Open Streets Cape Town

Kishan Patel, Max Luu, Sarah Brown, and Kevin Pawlak with OSCT sponsors

Open Streets Cape Town, is an non-government organization working to challenge the paradigm of urban mobility by carrying out campaigns, temporary interventions, dialogues, and walks that raise citizen awareness, sparks public debate, and ultimately drive behavior change around the role of streets in the life of the city. One of the ideas they have considered in the past is rolling out a Car Free Day and requested some input in order to assess the feasibility of such an initiative. To investigate the potential of a Car-Free Day in Cape Town, we conducted archival research on events occurring globally, documented expert stakeholder opinions, and assessed public acceptance of a Car-Free initiative. Analyses revealed key factors for success including growing the initiative, coordinating with existing events to unite sectors of the larger community, motivating a civic response in order to reduce the need for enforcement measures, and addressing potential opposition. Different implementation options can be combined to initiate a successful Car-Free Day.

Car-Free Day: Taking Back the Streets