These are the safest European cities for children

BarcelonaAfter the end of the school year, a group of European NGOs has published its annual report, Clean Cities, on child accessibility in different European cities.

According to this report, Barcelona ranks seventh among the thirty-six European cities evaluated and first in Spain. The research reports that the Catalan city's good result is due to "the previous municipal team's commitment to traffic calming and active mobility" for children. In total, the Catalan capital achieves 50% of the total score, and therefore, the 28 cities at the bottom of Barcelona fail the evaluation conducted by Clean Cities. 28th place, respectively. "They obtain very low scores, especially due to the shortage of school streets and the lack of safe cycling infrastructure," explains the study's executive summary.

The most child-friendly cities

The city that leads the ranking is Paris, for its extensive network of protected cycle lanes, 30 km/h speed limits, and new restricted traffic zones near schools. Amsterdam is in second place, with 525 school streets, the highest number in Europe. Surprisingly, less densely populated cities like Copenhagen did not score as favorably. Copenhagen is in eleventh place for "lack of renovations in child safety and accessibility."

This is the ranking of all the cities evaluated by Clean Cities:

1. Paris (France)
2. Amsterdam (Netherlands)
3. Antwerp (Belgium)
4. Brussels-Capital Region (Belgium)
5. Lyon (France)
6. Helsinki (Finland)
7. Barcelona (Spain)
8. Bristol board (United Kingdom)
9. Oslo (Norway)
10. Ghent (Belgium)
11. Copenhagen (Denmark)
12. Munich (Germany)
13. Vienna (Austria)
14. Greater London (United Kingdom)
15. Berlin (Germany)
16. Bologna (Italy)
17. Cologne (Germany)
18. Hamburg (Germany)
19. Manchester (United Kingdom)
20. Wroclaw (Poland)
21. Ljubljana (Slovenia)
22. Warsaw (Poland)
23. Milan (Italy)
24. Turin (Italy)
25. Prague (Czech Republic)
26. Madrid (Spain)
27. Bratislava (Slovakia)
28. Saragossa (Spain)
29. Florence (Italy)
30. Budapest (Hungary)
31. Marseilles (France)
32. Rome (Italy)
33. Krakow (Poland)
34. Bucharest (Romania)
35. Lisbon (Portugal)
36. Sofia (Bulgaria)

The study took into account three factors to compile this list: the presence of school streets, protected bike lanes, and speed limits of 30 kilometers per hour (19 mph), conditions that reflect the recommendations of organizations such as the United Nations, the WHO, and the OECD, specifically tailored to protect children. In the last decade, more than six thousand children have lost their lives on European roads, which is why the European Union aims to reduce driving speeds of over 50 km/h (31 mph) in inner cities, as it is eight times more deadly for pedestrians than driving at 30 km/h (19 mph).