Children at play / Department of the Environment.

  • Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions
Date:
1973
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Children at play / Department of the Environment. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    53. Some would argue that children will only learn to cope with traffic if they are introduced to it at an early age and that a segregated layout does not give them this opportunity. There is also the question of whether the traffic which is diverted away from one particular area is building up and creating traffic haz- ards in another. An interesting study carried out by the Building Research Station on the location of primary schools in St Albans and Stevenage?* showed that an accident to a child on a major road was more than twice as likely to be serious in Stevenage than St Albans. One reason put forward was that, because of the segregated areas in Stevenage, traffic was firmly channelled into distributor roads and built up speed, whereas at St Albans residential roads could be used as short cuts, thereby cutting down the traffic flow on the major roads. 54. Until research, at present being undertaken by the Depart- ment, can demonstrate more conclusively the effect of segregation on accidents one can only suggest that designers and traffic engineers opt for a compromise solution. This would recognise that where roads are near to dwellings they will be used exten- sively for play even where gardens and safe play areas are provi- ded. Attempts must be made to makeroads as safe as possible for the children by reducing the hazards conducive to accidents, rather than by deciding that complete segregation is the answer at this moment. The Stevenage study?? showed that a new area which was not segregated from traffic had a lower accident rate 32 Percentage of children observed in doorstep locations on each than an older non-traffic-segregated area, indicating that it is possible to decrease accidents in non-traffic-segregated areas with careful design. Paved and access areas 55. Paved areas were a popular play location when situated close to the dwellings. Their popularity seemed to depend on the com- parative accessibility and attraction of roads and access areas. On estates like Fleury Road, which were traffic-segregated and had no communal access areas, paved spaces were by far the most popular location, and two-fifths of all play activities took place on them (Figure 32). At Gloucester Street, Woodhouse and Woodway Lane less than a quarter of the children played on paving. Here the bustle and activities of the estates were centred more on the roads and garage courts than the pedestrian walk- ways. Children were therefore attracted away from the safer paved areas onto the roads and into garage courts which were large enough for many of the more popular activities (Figure 33). 56. On the mixed and medium-rise estates, paved areas were situated more conveniently to the dwellings than were the roads, as all these estates tended towards complete traffic segregation, and significantly more children played on them than on roads estate ESTATES Access areas Paved areas Roads & pavements Gardens Other areas? No. % % % % % LOW RISE Gloucester iy 2 1; a 18 Pees 14 3,087 Woodhouse : A (as i 83636 3,524 Woodway é BRN ee | Be hs Vee 13 1 aa 3,215 Fleury * (iii i ai 13 23 eee 980 MEDIUM RISE St. Mary's 4§ x !0C0UllllCi 3 32 5169 The Bonamy 7 i 83206 : 2 iz” 3,163 Curnock 25 i 8 86«C(sf : 2c 2.846 Royal College 1 233s 18 ° 4g 1,435 Edith 31 1 era 5 ‘ 23 4,861 Acorn ay Gas 11 14 22 3,732 MIXED RISE Park Hill 13 i SOc 4j . 33 4424 Sceaux . as 0) ere 3 0 es 1,732 Canada | aR > RES 10% 1] 33 3.780 Winstanley eas 22 i 14 0 ae 3,562 Warwick 25 13 are 0 23S 8773 * yf