Discover Traffic Gardens is a small business committed to providing services, resources, and expertise to support the growth of traffic gardens and demonstrate their value for communities. Our goal is to create engaging spaces where children and new riders can build independent walking and biking skills, while learning about safe and thoughtful street design. In addition to providing an overview of our services to help bring these transformative spaces to your community, this website serves as an information hub on traffic gardens across the U.S. and beyond.
NOTE: Our pop-up shop is currently closed but will reopen in spring 2025.
WElcome!
What is a traffic garden?
A traffic garden is a scaled-down street network with simplified traffic features where children and new riders can practice, learn, and play in a motor-vehicle-free environment. Known by names like safety town, traffic playground, or learn-to-cycle track, these spaces offer a fun, hands-on way to learn biking, road safety, and traffic rules. Traffic gardens help build confidence and teach lifelong skills in a safe, controlled setting. Their joy-filled design fosters community, making them cherished local spaces where lasting memories are created.
In the U.S., many children lack access to safe streets, limiting their ability to navigate and experience real-world traffic environments. The rate of children learning to bike has dropped by over 50% in two decades, widening the gap in essential skills and independence. Traffic gardens address this by providing safe, supportive spaces for teaching biking and hosting programs, while fostering awareness of thoughtful street design and the importance of creating public streets that accommodate all users.
Watch this 2-minute traffic garden explainer!
Great 1-minute video of a traffic garden in action!
Traffic Garden Maps
These maps are ongoing projects to locate and track traffic gardens worldwide. They also support university research on these installations and their impact. Please contact Fionnuala with any new information.
A Typology of Traffic Gardens: Understanding Variations
There is no single 'typical' traffic garden; instead, there are many variations in the creation, layout, and appearance of these small sets of streets. The specific design of traffic gardens varies based on the types of users, skills being taught, available space, set up needs and budget resources. Currently in the United States, most traffic gardens being installed are of the surface-painted variety, although historically, many involved constructing actual miniature asphalt streets. Although designs and implementations may vary, they all share a common goal: to create a safe environment for walking, rolling, and riding while evoking the experience of being immersed in a miniature world.
TRAFFIC GARDEN COURTs
Traffic Garden Courts are outdoor networks of miniature streets created using permanent paint-type products applied to hard surfaces. These networks simulate streets with pavement markings, and traffic signs may be stenciled on the surface or added as portable features.
TRAFFIC GARDEN PARKs
Traffic Garden Parks are permanent outdoor facilities designed as mini-street networks, featuring asphalt or concrete streets. These streets may include curbs, pavement markings, and installed traffic signs. In some cases, they also feature buildings.
temporary Traffic Gardens
Pop-up traffic gardens and temporary traffic gardens are both examples of street networks with traffic features applied to outdoor hard surfaces that can be readily removed or that wear away over a few weeks or months.
Mobile Traffic Gardens
A mobile traffic garden is a portable set of materials assembled into a kit that can be used to create a small- scale network of streets with traffic features either indoors or outdoors and that can be easily dismantled and packed away after a session or program.
Traffic Garden Features
Traffic gardens vary greatly, from simple painted lines on parking lots to detailed, small-scale cities. These differences in implementation result in a wide range of features across installations. With no standardized design guidance, these spaces often showcase unique elements that reflect local character and the specific efforts of their original champions. The innate design flexibility of traffic gardens results in many unique and creative installations, some with murals and art, and many fostering community involvement. Below are features typically found in traffic gardens. All the sample photos showcase real-life installations.
PAINTED STREETS
Some traffic gardens are created by using specialized paint and coating materials to recreate a scaled-down version of a street network on a hard surface. They can incorporate a variety of street types, from simple...
PAVED STREETS
Some traffic gardens feature asphalt or concrete streets, either with or without curbs. These streets are scaled-down replicas of real-world roads, with widths varying significantly across...
INTERSECTIONS
Intersections are a key feature, vital for both learning and appearance. They help new riders advance from simply biking to better understanding how streets work by introducing points of interaction that mimic real-world scenarios. These intersections...
Traffic SIGNS
Traffic signs are essential in traffic gardens as they convey the information about how intersections and streets operate, complementing the information provided by the lines and pavement markings. They are key also to creating the realistic "traffic feel," helping...
Information Signs
Many traffic gardens feature a prominent, colorful information sign at or near the entrance, varying in style and content. These signs play an important role in guiding users and ensuring a positive experience. Typically, they start with a welcome message to set...
Preventing unauthorized vehicle access
When a traffic garden is situated so that the site potentially allows cars or trucks to cross, measures must be implemented to prevent unauthorized people from driving vehicles on the mini-streets. This is...
Art & Murals
Traffic Gardens, especially those painted on surfaces, provide an excellent canvas for adding artwork. Many sites have incorporated vibrant surface murals, transforming the space into a collaborative work of public art that celebrates local culture and enhances visual appeal. These murals not only enrich the learning environment but also create opportunities...
Mini-BUILDINGS
Some Traffic Garden Courts or Traffic Garden Parks feature buildings to create the look and feel of a small town or city. These structures range from basic painted outlines on asphalt to simple models of community buildings, and occasionally detailed replicas of local landmarks, like those in Knoxville’s Safety City. Often, these models are created through community efforts, such as Eagle...
Rolling EQUIPMENT
Typically traffic gardens in the U.S. require children to bring their own rolling devices, such as balance bikes, pedal bikes, and scooters. In contrast, school-based traffic gardens often supply balance bikes, pedal bikes, and adaptive bikes for their programs...
STORAGE
Storage is crucial for traffic gardens with portable equipment, for both protecting equipment and keeping everything organized and secure. Solutions typically include onsite lockable sheds or larger units like modified shipping containers that house items such as portable...
