Since 2013, we have hosted 12 Open Streets Days in five parts of Cape Town, attracting between 3 000 and 15 000 participants at each one. We have done this in partnership with the City’s Transport and Urban Development Authority, local organisations, a large number of volunteers and, most importantly, members of the public who participate by attending.
While we continue to grow the programme, we are now turning our attention to sharing our knowledge and experience, thanks to the support of the WWF Nedbank Green Trust.
The Open Streets Toolkit includes info on how to get started, engage stakeholders, plan the operations, and much more. It goes in chronological order and has a step-by-step work plan. Throughout, there are checklists as well as links to extra resources online.The process of producing it entailed a good deal of research, internal discussions, self-evaluation, a fabulous designer and a workshop with a group of collaborators who helped us distil the essential information and organise it in a way that was user-friendly.
Open Streets Days have proven to be a way of suspending reality and showing us a glimpse of an alternative future for streets. Reimagining them as places for people to meet, interact and play helps show how a city can be more socially integrated. We hope that by producing this toolkit the concept will grow across Cape Town.
The toolkit takes inspiration from similar publications produced by other Open Streets movements around the world. OSCT has used its own context (in Cape Town) and experience to put it together, but has designed it to be useful to anyone, anywhere. It is open source and available to anyone who asks for it.
According to Louise Naudé, programme manager for Low-carbon Frameworks at WWF: “Transport – mainly private cars – is the second-biggest and fastest-growing source of the emissions causing climate change. The way we repurpose our roads is an important dimension of shifting to a climate-friendly transport sector. The knowledge gained by OSCT in Cape Town is an invaluable resource we can share with other SA cities working to make their streets more liveable, walkable and sustainable. This toolkit can also be a way to connect with other African cities and to unearth practices that are unique to our realities and yet build on global experiences.”
We hope more communities will join us on a journey to create shared spaces that help bridge the social and spatial divides of our cities.
To download a PDF of the Open Streets Toolkit, please click here. A limited amount of hard copies is available.
Email info@openstreets.co.za for more info.
This content was made possible through the support of the WWF Nedbank Green Trust.
