The History of Traffic Gardens
The first Safety Town was created in Mansfield, Ohio, in 1937 by Patrol Officer Fred Boals, introducing the concept of traffic gardens to the United States. Inspired by Safety Town Stories, he painted a miniature streetscape in a local park with scaled-down roads, portable stop signs, working traffic signals, and small buildings. The child-sized learning environment quickly gained national attention from the AAA, federal transportation officials, and the press.
A similar concept had emerged in the United Kingdom, where portable road safety layouts appeared in school playgrounds during the mid-1930s. Just months after Mansfield opened, Model Traffic Area No. 1, a six-acre permanent installation with streets and working traffic signals, was opened in Tottenham by the Minister for Transport. While the Tottenham site attracted thousands of children before closing during World War II, the simpler Mansfield painted model spread steadily across Midwestern communities.
In 1964, the National Safety Town Center formalized the movement, helping programs grow from about 20 to 700 by 1983. At its peak, the Center reported 3,500 programs worldwide, and several 1970s Safety Towns, including Portsmouth and Eisenhower Park, remain active today.
The modern term 'traffic garden' emerged in 2010 following a Federal Highway Administration report featuring a Swiss example, the first federal use of the term. A popular 2012 StreetFilms video showcasing Utrecht's traffic garden further expanded awareness among transportation professionals and bicycle advocates of the concept and term.
Traffic gardens began gaining momentum nationwide, particularly after Seattle's White Center Traffic Garden opened in 2015. As the National Safety Town Center's influence declined, new installations increasingly grew from school cycling initiatives and bicycle advocacy under names such as traffic garden, traffic playground, and bike garden although safety town also continued, particularly in places with a historic knowledge of the concept.
Today's traffic gardens typically feature colorful pavement markings rather than the miniature asphalt roadways common in 1970s and 1980s safety towns. Design and installation guides and professional-grade stencils have made projects easier to build, and school districts are increasingly adopting them. Washington, D.C. has 12, Seattle has 20+, and Milwaukee has one at each of its 85 elementary schools. We have identified more than 400 traffic gardens across North America and thousands worldwide. While the terminology and designs differ and have evolved, the central idea remains unchanged: creating safe, interactive small-scale street networks where children and other new learners develop traffic skills through play, practice, and instruction.
Check out our collection of Vintage Newsreels and Newspaper Articles!
The Traffic School! Germany (1931)
Silent movie footage of schoolgirls attending a traffic safety class in 1931 Germany. This is the earliest film that we have found of students being taught using traffic models, although in this case, it is a tabletop model. The girls are then tested to assess their understanding and ensure the success of their traffic safety training.
Earliest Footage of a Mobile Installation, Leeds, U.K. (1936)
This short segment from a 1936 Pathé film reel showcases a road safety class held in the playground of Beckett Street School in Leeds, Yorkshire, U.K. Children in pedal cars, bicycles, and tricycles navigate a marked road area, stopping at zebra crossings to let little girls with toy prams pass. The scene features electrically controlled traffic lights and Belisha beacons, all under the supervision of a female teacher. All of the elements are portable and it appears that the markings are temporary.
Earliest Footage of Permanent Facility, Essex, U.K. (1937)
This is the earliest footage we have found of a traffic garden facility anywhere in the world. The clip showcases students at the Brentwood Training School engaging in hands-on learning within a miniature traffic system created on the school's pathways and driveway. In the 1930s, these residential schools were institutions designed primarily for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, including orphans, children in care, and those from impoverished families. The curriculum typically included basic education, vocational training, and life skills, and many schools had large outdoor spaces for physical activity. Note also that 'Safety First' was
the 'Vision Zero' of it's day.
