The Prince's Trust says young people need more spaces to play.
Children used to play in the streets. Today they risk getting run over or duffed in for denting someone's car. The space is no longer theirs. Four decades of research (the late Donald Appleyard a good example) tell us what we already knew: cars damage local social networks (arguably they help build up more distant networks - this may be a point in their favour, but it doesn't diminish the harm).
I'd agreepeople in the cars suffer too. Driving can be fun, but it can also be the alienation de nos jours. But drivers if they suffer, suffer by choice. They control a piece of machinery that casually gives them power. Park across half a narrow pavement for a day and nobody will bother you. Stand in the street for a minute and you're in a world of trouble.
Turning streets from play parks into car parks may or may not be a good trade-off. But the way it happens is not fair. Cars get the space because in a collision they come off better. It's an egregious bit of Macht macht Recht.