One of the best parts of the trip so far for me as a professional has been the opportunity to visit the Trafiklegepladsen (Traffic Playground) in Fælledparken in Copenhagen. Ever since I heard about the "Traffic Garden" in Utrech back when I was first starting work as the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) coordinator I knew I wanted to build one in Eugene. The blend of bicycle safety education, city planning, placemaking, and play sounded like the perfect combination of creating something great for the community. Over the years I've done little bits here and there to learn more and formalize ideas of what a great "Traffic Garden" might look like (and where it might be) in Eugene. There have been some UO students who have done preliminary studies and reports into the idea and we've had some productive meetings with City of Eugene Parks and Open Space about the concept as well.
Being here, experiencing it, and hearing from one of the lead coordinators (who has been there for over 30 years) has helped firm up a couple key pieces for me around the concept as well as an overall perspective on what "bike safety education" and the meaning of "building bicycle culture" is.
To start off I wanted to share the description of what the Traffic Playground is from their website:
"The traffic playground is a public playground with play and learning in the center. The focus is on cycling culture in line with Copenhagen's desire to be the world's best cycling city. Bicycle and traffic safety training takes place in a child-sized traffic town, where children can learn to move in traffic under a safe environment. The playground is staffed, and during opening hours the children can borrow small bicycles (if they are under 130 cm.) Or balance bicycles.
Children are also welcome to ride their own bikes.
The traffic city is decorated with small roads that wind in and out between lawns, bushes and trees. Everything on the small practice roads has been reduced to suit the children's perspective - here are small light signals, mini-signs, lanes, road strips, sidewalks, pedestrian areas, cycle paths, gas pump and much more.
For smaller children there is a small, fenced traffic lane where the little ones can borrow tricycles.
At the other end of the traffic playground there is a classic playground with swings, climbing nets and a large sandbox with shovels, buckets, plastic cars and sand mills.
Takeaway food can be eaten at tables and benches and under the canopy.
The traffic playground is fenced, but has access 24 hours a day, all year round. So both in the evening and on weekends, children and parents are also welcome to use the site.
We offer bicycle games and loans of bicycles for day care children from 3-6 years and schools from Kindergarten to 1st grade.
Institutions, schools (Kindergarten and 1st grade) and all private groups must book an appointment in advance for the playground's capacity.
The playground can sometimes be booked on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays 09.30-11.00 or 11.30-13.00 (except during school holidays).
The playground can unfortunately not be booked for private use, eg for birthdays.
Groups on skateboards, roller skates and scooters are referred to the Skateboard track or the scooter track in Fælledparken."
I love this concept of PLAY and LEARNING that is at the core of the Traffic Playground. This area was built in 1972 (the year I was born) and has evolved into what it is today. Until just about 10 years ago they had pedal go-carts that were a core piece of the programming. They did that because it was "how it was done" throughout Europe, based off one of the original traffic gardens built in England in the 1950s. What they realized was that the go-carts were not only dangerous (they weighed a lot and took a lot of staffing to make sure everyone was safe and using them right, plus the maintenance) but they weren't teaching kids what they really wanted, which was to fall in love with cycling and to be safe cyclists. So they got rid of the go-carts but they were pretty much stuck with the space (pavement) that was there and the form factor that had been created around the go-carts. Even in the Traffic Playground they had built their city around the car and were stuck with design decisions based on that :-)
But I digress.
The other main interesting change that came with the move away from the go-carts was the shift to focusing less on "traffic safety" and more on play and 'bicycle culture'. They started working less with kids in 4th and 5th grades and more with kids in kindergarten and 1st grades and teaching them to ride pedal bikes (using balance bikes to start). The emphasis became "learn to ride" rather than "traffic skills". It's an interesting comparison to something that is happening for us locally. Since Sarah Mazze has taken over the 4j SRTS program she has been putting more time and energy into the 'learn to ride' work that we had started to do. Each year in our 6th grade Bike Safety Education classes we were seeing more and more kids needing to learn how to ride and Sarah decided that we needed to catch this way before 6th grade when kids were too embarrassed or simply uninterested in learning. She started formalizing it and now has a great program in the elementary schools as well as keeping our regular BSE program in middle schools rolling (with support from City of Eugene Recreation).
I think this key piece of building the bike culture with young kids (and families) is the core of the work we need to be doing more of in our region. I still think, especially for where we are culturally and for our infrastructure, we need to be teaching the 8-hour BSE classes we're teaching but we need to focus even more resources on building the "family bike culture" that projects like SRTS, 'learn to ride', Kidical Mass, and a Traffic Playground would support.
I've always seen an important part of the "Traffic Garden" concept as being fun and play, with elements like a pump track, hills, skills, and other elements adding to the "educational" aspect of traffic lights, signs, paint, roundabouts, etc. That's why I also like the idea of transitioning to calling them "Traffic Playgrounds". Brings a new meaning to the idea of "go play in traffic"!!
I have more to say on this concept but I need to get to a professionals panel and want to get this first "real post" up so here it is! :-)
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