"It gives children a place to be free and happy and playful. That's how Rezina Chowdhury, a city council member in the London borough of Lambeth, describes a school play street around one of the biggest cricket stadiums in the British capital. Thanks to kid-first planning, about half of the perimeter of space surrounding the 27,000-seat stadium has been set aside as play streets for two schools."
"With little more than planters, the borough created "a child-friendly space ... where children can play with their friends and their mums and their parents can sit and chat," said Chowdhury. "Cars have dominated our space. [The play street] is so transformative because it's just so calm." Now, we're not saying that such things don't exist in New York - the 34th Avenue "Paseo Park" is a great example of car-light spaces where kids can be kids - but we simply don't have enough of them."
Kid-first planning converted about half of the perimeter around a 27,000-seat London cricket stadium into play streets serving two schools. Simple interventions like planters created a child-friendly space where children can play with friends and their mums while parents sit and chat. The transformation reduced car presence and produced a calm, low-traffic environment that prioritizes play and community. Rezina Chowdhury described the area as a place for children to be free, happy and playful. Comparable car-light projects exist elsewhere, such as the 34th Avenue Paseo Park in New York, but such spaces remain limited.
Read at Streetsblog
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]