Child-friendly neighbourhoods
Owning the street
Summary
The street along the school will be closed down for a few hours and will be used for playing by the children and for hosting recreational facilities. It will be a community gathering of different ages, especially by schoolchildren, and will thus be a “merry-making” event.
Context
As the streets are usually occupied by vehicles and are almost inaccessible for the children in the city of Dhaka, this measure will provide much-needed access to their very own streets. Usually Dhaka streets are home to traffic jams for large parts of the day, which makes it almost impossible for the children to play on the street to do any sort of activity. This measure can change this very common trend and create a better street environment for the children, thus promoting a strong sense of community, which is often absent. This scheme would have some similarities with Equal Streets and Street Smart schemes in India.
Transformational measures and activities
No cars will be allowed on one stretch of road of the city for a couple of hours. The local people and the students, will then come out onto the streets, and claim the street with bikes, skateboards, cricket bats and footballs. Moreover, children will have the opportunity to play outside, enjoy games and get involved in recreational activities.
Results
The anticipated benefits of the intervention are:
- Having a better feeling of occupying the street by the children.
- Improving the road environment by making it more child-friendly.
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In depth
- Street Smart [Accessed 4 January 2019].