Bristol has been named one of the top ten European cities for child-friendly streets, and the highest ranking of any UK city, according to new rankings released by Clean Cities.
After analysing 36 major cities across Europe, Clean Cities has released their findings, with Bristol coming eighth place overall.
Cities were ranked on:
- The share of primary schools with School Streets
- The share of road network with a 30 km/h speed limit or lower
- The ratio of protected cycling infrastructure to the total road network
Bristol scored highly thanks to 80 per cent of its transport network having reduced speed limits and its growing number of School Streets.
Councillor Ed Plowden, Bristol City Council’s Chair of the Transport and Connectivity Committee, said:
I am delighted to see that we are heading in the right direction and that work to prioritise safer streets for our children to walk, wheel and cycle to school is showing results.
The ability of children to find freedom by moving around our city safely is so important to their development. Despite being such a hilly city, we have lots of committed cyclists, but we know there is plenty more we need to do to support them.
Through major transport corridor projects, such as the city centre scheme, we are planning to add many more miles of segregated cycleways across Bristol in the coming years and we are working to improve key active travel routes, such as Concorde Way.
Barbara Stoll, Senior Director for Clean Cities Campaign, commented:
Children are less free to get around town and less active than they once were, especially girls. But our ranking shows that parents, teachers and city administrations can make huge and rapid progress.”
Oliver Lord, UK Head of Clean Cities Campaign, added: “We’ve spent decades building cities around dangerous and polluting cars, which has eroded the health and independence of young people. Our latest data shows that Bristol is one of the best cities in Europe at delivering child friendly mobility and London is a trailblazer for school streets.
Oliver Lord, UK Head of Clean Cities Campaign, added:
We’ve spent decades building cities around dangerous and polluting cars, which has eroded the health and independence of young people.
Our latest data shows that Bristol is one of the best cities in Europe at delivering child friendly mobility and London is a trailblazer for school streets.
The new rankings have been published just a couple of weeks before World Bike Day (Saturday 31 May 2025) which celebrates cycling for fun and transport as well as promoting a positive safety message to young riders.
Councillor Plowden continued:
This year’s World Bike Day offers us an opportunity to celebrate our progress towards improving safety on our streets and look ahead to the work underway across our city to encourage more active travel.
I hope that this ranking and the recognition of our efforts to date will ensure that the importance of safety on our streets is reinforced in people’s minds and we all continue to do our best to maintain a safe environment for our children.
Clean Cities is Europe’s largest network of organisations that campaign to create child-friendly cities with more space for people as well as an acceleration in the electrification of road transport.