For our children's sake, let's rid Britain's residential streets of traffic

Low-traffic neighbourhoods have been proven to work. Now let’s roll them out and reclaim the roads from the rat-run

• Chris Boardman is Greater Manchester’s cycling and walking commissioner

I used to be in a gang. There were 10 of us and we hung out in the street with bikes and footballs. Most days the doorbell would go and it’d be one of our number asking, “Is Chris playing out?” I’d hurriedly pull my shoes on and run out to do what eight-year-olds do.

Hadfield Avenue is where I learned to ride a bike, where I proudly removed the stabilisers before hurtling off with the others to the next road, and then the next. The whole neighbourhood was our playground. It was a perfectly normal thing to do on a British street in the 1970s.

Related: Despite a loud opposing minority, low-traffic neighbourhoods are increasingly popular

Continue reading...

from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2IyCVor