In an earlier article (May 2017), I stated that traffic calming seems to me to be the most effective strategy that we can use to protect one of our most vulnerable road user groups: children. The intention then was to have a follow up article but this was overtaken by events and I had to write about Regulation 250. I would therefore like to revisit the issue of traffic calming and put forward a case for accelerating the implementation of traffic calming on local streets across urban areas in South Africa. One often hears of the need to keep children off the streets as a way of keeping them safe. This is understandable given the high traffic danger and high number of crimes against children currently being experienced in South Africa. However, in my opinion this is an unfortunate sentiment given the already limited opportunity for both outdoor play and independent mobility by children nowadays. Instead of striving to keep children away from the streets, we should rather be reclaiming our local streets through traffic calming so that they become safe places for our children to play and walk. Continue reading “Reclaim streets instead of taking children off the streets”