What Happens When A City Is Designed For Kids And Families

The benefits of a city designed for kids is that it becomes safe, healthy, and a desirable place to live for everyone.  Traffic injuries and fatalities have dropped dramatically, and this city now has lowest crime rate in a decade

 

What Happens to Kid Culture When You Close the Streets to Cars

JAIME VELAZQUEZ 

In the Spanish city Pontevedra, a family-friendly “pedestrianization” policy has helped increase the population of kids, despite the country’s low birth rates.

“By restricting traffic and eliminating physical barriers, the city council has redesigned Pontevedra from the sight line of a child. Doing so, Mosquera believes, helps the city address everybody’s needs, especially the disadvantaged. “Where there are children, there are healthy adults,” Mosquera said. The policy, which has been expanding for almost two decades now, has had many impacts on the community.”

“The crime rate has gone down, too, adding to the feeling that the city is safe for unattended kids. In 2010, Pontevedra reached its lowest crime rate in a decade with 34 offenses per 1,000 citizens, and last year it reached a new low of 27.”

 

Read more…

https://www.citylab.com/design/2018/11/car-free-pedestrianization-made-pontevedra-spain-kid-friendly/576268/