Dare To Dream: Car-Free Sundays

Why the Mayor must Dare To Dream

The Mayor’s promised to eliminate serious and fatal road collisions by 2041, massively boost cycling while cutting motor vehicle journeys, and he wants a Net Zero London for climate-changing emissions by 2030, meaning likely cutting motor vehicle journey distance driven in London by a quarter by then too.

Big goals, and in Sadiq’s first two terms he delivered five times more cycle track than his predecessors put together, as well as ULEZ and safer Direct Vision lorries. But in this term so far? It’s a spottier record.

TfL has just begun work on some long delayed and very welcome schemes that enable more cycling and will save lives with 9 Elms in Wandsworth, C4 out past Greenwich, C9 extending through Hounslow and horrific junctions somewhat tamed at Lambeth and Battersea Bridges.

But most of these schemes are years late in arriving and some are a bit too weak, Sadiq, to really get a far wider range of Londoners cycling. That’s why we want the Mayor to Dare To Dream.

We asked a brains trust what he most needed to do and over the next few weeks we’ll explore four big ideas that came top.

Each of these, the Mayor must move forward on alongside other schemes if we’re to turn London from a city where car use stubbornly isn’t going down and cycling remains unsafe and hostile in huge swathes of the city.

We’re asking the Mayor to dare to dream bigger and be bolder. Please take the action today just below and scroll down for more on Car-Free* Sundays.

What are Car-Free* Sundays?

On 15 December 1974, Bogota in Columbia launched the first ever of its closed roads weekly rides on one 5km stretch of main road. In the intervening 50 years, these ‘Ciclovias’ have grown to encompass over 100km of roads in the city closed for much of each Sunday to motor traffic where week circa 2 million of a city roughly the size and population of London turn out to not just cycle, but rollerskate, picnic, amble, wheel etc. And in those intervening decades, the Ciclovia movement has spread to hundreds of cities. But not really London.

Most years, but not 2025, we have RideLondon’s Freecycle.

LCC works with the organisers and TfL to put on ‘feeder’ rides from every London borough to the central closed roads area and back.

In Freecycle’s absence this year, however, and with Dare To Dream looming, LCC decided to approach London’s boroughs with an idea for a replacement. And thus the London Cycling Festival was born (see below).

London Cycling Festival and Freecycle and…?

A series of family-friendly, inclusive rides and events in as many London boroughs as possible, London Cycling Festival was a smashing success, with thousands of riders across 25 boroughs, with 14 boroughs holding major additional events and two closing roads, and Lime joining in the fun too.

What was truly a joy was seeing some of the bigger outer London rides that took place – hundreds of families and kids riding round their towns, doing something they never normally get a chance to do – enjoy cycling in their area, even if just for one day. But imagine if it wasn’t just for one day a year?

We’re looking hard at if and how we can bring back London Cycling Festival next year, and it’s clear that closing a huge chunk of the central city for Freecycle doesn’t cost the same for event organisers in Bogota as it does in London.

But what if we could do rolling and marshalled rides monthly through spring and summer?

What if the Mayor and TfL could really get behind boroughs closing some roads for a few hours on a more regular basis in a lower cost manner? Hackney managed it for London Cycling Festival (just saying, Sadiq)! What if funding was found and red tape swept away?

What a difference a day makes

Regular rides that were inclusive enough to have kids on balance bikes doing them across London through spring and summer could be a real game-changer.

In Bogota and many other cities that have embraced the Car-Free Sundays or Ciclovia approach, that hasn’t been the end of the journey, but the beginning.

Monthly has led to weekly; dozens or hundreds of participants have led to thousands then millions even; a few hours of temporary closures or marshalled rides has led to permanent cycling infrastructure – these rides are rolling demonstrations to cities themselves, to honking drivers and to politicians of the popularity of cycling and the latent demand for it that can popularly be fulfilled.

They mean bolder moves from politicians through time and a better bigger permanent cycle network.

Please ask the Mayor to move forward on Car-Free* Sundays and the other Dare To Dream ideas today…

* Closing streets to moving motor vehicles or removing cars entirely for a few hours so that just about everyone can walk, play, wheel, scoot & cycle can be done with necessary emergency, Blue Badge etc. access – and we can see how many cities are learning to balance ‘car-free’ spaces and temporary events with broader inclusive mobility issues.

For more on the Dare To Dream campaign, click here.