Children & Streets

Children & Streets

From Streets Ahead by Streets Ahead Podcast

April 30, 2026 · 51 min · Season 2 · Episode 40

About this episode

The episode discusses children's access to streets and the effects of car dominance on their health with experts Alice Ferguson and Tim Gill.

This episode of Streets Ahead examines the issue of children’s access to neighbourhood streets, and the impact of car dominance on child health. Discussing the issue with Adam and Laura are: Alice Ferguson , who co-founded play streets charity, Playing Out, in 2011, and ran it for 15 years until it wound up this year. In 2009 Alice and a neighbour developed the idea of a temporary play street and two years later started a charity dedicated to helping others to do the same. This became a UK-wide resident-led movement with a huge impact on perceptions of what streets are for.  Tim Gill, researcher, writer and independent scholar based in London, and the author of two books on child-centred design. These are Urban Playground : How child-friendly urban planning and design can save cities and No Fear : Growing up in a risk averse society. His organisation is Rethinking Childhood https://rethinkingchildhood.com/about/   Alice and Tim have produced a new report, called : Streets for play, streets for freedom: How a “child lens” would transform transport policy . This was born from frustration and outrage that decades of warm words and research around the importance of…

People in this episode

Guests: Alice Ferguson, Tim Gill

Topics covered

  • children's access
  • car dominance
  • child health
  • urban planning
  • transport policy
  • play streets

Keywords

  • children
  • streets
  • car dominance
  • health
  • urban planning
  • play streets
  • transport policy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Playing Out, Rethinking Childhood

Books & works: Urban Playground, No Fear, Streets for play, streets for freedom: How a “child lens” would transform transport policy

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