The War on Cars Streets for Play, Streets for Freedom
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Apr 28, 2026 Alice Ferguson, UK researcher and Playing Out founder, and Tim Gill, writer and advocate for children’s outdoor freedom, imagine streets as places for play and mobility. They propose a radical child-focused approach to transport planning. They discuss how car-dominated design limits children’s movement, the politics and history behind road norms, and practical ways to reclaim streets for community life.
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Children Are Routinely Invisible In Street Planning
- Children routinely get forgotten in built environment and transport policy decisions.
- Alice Ferguson argues a child lens requires turning planning on its head to prioritize children's needs in streets and neighbourhoods.
Cars Are A Structural Threat To Child Health
- Car-dominated environments undermine the physical and mental health of children and prevent healthy childhood development.
- Tim Gill frames cars as an introduced object that makes healthy outdoor play and movement 'very difficult' across contexts.
Child Road Deaths Are Massive And Largely Invisible
- Tens of thousands of children are killed or injured by motorists each year, yet this harm is underreported and normalized.
- Alice cites 75,000 child pedestrian and cyclist deaths age 0–19 annually and calls this largely invisible collateral damage.
