“Playing in the street is a right”: European Climate Pact wants more outdoor spaces for children in Portugal

O European Climate Pact wants to create areas for children to play in the street again, an appeal he will make to National Association of Portuguese Municipalities this weekend, in an initiative in which hundreds of families will go for a bike ride.

“It doesn’t make any sense that today Portuguese children live most of their time indoors and can’t play in the street like their parents and grandparents did when they were their age”, said the ambassador for mobility in Portugal of the European Climate Pact, António Gonçalves Pereira.

António Gonçalves Pereira considered it to be “it is imperative that mayors in Portugal create areas in cities, and in medium-sized and smaller towns, where this can happen” and maintained that “playing in the street is a right, it is a condition of children’s citizenship that democratic local power must guarantee”.

The proposal to create areas for children to play in the street will be presented on Sunday morning, during the initiative “Kidical Mass” (critical mass of children), in which they are expected hundreds of families cycling, on a route starting at Quinta da Alfarrobeira, in Benfica, and ending at Quinta das Conchas, in Lumiar, in Lisbon.

Main claims

According to a press release, “what will be proposed to municipal councils across the country is that, in a first phase, they create areas next to existing schools where it is safe for children to cross the roads without the company of adults and play in its immediate vicinity.”

“What we demand, first and foremost, are safe school environments free from air pollution, noise and motorized traffic”said António Gonçalves Pereira, one of the organizers of “Kidical Mass”, who also defended being “it is essential to guarantee safe routes to schools, on foot and by bicycle, child-friendly road traffic laws with a limit of 30 kilometers/hour in localities and on most streets with people”.

On the other hand, it is also necessary “wide, continuous cycle paths with safe crossings, on main roads”like this “more public space dedicated to active mobility and to being and playing”, added the ambassador for mobility in Portugal of the European Climate Pact.

“Mayors must look at the child population as citizens with the right to freedom, independence and security”highlighted the coordinator of Ecomood Portugal – Association for the Solidarity Promotion of Sustainability in Human Mobility and one of the organizers of “Kidical Mass”.

The European Climate Pact is a central initiative of the European Green Deal promoted by the European Union and aims to mobilize communities towards investments, activities and processes that are progressively less dependent on fossil fuels, promoting the transition to safer and healthier ways of life, and for a sustainable economy.

“Space for the next generation”

“Kidical Mass” is a global movement that seeks to respond and give visibility to the need and desire of families to use active modes in their daily travel, such as cycling, walking, rollerblading or skateboarding.

This movement, which has as its motto “Space for the next generation”, demands the improvement of cycling infrastructure and the pacification of the streetsmainly in areas surrounding schools.

A “Kidical Mass” initiative takes place across Europewhereas in Portugal has been taking place since April 27th in more than 30 locations, “with thousands of children and parents demonstrating for safer streets”.

“Kidical Mass Portugal” has been ongoing, since 2022, when the project started in the country, petition “Safe cities for all people”, addressed to the Government and Parliamentin which he asks the change of the “maximum speed limit from 50 km/h to 30 km/h in urban areas, where motorized traffic interacts with pedestrians and bicycle users”.

With Lusa