Child-friendly neighbourhoods

Inspiration & Ideas: Global Measures

A Brief Guide on Global Measures

This page supplies a list of potential Metamorphosis Global measures and interventions as existing global case studies.  It also provides a type of ‘best practice’ guide of common or innovative schemes that could help enable the transformation to child-friendly neighbourhoods in Low/Medium-Income Countries (L/MICs). These case studies cover a wider spectrum, although typically involve initiatives that (for example):

  1.  create more vibrant and liveable city spaces for children (and adults) to play and socialise;
  2. encourage sustainable travel and reduce motor vehicle use;
  3. involve children (and other stakeholders) authentically in the planning, design and/or decision-making process; and/or
  4. educational initiatives

Each case study listed can comprise up to seven descriptive sub-sections and they can be accessed either by clicking on the button “Tell me more” or via the hyperlink on the intervention name or photo.

Each measure and/or intervention is also given a rating according to four ‘scale of implementation’ criteria that will help cities in their implementation planning. These ratings cover: (i) implementation effort – 💪 (arm muscle); (ii) costs – £ (money); (iii) level of applicability – 🌏 (globe) and (iv) empowerment – 🚸 (children crossing).  The criteria are rated on an indicative scale from 1 to 3, where 3 is high and 1 is low, with each rating denoted by representative symbols.

A group of cycling enthusiasts deployed toilet plungers along an unprotected bike lane in Omaha’s Aksarben neighbourhood to make the street safer for cyclists. This initiative from the bottom-up approach can also be applied on roads near a school that do not have an elevated or protected footpath for pedestrians.

Indicative Effort
Cost
Empowerment
Applicability
💪 
£
🚸🚸🚸
🌏🌏🌏

In recent years pedestrian crossings in cities around the world have been transformed with colourful or unusual designs to improve road safety, create street arts and celebrate special events. Thus, this type of interventions can allow people to engage in social gatherings, as well as to improve road safety.

Indicative Effort
Cost
Empowerment
Applicability
💪
£
🚸
🌏🌏

Launched by the local government, the asphalt of the highway N357 in Friesland, Netherlands, has a rumble strip pattern on it that plays the Frysian anthem when cars drive over it. As a vehicle accelerates, so does the melody. Similar initiatives can be employed to alert drivers of potential safety hazards in critical areas, such as schools.

Indicative Effort
Cost
Empowerment
Applicability
💪 💪 
££
🚸
🌏

In many places around the world, street painting is an event conducted by the local communities to celebrate a special occasion on annual basis. This type of initiatives can bring together the local neighbourhoods including children and adults and permit them to engage in a social gather with friends and families to reclaim ownership of their public space.

Indicative Effort
Cost
Empowerment
Applicability
💪 💪
£
🚸🚸
🌏🌏

The aim of this intervention is to allow children to reclaim ownership of streets for outdoor activities and to allow them to interact at the neighbourhood level to increase urban children’s moderate-to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) and decrease sedentary time during vacations.

Indicative Effort
Cost
Empowerment
Applicability
💪 
£
🚸🚸
🌏🌏🌏

Recent developments in the field of urban street design have seen the emergence of the concepts of “integrated street design and shared space, which include a range of streetscape treatments aiming at creating a better public realm by asserting the function of streets as places and designing more to a scale aimed at easier pedestrian movement and lower vehicle speeds. This contrasts the traditional approach, according to which pedestrians and traffic are kept apart through street furniture features, or even grade separation.

Indicative Effort
Cost
Empowerment
Applicability
💪 💪 💪
£££
🚸🚸
🌏🌏🌏

The research of Mike Biddulph and others indicates that the introduction of Home Zone design qualities has contributed to improved liveability in established residential streets in a number of areas in the UK.

Indicative Effort
Cost
Empowerment
Applicability
💪 
£
🚸🚸
🌏🌏🌏

Other useful materials and Global Measures can be accessed via EU Metamorphosis link: http://www.metamorphosis-project.eu/sites/default/files/downloads/Metamorphosis_D2.2_v1.1.pdf