Open Streets Cape Town

Open Streets Cape Town is a citizen-driven initiative working to change how people use, perceive and experience streets. We do this via our programme of Open Streets Days, as well as advocacy campaigns.

A group of volunteers founded Open Streets Cape Town (OSCT) in 2012, and registered a non-profit organisation in 2013. It enjoys the full support of the City of Cape Town, as well as civil society organisations and many individual volunteers from across the city. OSCT has its roots in street action, as well as research, and has grown as a dynamic and organic movement of street-minded citizens.

OSCT 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 take inspiration from 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.

View our manifesto to see more on our vision for streets.