When was the last time you saw children playing in the street? Or even on footpaths?
Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s in Dublin, it was completely normal for children and teenagers to play on side streets. We played all kinds of games, solo and group ball games, chasing, hopscotch and countless variations that involved complex and ever-shifting rules. Fewer households owned a car, so there was a much lower risk of being hit by one within residential areas. Kids were expected to be outside, and most parents forbade watching too much television because it was generally considered to be bad for a child’s development.
Data from Growing Up in Ireland found 30 per cent of parents reported heavy traffic on their street or road, while one in six Irish parents don’t think it’s safe for their five-year-old child to play outside, even at home, during the day. Conversely, in neighbourhoods parents regard as safe, more children routinely play outside, with a ball, playing games or riding a bike.
There is no doubt that there has been a dramatic transformation in childhood over recent decades, and it has a lot to do with the loss of independence and freedom to play, explore and move about our environment. Perhaps the most visible impact is on how children get to and from school.
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By the time my own children were going to primary school in the 2000s, hardly any children were cycling to school and few were walking independently. After I conducted a travel survey of a primary school in one of Ireland’s regional cities, the principal installed some cycle racks. However, it turned out these were obtained from a neighbouring girls’ secondary school where cycling rates had plummeted to zero. There are now more girls driving themselves to school than cycling, though the An Taisce #AndSheCycles campaign is working to reverse this trend.
While there are 600 schools involved in the Safe Routes To School programme funded by the National Transport Authority, this is a fraction of the nearly 4,000 schools in Ireland. According to the 2022 Census, fewer than 20 per cent of primary schoolchildren walk to school, and even in urban areas, this figure does not exceed 40 per cent. In 1986, by contrast, 45 per cent walked to school while just one in four travelled by car.
Some of this may be explained by changing times but, in the Netherlands, about 75 per cent of children walk or cycle to school. While there are other factors involved, it is perhaps no accident that Dutch children were found to be the happiest in the world in a 2025 Unicef report, while Ireland trailed behind at number 24 – and yet ranked first for “skills”. Do we put more emphasis on reading and writing than outdoor play and freedom, perhaps?
Independence is not just about school journeys. By focusing too much on purposeful trips like travelling to school, we risk overlooking the importance of children being able to move around their neighbourhoods to play, socialise and just be out and about. There is a feedback loop at play: the more traffic there is, the more concerned parents are about safety, so they drive instead, adding to the number of cars on the road. What sort of society have we created if childhood now consists of moving from one indoor experience to another throughout the day, and where screens have become a substitute for social interaction, physical activity and fun?
Before we shift to blaming parents, though, we should ask ourselves who and what streets are for. Are they for the free movement and storage of motor vehicles, or are they for the free movement of people?
Children do not get a say in how their environments are designed and shaped, but their lives are profoundly affected by those decisions – and non-decisions – nonetheless. Researchers have noted that as informal play in public places becomes more and more constrained, it is necessary for parents, communities and local authorities to actively intervene to disrupt social practices in the urban environment to “allow” playful activity in public space. Dublin City Council is a pioneer in having had, for a time, a play officer, along with a 126-page play strategy.
Strategies are only impactful when they are implemented. What would make a difference to children is support – and even pay – for those who lead cycle buses and walking buses of children to school, a practice which is common in Britain, more parks and playgrounds and a general improvement in the quality of our public spaces.
Slowing speeds and reducing the volumes of traffic is key to removing the hazards to children. Numerous studies have found that road safety messaging that focuses on training children will not make a difference to injury or fatality rates without interventions to reduce the biggest hazards: driver behaviour, speeding, road design and the weight and size of vehicles.
Children have no power over the policies that would make the biggest difference to their local environment and their wellbeing. But if they could vote, I’m sure they would vote for more play and less traffic.
TU Dublin is hosting an event on Child-Friendly Cities as part of Open House Dublin on Tuesday, October 12th, 6.30-8pm in Grangegorman campus. Book here.
