Bulgaria

This fall, I had the unique opportunity to travel to Bulgaria, where traffic gardens have become a national priority. What I discovered there was nothing short of inspiring: thousands of surface-applied traffic gardens installed in practically every school across the country.

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Meeting with the Road Safety Authority

 

My visit began in downtown Sofia with a warm welcome from the Chairman of the Road Safety Authority. We had a wonderful discussion about the country’s ambitious efforts to improve children’s road safety education through traffic gardens. Their office is located beside one of Sofia’s most striking churches and other historic landmarks—an inspiring setting for their important work.

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Visiting Traffic Gardens in Sofia and Plovdiv

 

From there, I set out to see traffic gardens in action. In Sofia and Plovdiv, I toured five different school-based sites. Each location reinforced the same message: traffic gardens are a standard, expected part of children’s learning experience. These colorful networks painted directly on schoolyards and playgrounds bring road safety to life for students every day.

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A Model for the World

 

What struck me most was the scale and consistency of Bulgaria’s approach. Instead of a handful of pilot projects or isolated examples, traffic gardens are everywhere—woven into the fabric of education. It’s a model that many countries, including the U.S., could learn from as we strive to give every child the chance to practice safe walking and biking in a supportive environment.

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This September, I travelled to Bulgaria, a country with a fascinating history (there were two Bulgarian empires), warm hospitality, and great food and wine.  But my trip wasn’t about typical sightseeing. I went to learn how traffic gardens have become central to children’s road-safety education. What I found was remarkable: state and municipal kindergartens and schools are installing traffic gardens at an extraordinary pace, with more than 1,200 surface-applied sites already completed.

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My visit began in downtown Sofia, where the Road Safety Authority’s office overlooks the beautiful Saint Nedelya Cathedral (https://www.lonelyplanet.com/bulgaria/sofia/attractions/sveta-nedelya-cathedral/a/poi-sig/423977/358779) . Finding the offices was its own small adventure, and we received a warm welcome from Malina Kroumova, Chairperson of the State Agency Road Safety, and Ralitsa Vasileva, Head of Communications. We then had a great conversation about Bulgaria’s ambitious effort to bring road safety education to every child by scaling traffic gardens nationwide.

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What stood out most was how systematically the program has been implemented. By partnering with the Ministry of Education, who handles applications, funding, and materials distribution, the State Agency Road Safety ensures every school can access the guidance, training, and curriculum needed to pair a traffic garden with a school program. Flexible design templates, scaled drawings, and a scaling key make layouts easy to install and adapt, while teacher training and educational materials support use both outdoors and in classrooms. Schools apply for funding directly through the Ministry, streamlining communication and adoption. Because many Bulgarian children walk or bike to their local school with a family member, the emphasis is strongly on road-safety education and is intended to reach parents as well.

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After that, I set out to see traffic gardens in action. In both Sofia and Plovdiv, I visited every site within easy travel distance - a fun mini-adventure into neighborhoods far from tourist paths. My first stop was South Park (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vQEbP8Squg) , a large urban park in Sofia. Installed in 2021, it’s unusual since most Bulgarian traffic gardens are more typically on school grounds, but it was wonderful to watch the steady stream of families arriving with bikes and scooters from the surrounding apartment blocks.

As the search continued, I quickly realized all I needed to do was look for schools as there was almost always a traffic garden. Although schools were out of session, the grounds were open, so I wandered through each one, taking photos and video as I explored. Many layouts were instantly recognizable from the State Agency Road Safety’s design templates, and in some cases, the designs had been scaled down exactly as the guidance allows. However, there were others which were clearly designed locally - for example the surface-painted layout above in Sofia wound  all around the school buildings.

The traffic garden on the left is in Plovdiv (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plovdiv) , a beautiful historic city packed with Roman ruins about four hours by train from Sofia. The layout follows one of the State Agency Road Safety’s standard patterns and is installed on a soft-surface material.

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Here’s another traffic garden I visited in a Plovdiv neighborhood. It also features a soft-surface material, but with a distinctly local design. This photo shows only a small glimpse of the full layout.

I even stumbled across this traffic garden on my way to a museum (they really are all over!). Notice the tiled surface similar to what I’ve seen at schools in the Netherlands, but not typically found in the U.S.

What impressed me was the scale and consistency of Bulgaria’s approach, and the strong partnership between the road safety and education agencies. Instead of traffic gardens appearing only in a few lucky school districts, they are fully embedded in the national education system. Their model is one we could learn from - develop strong materials and policy, then scale by using the existing education infrastructure. It’s a straightforward way to reach every child by making this learning part of everyday schooling.

 

A special thank you also to Virginia Mullen, who sent the opening photo (and others) from a visit to her hometown this summer.