Children’s Play in their Local Neighborhoods: Rediscovering the Value of Residential Streets

Abstract

Residential streets have the potential to be a critically important space for children’s recreation, arguably more important for their well-being than the special purpose spaces adults have designed for children’s play. However, not only have residential streets been largely lost to children as play space, they have attracted relatively little attention in children’s geography and related disciplines compared with other urban spaces such as school grounds, playgrounds, and shopping malls. The loss of access to their residential streets has significantly reduced children’s opportunities for creative, self-directed, spontaneous, and interactive play, with negative consequences for their health and well-being. Tranter and Doyle (Int Play J 4:81–97, 1996) made a case for reclaiming the residential street as play space for children. This chapter further develops this case and shows how many of the ideas in this chapter have been taken up in more recent research, and some of their recommendations for policy and practice have been implemented in cities throughout the world. In many cities, there has been a rediscovery of the function of the street beyond its role as a conduit for cars; the street is now seen, legitimately, as a place for social interaction, learning, and play. While cars still dominate most residential streets, the case remains strong for the argument that children’s play on residential streets has immense value for children’s well-being. In addition, reclaiming the street for children is likely to benefit their parents as well as the wider environment and community. These arguments need to be clearly articulated if there is to be a cultural change that allows children, and their right to play, to be seen as more important than the desire of motorists for speed in residential streets.