"A city that moves at the pace of its people rather than its cars is a city that understands progress." - Catherine Conlon, Senior Medical Officer, HSE, Cork. Former Director of Human Health and Nutrition at safefood. www.echolive.ie/corkviews/ar...

Cork Views: Fewer cars will make new Cork city village such an idyllic spot

Cork City Council has exciting, innovative plans for a village within the historic core of the city. But the plans need to retain their ambition to ...

echolive.ie

"Too often when we think about play in a planning context, we default to thinking about structured activity and providing spaces that are designated and equipped. - Gemma Hyde, Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) 1 of 2

🎉A DAY FOR PLAY! 🎉 Wishing our 362 communities running Playful Streets across the globe 🇮🇪🇺🇸🇬🇧🇺🇦🇿🇦🇵🇰🇲🇽🇩🇰🌍 a very ✨Happy International Day of Play✨ Thanks to ChangeX & The LEGO Foundation for their incredible support 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀 are now in ‣ 9 countries 🇮🇪🇺🇸🇬🇧🇺🇦🇿🇦🇵🇰🇲🇽🇩🇰🇻🇳 ‣ 362 communities ‣ 5 languages 🇬🇧🇺🇦🇻🇳🇪🇸🇩🇰

✨Befores → Afters✨ of The Gaps, Sallynoggin, May 2025. "What makes this project truly unique is that it is entirely community led." - Frank Curran, Chief Executive, DRLCC In partnership with @dlrcc.bsky.social @aplayfulcity.bsky.social & the National Transport Authority

Trial a Strand Road cycle path for 12 months Dublin City Council won its legal case after years of Court battles. We cannot listen to those who are trying to block quick action on climate change, road safety, and increasing mobility options. Please sign and share!

Trial a Strand Road cycle path for 12 months

I've just signed this petition calling on the council to trial a Strand Road cycle path for 12 months. Will you sign too?

my.uplift.ie

Why is it that road safety campaigns so often emphasise high-vis & helmets, yet rarely directly address the dangerous design of vehicles — especially the height & bluntness of "SUV" bonnets that put pedestrians, particularly children, at far greater risk? www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/n...

Being hit by an SUV increases the likelihood of death or serious injury | LSHTM

The likelihood of a pedestrian or cyclist being fatally injured is 44% higher if they are hit by a sports utility vehicle (SUV) or light truck vehicle (LTV) compared with smaller passenger cars, new

lshtm.ac.uk

We are adding more and more vehicles, of increasing size, into a finite physical space that was designed for fewer, and smaller, vehicles. In Ireland, we went from approx.700,000 cars in 1985 (for a pop of 3.5m) to 2.5m cars in 2023 (pop. 5million).

Duncan Jones (aka Merrion) (he/him)@duncanjonesmerrion.bsky.social · last yr.

The whole "my country is full" nonsense is quite a lazy trope but there is no doubt that things feel fuller than ever - and the reason for that is not anything to do with net migration. It is cars. In the UK the number of cars registered is going up by 17% per year and now stands at 41.2million.

What if a tree could talk—and not just talk, but share its experience of the world around it? The Talking Tree project by Droga5 Dublin & Accenture Song brings a 150-year-old horse chestnut tree to life using localized AI & real-time environmental data. www.rte.ie/news/2025/04...

Project gives 200-year-old Dublin tree 'a voice'

If a tree could talk, what would it say? And what would you say to it?

rte.ie

The OECD "Cities for All Ages" report provides a structured & evidence-based approach for governments to cultivate urban environments that are inclusive & supportive for residents of all ages. The full report: www.oecd.org/en/publicati...

"Design Justice begins with a simple premise: the built environment is never neutral. Cities are designed, & design is power. Who gets to shape a city? Who benefits from its architecture, its transport, its housing? Who is displaced, erased, pushed to the margins?" www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

"The objective is therefore not to create specific facilities for children, but to consider the place of young people in order to improve public spaces for the benefit of all." theconversation.com/pourquoi-les...

🚀👏 A collaborative project between #NationalTransportAuthority, #dlrCC & @aplayfulcity.bsky.social bringing local community in Sallynoggin together to reimagine an underutilised laneway as a beautiful and meaningful space for all those who live, work & play there. www.dlrcoco.ie/news/general...

Situations like these are among the key reasons why A Playful City was founded! R.Kikuo Johnson’s "Upstairs, Downstairs" cover for The New Yorker captures a reality that too many parents and caregivers face: cities are not always designed with young children—or those pushing strollers—in mind.

Which came first: the chicken (deadly driving) or the egg (a culture that normalizes it)?

Does the Media Help Create the Traffic Violence Crisis? — Streetsblog USA

Which came first: the chicken (deadly driving) or the egg (a culture that normalizes it)?

usa.streetsblog.org

Every £1 spent on community sport and physical activity generates over £4 for the English economy and society. www.sportengland.org/news-and-ins...

New figures illustrate impact of investing in physical activity | Sport England

Research commissioned by Sport England finds that every £1 spent on community sport and physical activity generates over £4 for the English economy and society.

sportengland.org

"66% of you voted "in favor" of greening and pedestrianizing 500 new streets across all neighborhoods. In the coming weeks, a consultation will be held to define the list of streets and begin the city's transformation!"

