Leave the car parked this Car Free Day

Sunday 22 September is World Car Free Day, which provides the opportunity to experience some of our streets traffic-free, moving the focus to people and getting around in other ways where possible. 

This year, we’re encouraging residents who can to take the opportunity to walk or cycle when travelling locally that day or over the weekend, to experience traffic-free streets, clean up our air, and boost health and wellbeing.

Supporting active travel and improving our air quality in Richmond upon Thames are key priorities for us. To mark Car Free Day, we’ve also waived the administrative costs for road closures during that weekend to encourage Play Streets. This has offered residents the chance to close their roads to through-traffic for up to four hours, allowing children to play outside and have fun with their friends, family and neighbours.

September also provides an important opportunity to raise awareness of the impact that air pollution can have on lung health and triggering asthma, particularly in young people. The NHS’s #AskAboutAsthma campaign offers lots of resources about this for families and schools, and how to reduce air pollution’s negative effects.

Choosing more active forms of travel to boost health and protect our environment isn’t exclusive to September, and there is a huge variety of local resource available year-round to support convenient habit changes, including:

- If you don’t own a bicycle and want to trial one, you can hire a new bicycle (or e-bike or cargo bike) with Try Before You Bike for a monthly fee, with the option to then buy the bike.

Watch an interview with a resident who used the scheme to trial a couple bikes to find the right one for her and her family.

Other options

There are also short-term eBike and eScooter hire schemes for longer journeys, and many parts of the borough are well connected by public transport for those unable to make journeys by foot or bike.

If you need to carry things with you, such as your shopping and/or small children, why not try our electric cargo bike hire scheme provided by Our Bike.  There are nine locations across the borough and you can find your nearest one via this map.

Take a walk in our parks and open spaces – get some ideas for doing exercise and activities in the borough.

Use the Low pollution route finder https://www.cleanairroutes.london/ for your active travel journeys.

Over 60? Make the most of the Older Person’s Freedom Pass giving you free travel on London underground, buses, docklands light railway and trams at all times as well as on some Overground and National Rail services.

Use the CycleStreet UK journey planner to plan your cycle in and around the borough.

Borrow bike toolkits and a range of tools from the Library of Things in Twickenham to repair your bikes and scooters. You can also enjoy a 10% discount off your first rental using the code TAKE10.