Vision Zero Traffic Gardens Ribbon Cutting

On Wednesday, March 27, 2019, DDOT, DCPS, George Mason University and the DCPS students celebrated the opening of traffic gardens at Neval Thomas Elementary.

DDOT awarded a Vision Zero Grant to George Mason University’s School of Education and Human Development for $150,000 to install traffic gardens at two DCPS elementary schools. GMU collaborated with the District of Columbia Public Schools’ Biking in the Park program and develop and evaluate one permanent and one temporary traffic garden at two DCPS school sites. The traffic gardens will teach the rules of the road to children as they learn to balance and navigate on a bicycle, in an environment that simulates the transportation system without the threat of motor vehicles.

A traffic garden is a miniature town made up of small-sized streets where children learn about roadways and safety. They are comfortable places to practice biking and learn about streets away from motorized traffic. The most visible part of these new traffic garden programs are the painted streets with roadway signs that have been installed on both playgrounds but other key aspects are newly-developed classroom instructional lessons and teacher training. Development of the traffic garden design and the associated learning materials and trainings involved input from early childhood and PE staff at both schools as well extensive community engagement with students and parents. Now that these traffic gardens have been installed on their playgrounds, students at Maude Aiton and Neval Thomas Elementary Schools are being encouraged to be independent and active users of the streets while playing creatively in their new miniature worlds. An exciting part of this project is the planned research to understand the traffic garden’s impact on students and the community.

The project is a collective effort between George Mason University (project lead, early childhood research, and companion curriculum); Torti Gallas + Partners (designed traffic gardens), and Discover Traffic Gardens (student/parent engagement and facility installation). Additional support from Washington Area Bicyclist Association, Safe Routes to School National Partnership, and Shape DC.

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