Londoners encouraged to walk and cycle on World Car Free Day

Londoners are being encouraged to ditch their cars to walk and cycle on World Car Free Day.

Around 50 streets across London will be traffic free on 22nd September.

By supporting London Play, a charity working to give children the freedom to play by shutting roads to traffic, the Mayor and TfL hope to open the spaces to the community.

Christina Calderato, head of delivery planning at TfL, said: “We’re really pleased to be working with London Play and the boroughs to transform residential streets into traffic-free zones for World Car Free Day this September.

“We hope that in doing so, people will start to view streets as valuable public spaces, where you can also meet, play, walk and cycle.”

Greenwich is one of seven boroughs to share funding from the Mayor’s £114m Liveable Neighbourhoods programme, which supports boroughs to improve their local environments, enabling walking, cycling and the use of public transport.

Their successful bid to transform the area was in part due to their commitment to making the town centre better for walking and cycling.

This will be promoted during their car-free event in Greenwich Town Centre on Saturday, which will feature street performers, live music, children’s activities, and trials of e-bikes and cycle checks.

Councillor Danny Thorpe said: “Our long-term vision is to remove traffic from Greenwich town centre permanently, making it cleaner and safer to walk and cycle.

“Reclaiming roads from cars means healthy streets with space to walk, play, sit and relax.

“I would encourage everyone to come along and take part in the festivities to support local businesses and help us shape our plans.”

Other London boroughs have the opportunity to bid for funding for TfL’s Liveable Neighbourhoods programme, in line with the Mayor’s Healthy Streets Approach.

The programme will provide grants of between £1 million and £10 million for a wide range of community-supported projects, which could include the creation of green spaces, new cycling infrastructure, redesigned junctions and the widening of walking routes to improve access to local shops, businesses and public transport.

Greenwich, Ealing, Hackney, Haringey, Havering, Lewisham and Waltham Forest boroughs were all successful in their initial bids last year, with projects ranging from a new square in Crouch End to the creation of a traffic-free route along the former Grand Surrey Canal in Deptford.

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