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Launch of Model Traffic Area No. 1, London, U.K. (1938)
Watch this fascinating newsreel showcasing the opening ceremony for Model Traffic Area No. 1 at Lordship Recreation Ground in Tottenham, London! The Transport Minister of the time, joined by dignitaries, delivers a speech explaining the initiative's purpose and then we see lots of children happily using the facility. While the language may feel old-fashioned today, many of the ideas remain remarkably relevant today. We have paid a visit to this site and it continues to be in operation today although not at the levels when it was first opened.
Portable Installation for Safety Program, West Ham, U.K. (1946)
This vintage newsreel features a costumed Metropolitan Policeman, "Safety Sam," teaching road safety to young teenage girls on a school playground in West Ham, London. This model stands out for its use of full-scale vehicles and adults acting out unsafe road behaviors, creating a scenario more akin to an outdoor play. The footage captures some of the girls applying these lessons by navigating a the portable street course designed to simulate real streets.
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Educational Video featuring
Jimmy Stewart,
Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A. (1950s)
In 1954, Chevrolet dealers released "Tomorrow's Drivers," a documentary narrated by James Stewart that was reportedly very popular at the time. The film highlights an innovative educational program at Garfield Elementary School in Arizona, where young students operated pedal-powered Chevrolet cars on a miniature road course. By immersing students in a scaled-down city environment on their school playground, the initiative aimed to prepare them for future responsibilities as drivers and pedestrians.
Permanent Model Roadway in Action, Eastcote, U.K. (1954)
A 1954 newsreel captures children learning road safety at a model traffic area. Children first study the road signs at a blackboard before practicing on a miniature roadway with traffic lights, zebra crossings, and realistic signs. The footage then shows the young cyclists stopping for pedestrians, heeding "Halt Major Road Ahead" signs, and following "Slow" markings.
Children's Safety Village in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (1965)
This footage shows children playing at the Children's Safety Village in 1950s Hamilton, Canada. The facility offered a dedicated space to learn traffic safety, with young learners navigating in pedal cars guided by both policemen and policewomen. Located at a newly built shopping mall, the village reflected a mid-century trend of blending public education with commercial and suburban development.
Clontarf Traffic School, Dublin, Ireland (1970s)
The Clontarf Traffic School was a cherished destination for Dublin schoolchildren throughout the 1970s and '80s, providing a hands-on introduction to road safety. Our director, Fionnuala, is a proud alumna of this beloved program. While the original traffic school is no longer in operation, its legacy lives on, inspiring modern Learn-2-Cycle initiatives in Dublin. The traffic garden featured a network of miniature streets where students took turns navigating as cyclists, pedestrians, and pedal car drivers.
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Dublin Kids talking about Clontarf Traffic School (1981)
The 1981 TV footage of the Clontarf Traffic School is particularly notable for its voice-over narration, where a Garda explains the school's operation while viewers see children actively using the facility just as he describes. The segment also features fantastic interviews with local Dublin schoolboys. In the final shot, the camera pulls back to reveal the full scale of the facility in action, with the school boys navigating the miniature roads in pedal cars, on bicycles, and as pedestrians.
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National Safety Town Center (1986)
National Safety Town programs gained widespread popularity in the United States by the 1980s. This video showcases a Safety Town in action and captures the program’s immersive approach, highlighting how children learned real-world traffic rules in a controlled, engaging setting.
Radio Piece on History of Kew Traffic School, Melbourne, Australia
The Kew Traffic School has been a cherished part of Melbourne’s eastern suburbs since it opened in 1957. Designed to replicate real road conditions, this miniature traffic park has played a vital role in education for generations—and continues to do so today. This radio segment captures the fond memories of Melburnians who learned the rules of the road at Kew, from riding pedal cars to earning the coveted Best Pedestrian award.
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Popular StreetFilms Story about Utrecht Traffic Garden (2012)
In 2012, StreetFilms released a widely viewed video about Utrecht’s traffic garden in the Netherlands, reintroducing the concept of these small-scale streetscapes to a broader U.S. audience. Showcasing how children in a dedicated, immersive space, the video captured the imagination of many in the transportation planning world sparking renewed interest in their potential for U.S. communities.