Initiative details
For a long time our roads have prioritized movement, and their design was left to traffic engineers.
But with the many challenges we face, streets need to serve more purposes beyond traffic flow. Streets are shared public spaces that should serve more goals (SDGs) and should reflect the diverse needs of all users. To turn this conversation around we launched “De rechtvaardige straat”(The Just Street).
The five guiding principles of the manifesto reframe how streets can be viewed and shaped. Creating a more inclusive, safe, and a more social and vibrant space between buildings. Safety is emphasized through thoughtful design that invites walking, cycling, and lingering without fear. Key elements include variety, accessibility, and active public participation in shaping the street environment.
Supported by thousands of citizens and hundreds of organizations, we offer this community actionable tools: inspiring content, events, and an annual action week. Together, we reclaim the street as a truly public space—where even drivers feel safe from making unintended mistakes, and all users can coexist with confidence and care.
Our goal is nothing less than systemic change: towards streets that foster safety, equity, and livability for everyone. Through De Rechtvaardige Straat, we are building a new understanding of what purpose streets serve and in parallel outline a new standard for road design and use—one that values every life and every journey. More safe streets as a result of more just and human centered streets.
But with the many challenges we face, streets need to serve more purposes beyond traffic flow. Streets are shared public spaces that should serve more goals (SDGs) and should reflect the diverse needs of all users. To turn this conversation around we launched “De rechtvaardige straat”(The Just Street).
The five guiding principles of the manifesto reframe how streets can be viewed and shaped. Creating a more inclusive, safe, and a more social and vibrant space between buildings. Safety is emphasized through thoughtful design that invites walking, cycling, and lingering without fear. Key elements include variety, accessibility, and active public participation in shaping the street environment.
Supported by thousands of citizens and hundreds of organizations, we offer this community actionable tools: inspiring content, events, and an annual action week. Together, we reclaim the street as a truly public space—where even drivers feel safe from making unintended mistakes, and all users can coexist with confidence and care.
Our goal is nothing less than systemic change: towards streets that foster safety, equity, and livability for everyone. Through De Rechtvaardige Straat, we are building a new understanding of what purpose streets serve and in parallel outline a new standard for road design and use—one that values every life and every journey. More safe streets as a result of more just and human centered streets.
Initiative date
to
Who was/is your target audience?
Policy makers
Public authorities
Children 0-16
Young adults 17-25
Adults
Parents
Seniors
Car drivers
Educational staff
Cyclists
Powered two wheeler riders (excluding micromobility)
Pedestrians
Topic
Create awareness
Education in school or in community organizations
Knowledge building and sharing
Provide alternative solutions
Organisation details
De Rechtvaardige STraat
Association
Netherlands
The Netherlands
Contact name
Frank Kwanten
Telephone number
+31 6 55785086
frank@thelabofthought.co
Website link
Project activities
If you work together with external partners, list the most important partners and briefly describe their role.
De Rechtvaardige Straat is powered not only by grassroots energy, but by a growing alliance of partners across the country, we work closely with key alliance partners who bring expertise, networks, and credibility to our mission:
Cyclists’ Union Netherlands (Fietsersbond) - Mobilizes a community of over 70,000 active members, advocating for safer cycling infrastructure and greater awareness of street justice at the local level.
JN Youth Doctors (Artsen Jeugdgezondheidszorg Nederland) - Brings a vital health perspective, advocating for street design that supports children’s physical activity, social development, and mental wellbeing.
Dutch Friends of the Earth (Stichting Natuur & Milieu) - Contributes thought leadership and engages broad public and policy audiences, advancing solutions that address street safety, sustainability, and climate resilience.
The Lab Of Thought - A creative think tank challenging conventional thinking about public space through research, urban experiments, and provocations that inspire systemic change.
BAM Infra - A major construction firm committed to the belief that current infrastructure is neither safe nor future-proof. Through our alliance, they work on reshaping street design to meet the standards of a healthy, just, and lasting built environment.
We also proudly collaborate with the Dutch Children’s Mayors network and the organization behind it, helping bring the voices of children directly into the conversation about what our streets should look and feel like.
Cyclists’ Union Netherlands (Fietsersbond) - Mobilizes a community of over 70,000 active members, advocating for safer cycling infrastructure and greater awareness of street justice at the local level.
JN Youth Doctors (Artsen Jeugdgezondheidszorg Nederland) - Brings a vital health perspective, advocating for street design that supports children’s physical activity, social development, and mental wellbeing.
