Car-free school streets: building a healthier future in Rafelbunyol, Spain

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JA PreventNCD is exploring how car-free areas around schools are planned and implemented, while identifying the barriers and enabling factors that municipalities encounter along the way.

In Rafelbunyol (Valencia, Spain), as well as in other European countries implementing and studying similar interventions (France, Sweden and Norway), efforts are underway to promote Health-Promoting Urban Environments.

The municipality of Rafelbunyol aims to redesign the area surrounding three educational centres. JA PreventNCD supports this process by raising awareness among residents about the health benefits and positive impacts of creating car-free school environments.

This work is important because car-free school surroundings are safer, healthier and can help reduce exposure to risk factors associated with cancer and other non-communicable diseases from an early age. Creating car-free areas around schools can bring multiple benefits for the whole community:

• Cleaner air: less traffic means lower levels of air pollution.
• Less noise: quieter environments can improve concentration and participation in the classroom.
• Active mobility: walking, cycling or scootering helps prevent childhood obesity and encourages healthy habits.
• Safer and more connected communities: streets become places to play, meet and interact.
• Greater equity: shared and inclusive public spaces benefit everyone, particularly the most vulnerable groups.

The pilot, led by Fisabio and the Directorate General for Public Health (DGSP) of the Valencian Community, follows JA PreventNCD's community action methodology. The following steps have already been completed:

Step 0: Selection of the intervention area, focusing on the school district in Rafelbunyol.

Step 1: Establishment of a cross-sector working group involving municipal technical staff, teachers, families' associations (AFA), local organisations, the Public Health Centre of Valencia and DGSP-Fisabio representatives.

Step 2: Participatory needs assessment through semi-structured interviews with target groups, asset mapping and direct observation.

Step 3: Prioritisation of health needs, resulting in a report identifying key needs, barriers and opportunities.

Step 4: Community asset mapping to identify stakeholders and available resources.

Step 5: Co-creation of an action plan to inform and raise awareness about the positive health impacts of car-free school environments.

The conversation about creating safer and healthier school environments in Rafelbunyol has increasingly moved into the public sphere. During the European Mobility Week, the municipality launched an awareness-raising campaign highlighting the benefits of reducing traffic around schools and promoting healthier mobility options.

On 22 September, residents and municipal technical staff took part in an open workshop where they viewed a first draft of the project's awareness-raising video and shared ideas and reflections that helped shape its final version.

Community participation continued on 3 and 4 November, when primary school pupils shared their views on school surroundings and proposed ideas to make them safer, healthier and more welcoming. Before the end of the year, families will also take part in a street-based activity outside the schools to discuss how these spaces can be reclaimed for health, wellbeing and community life.

When the voices of the whole community are included and people participate in co-designing actions, they develop a sense of ownership. This increases the likelihood that initiatives will be sustained over time and adapted to other settings.

JA PreventNCD team working on Healthy Urban Environments

Lilian Castro Rojas
Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research of the Valencian Community (Fisabio), Spain