read more ā
Cycling supports climate-friendly cities and the well-being of children and families in many ways, from improving air quality and health to increasing road safety. In the run-up to COP27, Lucas Snaije of BYCS, an Amsterdam-based global NGO supporting community-led urban change through cycling, discusses how programmes to support uptake in Latin America offer strong evidence Read more ā
āNothing seems to change until suddenly it does,ā writes Duncan Green in his book How Change Happens. The exponential growth of school streetsĀ over the past five years powerfully illustrates how urban change can sometimes be non-linear and transformational. What are school streets? School streets are vehicle-free areas outside schools (or vehicles have severely restricted access). Read more ā
What are Open Streets? Why are they important for children, vulnerable groups and cities? What are the key ingredients that make Open Streets successful in cities? On 19 April 2022, Gil PeƱalosa hosted an online webinar called Open Streets/CiclovĆas: Meeting as Equals ā Public Health Benefits where he and Dr. Olga L. Sarmiento addressed some Read more ā
Swapping the car for a bike can work wonders for children and their caregivers, by making the city safer, more accessible and reducing emissions. Making our cities more cycle-able for children means making them more accessible for everyone.Ā The World Health Organization estimates that well over two-thirds of adolescents arenāt active enough, and believe a Read more ā
My last blog made the case for child-friendly urban planning as a catalyst for healthier, more sustainable cities. It set out a two-dimensional framework highlighting the role of mobility on the one hand, and a wide choice of things to do (crucially including places to play) on the other. This blog looks in more detail Read more ā
An EU project has operated around different European neighbourhoods in an attempt to improve mobility, specifically for children and those with reduced or different mobility needs. Here,Ā Mobilissimus, in Hungary shares more information about the project, and in particular the changes that have taken place in Budapest. What is the EU-funded SUNRISE (Sustainable Urban Neighbourhoods Research Read more ā
ITDPās new report, 15-Minute-Neighbourhoods: Access and Babies, Toddlers and Their Caregivers, has been released, and this webinar discussed how this can contribute to urban wellbeing. The conversation was moderated by Ankita Chakra, Knowledge for Policy Director at the Bernard van Leer Foundation. The panelists included Aimee Gaulthier, Chief Knowledge Officer at ITDP, Iwona Alfred, Program Read more ā
A good measure of how child-friendly a city is, is how well children can independently play, connect socially, and access schools. After numerous waves of Covid-19, parents across India and the rest of the world,Ā remainĀ concerned about letting their children ride public transport and school buses. This behaviour change can accelerate motor-vehicle dependency for school-related commutes Read more ā
What if everything we did in our cities had to work for both an eight-year-old, and an eighty-year-old? Thatās the premise behind Gil Penalosaās work, founder and chair of 8 80 Cities, who has worked in many cities worldwide as an urban planner. Every week he invites guests to speak about cities, parks and green Read more ā