School-Driven Transformation for Resilient, Engaged and Equitable Youth-Centric 15- Minute Neighbourhoods

Across Europe, cities are seeking concrete pathways to implement the 15-minute city model – restructuring urban life around proximity, active travel, and equitable access to daily needs. School streets – temporary or permanent restrictions of motorised traffic around schools – have emerged as a powerful, low-cost intervention that can catalyse this transformation. By reclaiming streets for children, families, and communities, school streets support multiple dimensions of the 15-minute city: they create safer and more accessible environments for active travel; strengthen social interaction at the neighbourhood level; and reduce air and noise pollution. Their visibility, symbolic value, and connection to daily routines make them uniquely positioned to build public support for broader shifts in mobility culture and spatial planning. Despite their potential, two major shortcomings currently limit the systemic impact of school streets. First, most implementations remain fragmented, time-limited, and disconnected from long-term planning frameworks – tactical rather than strategic. Second, children and youth – the intended beneficiaries – are rarely meaningfully engaged in their design or evaluation, missing the opportunity to promote civic agency, intergenerational inclusion, and democratic innovation in urban planning.
STREET-15 will generate new, generalisable knowledge to overcome these limitations. It repositions school streets not as isolated safety projects, but as embedded street transition experiments that can support wider mobility transitions and institutional change. The project has five core objectives:

To design and test governance models that embed school streets within long-term spatial and mobility strategies.
To develop participatory and arts-based tools that empower children and young people as co-creators of urban environments.
To create multi-dimensional assessment frameworks that capture accessibility, autonomy, well-being, safety, and equity...