Ville de Paris@paris.fr · 2y ago

Vous avez été 66% à vous prononcer “pour” végétaliser et rendre piétonnes 500 nouvelles rues réparties dans tous les quartiers. Dans les prochaines semaines, une concertation sera ouverte pour définir la liste des rues et débuter la transformation de la Ville !

Streets designed for play, not just car drivers! There's a vision for a 1km-long ‘play link’ for families, offering a dedicated space for recreation. It's all about putting people first & creating a truly liveable and playful community... www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater...

Manchester's new 'woodland town' where the streets will be for kids, not cars

“We want safe, compact streets"

manchestereveningnews.co.uk

"a new narrative is key to how we might reimagine the future, given that some 60% of us live in towns. In this I turned to Cathal Mulry, director at A Playful City and UCC lecturer in urban design futures ..." www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

Cork city rose to the occasion during covid, but is starting to lose its shine

How we use our city and town centres changed a lot during the pandemic — and they haven't fully recovered

irishexaminer.com

This is the exact opposite of what should be happening if we want children to be outside, moving, healthy and happy! We and allies will be strongly opposing this change.

Town and Country Planning Association@thetcpa.bsky.social · 2y ago

We are concerned that government is considering removing @sport-england-se.bsky.social as a statutory consultee in planning applications. Sport England isn’t just about formal sport, it works to help *everyone* be more active. This is why it matters… for #people, for the #economy, for the #NHS:

I keep seeing the same common theme: the impossible standards placed on anyone advocating changes to our transport system. Question car dependency and you're expected to address every inequality and injustice at the same time; but support car dependency and you'll never be challenged on these issues

What makes a street exciting, relaxing, or stressful to walk on? A new study presents a systematic way to analyse how urban design shapes emotions. ✨ Lively streets excite 🎭 🌿 Green spaces relax 🍃 🏢 Monotony bores 🚗 Traffic stress 😨 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"Time spent playing outdoors has declined by 50% in a generation & fewer than three in ten children say that they play out on the street." www.centreforyounglives.org.uk/news-centre/...

Inquiry Report Calls On The Government To Restore School Playtime Amid Warning That Play Is Being Squeezed Out Of Children’s Lives — Play Commission

The Raising the Nation Play Commission, a year-long independent inquiry into why play is critical to the wellbeing of children in England, publishes its Interim Report, ‘State of Play’. The Commission...

centreforyounglives.org.uk

"Active by day and dream-like at dusk, it glows like a lantern. In contrast to the austere monuments that populate the parks, it reminds us we should never take ourselves too seriously." www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/peter-c...

Peter Cook submits plans for ‘mischievous’ second 2025 Serpentine pavilion

Designs by Peter Cook for a second 2025 Serpentine pavilion, focused on play and taking Zaha Hadid’s ‘pioneering spirit’ as inspiration, have been revealed in planning documents

architectsjournal.co.uk

HOT RESEARCH NEWS! Motonormativity ("car brain") is a bias that stops people making rational judgements about driving en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motonor... Our new study shows where this bias comes from AND how it makes people think they're odd for supporting changes to the transport system 🧵

"Whether we're active or sedentary really plays a profound role in our health status... the evidence suggests your environment can have big implications for your social & emotional wellbeing too." www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

Why your neighborhood matters more for your health than you think

Do you want to be happier, healthier, wealthier, and more creative? Experts say there’s one quality you should prioritize in choosing where to live.

nationalgeographic.com

AN URBAN ALLEGORY A beautiful child's eye vision of the city in all its (extra)ordinariness from director Alice Rohrwacher (LA CHIMERA) & renowned street artist JR. Worth the watch 📽️ youtu.be/5XpztZXCP_U?...

AN URBAN ALLEGORY | Official Trailer | Hand-picked by MUBI

YouTube video by MUBI

youtu.be

"Ignoring children’s needs doesn’t just make streets unsafe for them, this also affects their independence/health and access to education/extracurricular activities. When kids can’t safely walk or bike, they miss out on opportunities to be active, explore and play.", americawalks.org/better-stree...

Freedom to Move: Who Do Streets Serve When Cars Come Before Children? America Walks

Why does our transportation system fail to serve kids. Learn how building better streets for kids benefits everyone’s well-being.

americawalks.org

Children's independent mobility is not just a matter of individual choices, but a product of the environments we create. Shift the focus from simply mitigating risks for children in dangerous environments to creating environments that are safe & supportive of children's independence.

Good street planning & design has a multitude of benefits including: 💨less energy use and fewer emissions 🤝 better community connections ❤️ better health outcomes 🌻 improved amenity 🤫 less noise 🙂improved transport affordability 🔄 reduced traffic congestion 🛍️ benefits to local businesses 1 of 2

This 35-page bureaucratic document redefined the use of America’s streets, tailoring them to the benefit of the automotive industry. www.fastcompany.com/91267013/100...

How a century-old traffic policy made streets deadly for pedestrians

L.A.'s Traffic Ordinance quickly became the template across the country.

fastcompany.com