Parents face challenges in turning traffic into playgrounds
It is Tuesday 5 pm, on Avenue Léon Houyoux in the Brussels suburb of Auderghem. Five children are playing on the small street, hitting a swingball while bicycles and a small shopping trolley full of toys wait their turn.
A barrier blocks cars from entering; for July and August, this has officially been designated a ‘play street’. Once again, children can enjoy the space from 9 am to 10 pm, at the discretion of the street’s residents.
Every summer, residents anywhere in the Brussels-Capital region can ask their local council to do the same. But as Euractiv discovered, the initiative has not blossomed into the success it set out to be.
In his 2008 book Fighting Traffic, the American historian Peter Norton explains how the motor industry transformed public perception of the street, from a public space into little more than a ‘motorway’.
