Street and city

School street

Emergingtraffic-calmed school zone · school street · calle escolar (Spanish)

school secondary school kindergarten neighborhood educational campus

A street in front of a school that is closed or calmed for vehicles at drop-off and pick-up times, so children can arrive on foot, by bicycle or by scooter.

Solves

What it solves

It removes the car from where most children gather, lowering the risk of being hit and the fumes from engines. It turns the school gate into a place to wait, talk and play.

Today

Restrict car access at drop-off and pick-up times, with permits for residents and emergencies. Add trees, benches and wide sidewalks to make waiting pleasant and mark the closures clearly so they are respected.

Common mistake

Putting up only a speed limit sign while cars keep double-parking in front of the gate.

Tomorrow

A school street can stay closed all day and become a neighborhood plaza with shade, water and play. Measured on a child’s scale, the city gains safe routes for walking to school alone, which also serve older people.

Fact In the initial trial in a London borough, the council reported 30% more children walking to school and 51% more cycling.

Where it comes from

1Italian Alpine city Bolzano, Italy, late 1980s
Streets in front of schools were closed for the first time at drop-off and pick-up times.
2The children’s city Fano, Italy, 1991
The educator Francesco Tonucci proposed taking children as the measure of the city and giving them back the street, starting with being able to move around the neighborhood on their own.
3British school streets East Lothian and Edinburgh, Scotland, 2014 and 2015
They arrived in the United Kingdom, which today has more than half of the world’s school streets.
4We protect schools Barcelona, Spain, since 2020
The city began calming traffic and expanding space to linger and greenery in front of dozens of schools each year.

Appears in the routes

Sources