Dutch Friends of the Earth (Stichting Natuur & Milieu) - Contributes thought leadership and engages broad public and policy audiences, advancing solutions that address street safety, sustainability, and climate resilience.
The Lab Of Thought - A creative think tank challenging conventional thinking about public space through research, urban experiments, and provocations that inspire systemic change.
BAM Infra - A major construction firm committed to the belief that current infrastructure is neither safe nor future-proof. Through our alliance, they work on reshaping street design to meet the standards of a healthy, just, and lasting built environment.
We also proudly collaborate with the Dutch Children’s Mayors network and the organization behind it, helping bring the voices of children directly into the conversation about what our streets should look and feel like.
Please describe the project activities you carried/are carrying out and the time period over which these were implemented.
De Rechtvaardige Straat (The Just Street) is a national initiative transforming how we think about street safety—not just as a technical or infrastructural issue, but as a matter of fairness, inclusivity, and civic responsibility.
1. A Movement with a Media Platform
At the heart of our initiative is a powerful media platform that informs, inspires, and equips a growing community of changemakers. Through our website, newsletter, and social media channels like LinkedIn, we share practical tools, success stories, and thought leadership on creating just and safe streets.
Our manifesto, co-created with experts and advocates from urban design, government, traffic safety, and civil society, outlines five core principles for equitable street design. It forms a unifying vision that individuals and organizations can endorse and act upon.
2. Mobilizing Through the “Sign the Manifesto” Campaign
We translate ideas into action with our “Sign the Manifesto” campaign. It mobilizes public and professional support, encouraging municipalities, communities, and institutions to implement the manifesto’s principles in real-world projects and policy. This effort culminates annually in the Week van de Rechtvaardige Straat—a national week of engagement, featuring open streets, workshops, and community-led events designed to make street justice tangible and actionable.
3. Creating Safe, Just Streets with Local Governments
We build strategic collaborations with host cities that are committed to redesigning their streets to be not only safer but more inclusive, pleasant, and just. In the past two years alone, these partnerships have led to 40+ events and activations across the Netherlands—bringing together stakeholders from every level to co-create meaningful change.
4. Shifting the Narrative Through Media and Advocacy
To sustain long-term change, we focus on influencing public discourse. Through op-eds, interviews, campaigns, and media collaborations, we challenge outdated ideas about mobility and street design, and promote a future where streets serve everyone—especially the most vulnerable.
1. A Movement with a Media Platform
At the heart of our initiative is a powerful media platform that informs, inspires, and equips a growing community of changemakers. Through our website, newsletter, and social media channels like LinkedIn, we share practical tools, success stories, and thought leadership on creating just and safe streets.
Our manifesto, co-created with experts and advocates from urban design, government, traffic safety, and civil society, outlines five core principles for equitable street design. It forms a unifying vision that individuals and organizations can endorse and act upon.
2. Mobilizing Through the “Sign the Manifesto” Campaign
We translate ideas into action with our “Sign the Manifesto” campaign. It mobilizes public and professional support, encouraging municipalities, communities, and institutions to implement the manifesto’s principles in real-world projects and policy. This effort culminates annually in the Week van de Rechtvaardige Straat—a national week of engagement, featuring open streets, workshops, and community-led events designed to make street justice tangible and actionable.
3. Creating Safe, Just Streets with Local Governments
We build strategic collaborations with host cities that are committed to redesigning their streets to be not only safer but more inclusive, pleasant, and just. In the past two years alone, these partnerships have led to 40+ events and activations across the Netherlands—bringing together stakeholders from every level to co-create meaningful change.
4. Shifting the Narrative Through Media and Advocacy
To sustain long-term change, we focus on influencing public discourse. Through op-eds, interviews, campaigns, and media collaborations, we challenge outdated ideas about mobility and street design, and promote a future where streets serve everyone—especially the most vulnerable.
In terms of implementation, what worked well and what challenges did you need to overcome?
A central feature of the Week van de Rechtvaardige Straat is our widely recognized election for the Most Just and Most Unjust Street in the Netherlands. Open to everyone, the campaign invites citizens to nominate streets that reflect—or fail to reflect—values of safety, inclusivity, and livability. Final decisions are made through public voting, with tens of thousands of participants and nominations from nearly 100 municipalities across all Dutch provinces in 2024.
This election is more than symbolic. It surfaces structural safety issues, highlights good practices, and reveals a strong public desire for better streets. It has received national media attention, including features on current affairs TV, and has become a powerful entry point for people who might not otherwise engage in street safety activism.
The campaign shifts the public narrative: streets are no longer seen only as transit corridors but as shared public spaces that must be safe for all.
