Mayor confirms Car Free Day celebrations will return to London

• London to celebrate World Car Free Day 2020 on Sunday 20 September
• Full events programme to be unveiled in the summer
• Last year’s record-breaking event saw thousands of Londoners ‘reclaim’ their city
• Initiative is part of the Mayor’s plan to encourage Londoners to cycle, walk and use public transport to help improve air pollution and reduce car emissions

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has announced that a central London Car Free Day event will return on Sunday 20 September as part of his bold plans to tackle London’s toxic air.

The announcement follows London’s biggest ever Car Free Day celebrations last year, with the capital’s first Car Free Day event giving thousands of Londoners and visitors the opportunity to ‘reclaim’ their streets and reimagine their city car-free. Sixty-five per cent of Londoners surveyed after last year’s Car Free Day say the events inspired them to use the car less – helping encourage the change in behaviour needed to meet the Mayor’s ambitious target of 80 per cent of all journeys to be taken by sustainable modes of transport by 2041, compared to 63 per cent today.

In 2019 activities were held across more than 27km of closed streets in central London including Tower Bridge (closed to all traffic), London Bridge (buses only) and much of the City of London. This year’s event will take place across the same footprint, with TfL working in partnership with City of London for the second consecutive year. TfL will also collaborate with Open House London, the world’s largest architecture festival, to once again give free public access to 800+ buildings, walks, talks and tours over the weekend.

Local events took place across 27 boroughs in 2019, with 385 Play Streets - almost double the target of 200. TfL and the Mayor will work with borough councils to announce a full programme of events across the capital in the summer, working with accessibility groups and other key stakeholders to ensure events are accessible, inclusive and fun.

Air pollution is one of the biggest health emergencies of our generation, with more than two million Londoners living in areas that exceed legal limits for NO2, including more than 400,000 children under the age of 18.

The Mayor has taken bold action to tackle London’s toxic air, from delivering the first Ultra Low Emission Zone in Central London to transforming London’s bus fleets into one of the greenest in the world. Sadiq wants to encourage Londoners to walk, cycle, and use public transport and opt for electric vehicles for essential car trips to help reduce harmful emissions from older, more polluting vehicles.

City Hall analysis of the Breathe London air quality sensor at Bank Junction found concentrations of nitrogen dioxide were 40 per cent lower on Car Free Day than the day before, and a temporary monitor installed by King’s College at Regent Street to measure the impact of its closure found nitrogen dioxide concentrations were 60 per cent lower on Car Free Day compared to the day before.

Last year’s event broke records for Santander Cycles, which were an integral part of the event, with a variety of activations and offers to encourage a legacy of cycling. A free promotional code giving people across London free cycle hire for 24 hours resulted in a record 1,373 redemptions – the highest of any day code in the history of TfL’s Cycle Hire scheme.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Toxic air is a public health crisis and it is a scandal that thousands of Londoners are dying early every year as a result of exposure to air pollution. I am proud that in London we are taking some of the boldest steps of any city in the world to tackle harmful car emissions – from introducing the world’s first Ultra Low Emission Zone, which has already reduced harmful nitrogen dioxide pollution by almost a third in the central London zone, to transforming our bus fleets into one of the greenest in the world. Last year’s Car Free Day was London’s biggest yet, enabling thousands of Londoners to explore the capital by bike or on foot and encouraging them to reduce their car use. I’m am determined to make this year’s event even bigger and better and I look forward to revealing more plans in the summer.”

Christina Calderato, Head of Transport Strategy and Planning at TfL, said: “Last year’s Car Free Day was a tremendous success and we’re thrilled to start working on a programme for September. This year’s event will continue encouraging Londoners and visitors to get out of their cars and explore our great city by walking, cycling or using public transport.

“We’ve already seen a really positive shift in the way people travel, removing the equivalent of 2.9 million private vehicle trips from London’s roads each day, with nearly two thirds of journeys now made by walking, cycling and public transport - up from around half of all journeys when TfL was formed in 2000. Engaging the public to imagine their city car-free this September will help us along this journey, towards our ambitious target of 80 per cent of journeys to be made by sustainable modes of transport by 2041.”

Alastair Moss, Chair of the City of London Corporation’s Planning and Transportation Committee, said: “We are excited to see the return of London Car Free Day this September. Walking is already the main mode of travel within the City of London with 750,000 walked journeys a day and, in recent years, there has been an estimated tripling in the number of people cycling.

“Our ambitious Transport Strategy features a number of bold policies to lower emissions and improve air quality for all who live, work and visit the Square Mile.”

Susannah Kerr, Head of Public Affairs at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Every year in the UK, up to 11,000 heart and circulatory deaths are attributable to air pollution. The EU guidelines that the UK currently subscribes to simply don’t go far enough to protect us against our toxic air.

“Cars are a significant contributor to the PM_2.5 in the air, which research has shown can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. Initiatives such as Car Free Day are a great way to raise public awareness of the need to cut air pollution, especially in London. This is a great opportunity to try alternate, active modes of travel, such as cycling or walking to work where possible. These may seem like small steps, but every bit helps towards ensuring we all have cleaner air to breathe.

“We also need to see people being supported to make these changes, starting with the full implementation of Government plans to increase cycling and walking routes.”

Fiona Sutherland, Deputy Director at London Play, said: “Around 400,000 sqm of community space was created in an instant last Car Free Day, when 385 residential streets across the capital became play streets for the day. Thousands of Londoners woke up to the potential their streets offer as spaces to play, chat, meet their neighbours and – of course – drink tea. Some have since gone on to make play streets a regular happening in their neighbourhood. Car Free Day is a fantastic opportunity to see what can happen on your street when the traffic stops for a few hours, and this year we are looking forward to helping even more of the capital’s residents open their streets – and their eyes – to play and new possibilities for this hugely undervalued public space.”

Jemima Hartshorn, Founder of Mums for Lungs, said: “We are pleased to hear Car Free Day is taking place in London again. We encourage Londoners and councils to come together and close as many streets as possible. We all need a break from the daily car pollution. With less traffic across London and meeting our neighbours on the street, we also experience London how it should be and how it must again be very soon – to ensure that all our kids grow up without increased rates of asthma or stunted lungs.”

Nick Martin, Head of Sustainability and Environmental Management at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, said: “Last year we hosted two ‘Play Street’ events for patients and the local community outside the hospital and closed the road to traffic for the afternoon. It was so successful with our patients, staff and local community, we are planning to do the same this year. At GOSH we understand how important having clean air and less pollution is and as a result, last year we launched the first ever NHS Clean Air Hospital Framework. This is helping us contribute our leadership towards national efforts to improve air quality in the wider NHS community and beyond.

“It is essential we support a healthy environment and we are taking further action to deliver clean air in and around the hospital to support the health of our patients and families and to minimise our impact locally.”