Source: European Transport Safety Council, Clean Cities

A recent ranking of European cities published by Clean Cities, “Streets for Kids, Cities for All“, shows that Paris has taken the top spot, scoring highly on three key indicators which enable children to walk, cycle and get around independently.

In the ranking, 36 European cities were assessed on three criteria which support safer travel for children:

• School streets: The share of primary schools within the city area which have implemented permanent or time-based school streets, limiting motorised traffic, at least during drop-off and pick-up times.
• Safe speeds: A score based on the share of the total road network with a maximum speed of 30km/h (20mph).
• Protected cycling infrastructure: A score based on the ratio of protected cycling infrastructure to total road network length.

Paris achieved the highest scores across all three indicators, giving a total overall score of 79%. It has a widespread 30km/h speed limit (89% score), a relatively new and growing protected cycle lane network (48% score), and traffic restrictions near schools (25% score). Other high-ranking cities include Amsterdam (63%), Antwerp (62%) and Brussels (56%).

The full report, which can be accessed here, dives into greater detail, highlighting individual initiatives and successes in various cities and countries. The report notes that, alongside earlier pioneers such as Amsterdam and Copenhagen, cities including Paris, Brussels and London “have achieved remarkable progress in just the past 10 years. This demonstrates that meaningful change is possible within a relatively short period of time.”

The report also notes where improvements are needed; no city in the ranking reaches an A grade (80% or more of the total score), with the absence of city-wide roll-out of school streets seen as a common shortcoming. Eight cities in the ranking are underperformers, receiving grades of E (below 20%) or F (below 10%). Variation between cities in the same countries was also noted, highlighting the critical role of local leadership, vision and long-term commitment and investment.