Still, some Week activities—despite excellent content—see limited participation. In response, we plan to: Expand digital and manifesto-driven outreach, Strengthen local partnerships and invest in communications that drive in-person engagement.
We’re also developing a scalable template for other European countries aiming to launch similar movements—several of which have already reached out (within our Just Streets consortium in the Horizon 2020 program).
This election is more than symbolic. It surfaces structural safety issues, highlights good practices, and reveals a strong public desire for better streets. It has received national media attention, including features on current affairs TV, and has become a powerful entry point for people who might not otherwise engage in street safety activism.
The campaign shifts the public narrative: streets are no longer seen only as transit corridors but as shared public spaces that must be safe for all.
Still, some Week activities—despite excellent content—see limited participation. In response, we plan to: Expand digital and manifesto-driven outreach, Strengthen local partnerships and invest in communications that drive in-person engagement.
We’re also developing a scalable template for other European countries aiming to launch similar movements—several of which have already reached out (within our Just Streets consortium in the Horizon 2020 program).
Evaluation
Please summarise how you have evaluated the initiative’s impact (e.g. social media reach, survey, feedback forms, statistics).
At De Rechtvaardige Straat, we measure impact not just in numbers, but in engagement, empowerment, and change. Our media outputs—whether through posts, newsletters, or press coverage—consistently generate strong public response, reflecting a growing appetite for a new kind of conversation about our streets.
Crucially, our community is not passive. Through our newsletter and platforms, we regularly invite feedback—and receive dozens of direct, heartfelt messages from individuals, residents’ groups, and professionals sharing how our tools, stories, or campaigns have made a real difference in their local efforts.
The movement continues to grow:
- Nearly 3,000 people have signed our manifesto, endorsing a shared vision for just and safe streets.
- Our LinkedIn page is followed by over 2,500 professionals, and
- Our broader network of social media channels reaches hundreds of thousands of Dutch citizens annually.
We translate this reach into tangible support. For every street nominated as an “unjust street” in our national election, we offer a customized support kit—a practical, accessible resource that enables residents to take action in their own neighborhoods. These are not symbolic gestures; they are designed to catalyze real, local change.
Beyond immediate outcomes, we are seeing clear signs of cultural and political impact. Ideas once considered fringe—like motonormativity, equitable traffic safety, or the right to linger and play in public space—are now entering mainstream policy and media discourse. The Overton window is shifting, and De Rechtvaardige Straat is helping move it.
We regularly hear from urban professionals, policymakers, and residents that our platform gives voice to long-overlooked concerns—and more importantly, provides the language, tools, and alliances needed to turn frustration into progress. Arjan Spaans, Deputy Mayor or the City of Zwolle stated: "This is exactly what we need for the future of our streets."
Crucially, our community is not passive. Through our newsletter and platforms, we regularly invite feedback—and receive dozens of direct, heartfelt messages from individuals, residents’ groups, and professionals sharing how our tools, stories, or campaigns have made a real difference in their local efforts.
The movement continues to grow:
- Nearly 3,000 people have signed our manifesto, endorsing a shared vision for just and safe streets.
- Our LinkedIn page is followed by over 2,500 professionals, and
- Our broader network of social media channels reaches hundreds of thousands of Dutch citizens annually.
We translate this reach into tangible support. For every street nominated as an “unjust street” in our national election, we offer a customized support kit—a practical, accessible resource that enables residents to take action in their own neighborhoods. These are not symbolic gestures; they are designed to catalyze real, local change.
Beyond immediate outcomes, we are seeing clear signs of cultural and political impact. Ideas once considered fringe—like motonormativity, equitable traffic safety, or the right to linger and play in public space—are now entering mainstream policy and media discourse. The Overton window is shifting, and De Rechtvaardige Straat is helping move it.
We regularly hear from urban professionals, policymakers, and residents that our platform gives voice to long-overlooked concerns—and more importantly, provides the language, tools, and alliances needed to turn frustration into progress. Arjan Spaans, Deputy Mayor or the City of Zwolle stated: "This is exactly what we need for the future of our streets."
What has been the effect of the activities?
De Rechtvaardige Straat is reshaping the national conversation about streets—not from a car-centric perspective, but as shared public spaces that intersect with the climate crisis, public health, and social justice. Increasingly, people recognize that traditional road safety frameworks are too narrow. A justice-oriented approach is urgently needed—and this is the space we occupy.
We introduce new narratives, new communities, and integrated thinking, expanding the road safety agenda with a human-centered, future-ready vision. And it’s being adopted:
- Ten Dutch municipalities have officially endorsed our manifesto.
