We like to think our towns and cities offer us a high quality
of life. But do they really?
Designing Towns for Children
Rather than looking at towns and cities from our own perspectives as
adults and (almost always) drivers, we would do far better to look at
them through the eyes of a child.
All the cars rushing past their houses put children's health and even
lives at risk.
Car exhaust can intensify respiratory problems like asthma and
bronchitis, can be harmful to the blood and coronary system, and can
even cause cancer.
And whilst one car driving into another car is quite bad enough, if
the other party happens to be a child who left home without their 2
tonnes of armour then the results are horrific.
How can we justify this? How can getting to our destinations
quickly be more important than a child's life?
Our modern obsession with the car brings social problems too.
Children should be out playing in the street, interacting with the
other kids, exploring the world around them. This is how they grow
into healthy, well rounded adults.
Instead we confine them to the house, ferry them to school and back
again in little metal boxes, and then wonder why childhood obesity,
mental and social problems are all on the up.
To paraphrase Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogotá: a city is
more civilized not when traffic flows freely but when a child on a
tricycle can move about everywhere easily and safely.
And what works for children will work for everyone.
