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From “Streets for People” to “Streets for Cars”

  • alessandragiuliani8
  • 3 days ago
  • 4 min read
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Over the past century, our public spaces - and especially our streets - have shifted from being places of play, trade, connection, and movement to spaces dominated by cars and their circulation.


At Green School Runs, we’re passionate about helping restore the lost balance between the many dimensions and users of our streets. In this post, we’ll share a bit of history, explore the challenges children face today, and discuss what we can do to turn our streets back into welcoming places for everyone.


Not so long ago, streets in the UK were lively, shared public spaces - not only meant for fast mobility, but also for leisure, trade, and community life. However, with the rise of mass car ownership, this paradigm quickly shifted. Road deaths soared, and pedestrians, children, and local life were gradually pushed to the margins, while streets lost much of their social and communal function.


The publication of Traffic in Towns in 1963 (the so-called Buchanan Report) formally entrenched the notion that pedestrians ought to be segregated from motor vehicles, along with the very activities those vehicles were meant to serve. Consequently, roads evolved into environments unsafe for children and the most vulnerable members of society.


By the 1970s and ’80s, the UK saw a sharp decline in children’s independent mobility - that is, the freedom to move about one’s neighbourhood or city without adult supervision. Over time, fewer children walked or cycled to school; many became more sedentary and reliant on adult-driven transport.



Why Independent Mobility Matters


Independent mobility is more than just a quaint ideal. A growing body of research, including the work popularised by Jonathan Haidt in The Anxious Generation, shows that allowing children independence yields extensive benefits for their physical, psychological, cognitive, and social wellbeing. As Haidt puts it:

“We are overprotecting our children in the real world while underprotecting them online.”


By exploring their surroundings at their own pace - choosing routes, confronting small challenges, and making decisions - children build confidence, autonomy, self-efficacy, and social skills. They also develop a stronger sense of belonging within their local community.


Independent mobility is not only a marker of developmental progress but also a driver of it. Exposure to the natural environment and unstructured outdoor play is linked to lower stress and better psychological health.


This is especially urgent given what many describe as a contemporary crisis in children’s health: rising rates of inactivity and obesity, alongside increasing anxiety and mental-health issues among younger generations. Studies suggest that when children are granted a “licence to roam,” they tend to be more physically active, more self-assured, and better equipped to grow into resilient, healthier adults.



How Do We Reverse the Trend?


We believe it is possible to reimagine our streets as places that nurture people’s health, values, social and cultural identity, and sense of belonging. In other words, we can move beyond viewing streets merely as corridors for moving people and goods, and instead adopt a true placemaking approach.

Some of the strategies and tools we champion include:


  • Community engagement and advocacy: Listening to the local community - including parents and children - building trust, and working together to influence local authorities for change. Genuine community engagement means integrating a diversity of voices so that our shared spaces reflect our complex identities and needs. It begins by asking the right questions: what is a street for, and whom should it serve?


  • Healthy School Streets: A small, practical intervention that instantly transforms the space around schools into a welcoming and safe environment. By introducing temporary traffic restrictions at pick-up and drop-off times, children are free to play, socialise, and simply be children in front of their schools.


  • Human-centred urban design: Redesigning streets to support wellbeing and the many dimensions of public life. We believe that when streets are designed with children’s needs at their core, they naturally become safer, healthier, and more welcoming for everyone.


Here in NW3 (Camden), where many schools are clustered within a small area, we see a unique opportunity. With more than 10,000 children enrolled locally, we can raise awareness, shift behaviours, and build momentum for more people-centered streets.



Let’s Build Streets for People, Not for Cars


Our streets belong to everyone, not just to cars and their demand to be safely stored and moved. A car centric approach prioritises one dimension and one category of road users over everything else. Reclaiming our streets means thinking about the many dimensions and users of our roads and fostering fairness and connection.

We’d love to hear from you:


  • What was your experience of getting to school as a child? Has it changed for your children today?


  • Do you think independent mobility for children is still possible in our cities - and if not, what’s holding us back?


  • What changes would you make to your local street in order for it to reflect your needs and sense of belonging?


  • How can communities and local governments work better together to redesign streets around people rather than vehicles?


If you have thoughts, stories, or ideas, we’d love to hear them in the comments — or drop us a line at info@greenschoolruns.org.


Together, let’s reimagine our streets and make places for children and communities to move, explore, and belong.



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