- Five have committed to designing streets based on the needs of an eight-year-old child—a powerful and actionable interpretation of our principles.
Our platform also enables strategic alignment across sectors. Organizations like Duurzaam Den Haag and the Beweegvriendelijke Schoolomgeving launched campaigns during the Week, amplifying their impact through our movement.
Media outlets—from NRC Handelsblad to EenVandaag and De Telegraaf—highlight our role in shaping a new public narrative. Residents are mobilizing, local governments are reaching out, and internationally, our work has been featured in The New York Times and academic journals.
We’re not just imagining safer streets—we’re giving people the tools to build them now. And they are taking them up!
We introduce new narratives, new communities, and integrated thinking, expanding the road safety agenda with a human-centered, future-ready vision. And it’s being adopted:
- Ten Dutch municipalities have officially endorsed our manifesto.
- Five have committed to designing streets based on the needs of an eight-year-old child—a powerful and actionable interpretation of our principles.
Our platform also enables strategic alignment across sectors. Organizations like Duurzaam Den Haag and the Beweegvriendelijke Schoolomgeving launched campaigns during the Week, amplifying their impact through our movement.
Media outlets—from NRC Handelsblad to EenVandaag and De Telegraaf—highlight our role in shaping a new public narrative. Residents are mobilizing, local governments are reaching out, and internationally, our work has been featured in The New York Times and academic journals.
We’re not just imagining safer streets—we’re giving people the tools to build them now. And they are taking them up!
Please briefly explain why your initiative is a good example of improving road safety.
For over a century, we’ve tried to improve road safety by educating individuals and redesigning infrastructure—yet the core system remains intact. People continue to kill each other in streets, not due to individual failure, but because of the system itself.
De Rechtvaardige Straat introduces a new narrative. We confront motonormativity—the ingrained belief that streets are for cars first—and challenge the structures that sustain it. The goal is not to make danger more tolerable, but to reduce the danger altogether. Any other will lead to normalizing road danger. That shift in thinking opens space for public support, cultural change, and policy innovation.
We broaden the conversation to reflect the full potential of streets—as spaces for living, meeting, playing, and moving safely. This reframing positions safety not as the end goal, but as a natural outcome of just design. It also draws in new communities, new stakeholders, and new funding streams, enriching the road safety field with fresh energy and broader coalitions.
Our model—combining a national platform with a dedicated week of action—is simple, scalable, and adaptable. We are now developing materials to support international replication in Belgium and Germany with the ambition of launching a European Week of the Just Street by 2027. As co-founders of the Horizon 2020 JUST STREETS research program, we are already working to scale our lessons across Europe.
De Rechtvaardige Straat introduces a new narrative. We confront motonormativity—the ingrained belief that streets are for cars first—and challenge the structures that sustain it. The goal is not to make danger more tolerable, but to reduce the danger altogether. Any other will lead to normalizing road danger. That shift in thinking opens space for public support, cultural change, and policy innovation.
We broaden the conversation to reflect the full potential of streets—as spaces for living, meeting, playing, and moving safely. This reframing positions safety not as the end goal, but as a natural outcome of just design. It also draws in new communities, new stakeholders, and new funding streams, enriching the road safety field with fresh energy and broader coalitions.
Our model—combining a national platform with a dedicated week of action—is simple, scalable, and adaptable. We are now developing materials to support international replication in Belgium and Germany with the ambition of launching a European Week of the Just Street by 2027. As co-founders of the Horizon 2020 JUST STREETS research program, we are already working to scale our lessons across Europe.
How have you shared information about your project and its results?
De Rechtvaardige Straat shares its impact widely—through media, events, and partnerships—ensuring our work informs public discourse and policy. During the Week van de Rechtvaardige Straat and via our platforms, we reach academics, advocates, and citizens with practical insights and data.
We contribute to scientific research and collaborate with the JUST STREET project, amplifying mutual impact. Our live manifesto counter shows where principles are applied nationwide. With keynote presentations in Flanders and Bratislava, and media coverage across sectors—from health to mobility—we shape a new narrative: streets should be safe, inclusive, and just for all. Our results drive both action and dialogue.
We contribute to scientific research and collaborate with the JUST STREET project, amplifying mutual impact. Our live manifesto counter shows where principles are applied nationwide. With keynote presentations in Flanders and Bratislava, and media coverage across sectors—from health to mobility—we shape a new narrative: streets should be safe, inclusive, and just for all. Our results drive both action and dialogue.
Supporting materials
