Waking up and starting the day in our city feels like stepping on to a stage. Everyone plays a part in this orchestrated performance and we all accept our roles with little questioning.
Because of this, the logic follows that we could, through small tweaks, change how the whole act plays out. Nowhere is this more evident and potentially more powerful than in transport.
There is plenty of evidence that local government is investing in the types of policies and infrastructure that can, in the long term, improve how we get around.
These include travel demand strategies such as flexible working hours as well as the improvement of transport systems the City recently outlined in its Integrated Public Transport Network (IPTN) Business Plan.
Cape Town’s transport system, like those in other cities, can benefit from new technologies such as e-hailing and more modern infrastructure, but it can also benefit from going back to basics.
The old-school bicycle and that which many of us can always rely on, our feet, come to mind. After all, we are all pedestrians at some point in our daily journey.
Some make their entire journey on foot. Remember, though we equate transportation with vehicles, most Capetonians don’t have the means to choose how they move around the city.
Furthermore, with the important exception of rail, most of our mobility happens on the street, that great stage where our urban existence unfolds.
Streets are not meant to be thoroughfares for traffic only. They are public spaces that connect our communities not only physically but also through history, culture and tradition.
Herein lies an opportunity to revisit how we experience and use streets. Perhaps it’s time to “rehearse” a new way of moving around our city.
Let’s set the scene. What if for a few hours thousands of people got on their bicycles and filled up a major arterial road to demonstrate how the same space, clogged up with vehicular traffic on regular weekdays, could look different – still enabling mobility but at a more human scale?
This is the experiment residents of Cape Town can partake in on October 1 when almost 5km of Main Road becomes Open Streets.
For five hours, between 10am and 3pm, motorised traffic will be diverted from part of the route so that people can experience a different type of mobility between Observatory and the city centre.
The experiment will not solve congestion, or even reach all the people who should be part of the solution, but it might change a few people’s minds.
That could have a powerful impact. Imagine if, after October 1, a few hundred people who live along Main Road decided to get on their bikes and cycle once a week.
Main Road would be a completely different story. Even if this new act only lasted a week, it would be a powerful statement about who makes the city and who plays a role in its inner workings.
This is an invitation to be imaginative, optimistic and, yes, naïve. It’s an invitation to believe that each one of us can make a different decision about our movements and, in that process, change the energy, landscape and entire motion of our city.
The “show” on our streets could be different and if you come with your family on October 1, your children will have a rare opportunity to experience how each one of us can play a role in this marvellous urban performance.
If you are a resident of the areas that Open Streets Main Road will connect (Observatory, Salt River, Woodstock, District Six or the CBD), you can just step out on to the street.
If you are based in a different part of Cape Town, consider using public transport, carpooling or even cycling to get there. October 1 is a day to play a different character in your daily ritual.
It’s also the first day of Transport Month, which is a good opportunity to reflect on mobility and the impact that getting from A to B has on our collective psyche. We spend a considerable amount of time and resources on this, and our individual acts add up.
We all want a different way of moving around the city. To arrive at that new reality, we can wait until all policies and all technologies are in place, or we can experiment together and explore alternatives.
We hope to see you at Open Streets!
Guerrero Casas is co-founder and managing director of Open Streets.