Open Streets Cape Town

Open Streets Cape Town works to challenge the paradigm of urban mobility by carrying out campaigns, temporary interventions, dialogues and walks that raise citizen awareness, spark public debate, and ultimately drive behaviour change, around the role of streets in the life of the city. Our flagship programme, which launched the organisation, is a series of Open Streets Days that are spreading across Cape Town.

Open Streets Days are inspired by Bogotá’s ‘Ciclovía’, a recreational programme that creates 120km of car-free streets in the Colombian capital every Sunday and public holiday. More than 400 cities around the world have followed suit with their own versions of streets that provide space for recreation and social interaction. This Cape Town initiative is the first formal Open Streets programme in Africa, offering a practical way to help bridge the city’s social and spatial divides.

Our aim is to create shared spaces that bring people together, no matter who we are or how we move, for a more equitable, integrated, safer and vibrant Cape Town. We want streets to embody respect for all.