BREE ST SUNDAYS

This is a Young Urbanists Project

BREE ST SUNDAYS

Weekly Open Street Experiment

Cape Town, Western Cape

Open Streets Tool

Bree Street Sundays is a weekly car-free street experiment that has taken place in Cape Town’s CBD during the warmer months since 2024.

Every Sunday, roughly from October to March, Bree Street between Wale and Strand, together with parts of Shortmarket Street, is closed to private vehicles from 10:00 to 17:00, creating space for walking, cycling, skating, playing, meeting friends and spending time in the city.

The programme is a partnership between Executive Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and Young Urbanists NPC, with support from the Safe Passage Programme and Mission for Inner City Cape Town.

Bree Street Sundays builds on the work of Open Streets Cape Town, which helped demonstrate what becomes possible when streets are temporarily opened up for people rather than being used primarily for moving and storing cars.

As some of the city’s largest public spaces, streets have the potential to play a much bigger role in everyday urban life, and Bree Street Sundays gives people the opportunity to experience what a more people-centred Bree Street could feel like.

Rather than operating as a festival or market, the programme creates a calm, community-oriented public space where people can move freely, spend time together and make use of the city in a different way, while helping to build evidence for the longer-term reimagining of Cape Town’s streets.

Across the first 2024 to 2025 season, approximately 20,000 cumulative pedestrian visits were recorded over 21 Sundays and 147 hours of car-free street operation, with stronger Sundays towards the end of the season attracting around 1,000 visits over the course of a seven-hour day.

The 2025 to 2026 season is projected to reach approximately 38,000 cumulative pedestrian visits across the same number of Sundays and operating hours, representing estimated growth of around 60%. Some of the busiest Sundays during the second season exceeded 2,000 cumulative pedestrian visits over the full day.

Together, the first two seasons represent approximately 58,000 cumulative pedestrian visits across 42 Sundays and 294 hours in which Bree Street has been opened up for people.

The increase in activity has also translated into more spending in the precinct, with projected direct local spending growing from approximately R3.6 million in the 2024 to 2025 season to approximately R5.8 million in 2025 to 2026.

On a Sunday, families walk together, children draw with chalk or play in small activity areas, cyclists and skaters move through the city, friends meet for coffee and local businesses make use of the additional foot traffic along the street.

Residents are welcome to simply arrive and enjoy the space, while community groups can bring small and inclusive activities, businesses can activate the space outside their premises, and volunteers can assist with setup, marshalling, photography and data collection.

The programme is led by Young Urbanists NPC and the Active Mobility Forum, in partnership with Mission for Inner City Cape Town, the Mayor’s Office and the City of Cape Town, with support from organisations including Green Riders and the Cape Town Central City Improvement District.

A key part of Bree Street Sundays is demonstrating that regular street closures do not need to operate like large events or rely on expensive programming to work.

Through repeated Sunday closures, the project is testing a more affordable model for temporarily reallocating road space while businesses remain open and people continue moving through the area.

The lessons from Bree Street are already helping to inform similar work on Lerotholi Avenue in Langa or Main Street Sundays in the City of Johannesburg with Jozi my Jozi, with the longer-term aim of making it easier for communities across Cape Town to temporarily reclaim their streets, test new ideas and build the case for more permanent improvements to public space.

Bree Street Sundays is a weekly car-free street experiment that has taken place in Cape Town’s CBD during the warmer months since 2024.

The programme is a partnership between Executive Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and Young Urbanists NPC, with support from the Safe Passage Programme and Mission for Inner City Cape Town.

Together, the first two seasons represent approximately 58,000 cumulative pedestrian visits across 42 Sundays and 294 hours in which Bree Street has been opened up for people.

A key part of Bree Street Sundays is demonstrating that regular street closures do not need to operate like large events or rely on expensive programming to work.

Through repeated Sunday closures, the project is testing a more affordable model for temporarily reallocating road space while businesses remain open and people continue moving through the area.

Bree Street Sundays is a weekly car-free street experiment that opens Bree and parts of Shortmarket Street to people for walking, cycling, play and public life.

Since 2024, the project has attracted tens of thousands of visits while testing a simple, lower-cost model for more people-centred streets in Cape Town.

Join the WhatsApp Group for Street Experiments Africa.

MEDIA Watch on Newzroom Afrika around what is an experiment aligned with the LSDF, eNCA on as series of coverage on the experiment.

Read on the open experiment IOL, The Progress Playbook and Good Things Guy.

COLLABORATORS Young Urbanists NPC, Active Mobility Forum, The Maak, Cape Town Central City Improvement District, Langa Bicycle Hub, Green Riders, Mission for Inner City Cape Town, the Mayor’s Office, Urban Mobility at the City of Cape Town, the University of Cape Town, Hot Ink, Solly King, New Streets SA, Maya Bogaert, The Remedy, and the many restaurants, bars and businesses along Bree Street that help bring the programme to life.

SPECIAL THANKS TO Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, the Urban Mobility Directorate, the Spatial Planning and Environment team, the Events Department, and all the businesses along Bree and Shortmarket Streets. Special thanks to Ben Cox and Elzas for the bakkie, Sean Dayton, Green Riders, Patrick Schuster, Marco Morgan, Marcela Guerrero Casas, the founders of Open Streets Cape Town, the YU and AMF community, the Safe Passage team for the Mellowvan, The Maak, Pickleball Cape Town, and all the activators and visitors who helped make the Bree Street Experiment possible.

NEXT STEPS To share the impact of the weekly Bree Street Sunday experiment over the past two years, develop an Open Streets toolkit that can be adopted by municipalities across South Africa, and help revive existing and new Open Streets initiatives through stronger collaboration and shared learning.

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