Across the world, capital cities regularly close off their streets to motor traffic, to create safe spaces for people to cycle, walk, jog, rollerblade, and generally have fun. This often happens on Sunday mornings – when there’s the least traffic to be disrupted – and the days are known variously as Sunday Streets, Summer Streets, Ciclovía (which translates as Cycleway), or Open Streets.

The movement began in Bogotá in 1974, where it now happens every Sunday, with over 100km of streets closed to motor traffic, and where an incredible 2 million people get out and about on their bikes. Most people in the city now say they learned to ride at the events. Similar schemes can be found in cities as varied as Los Angeles, Tucson, New York City and Paris. Mexico City has the Paseo Dominical, part of their Muévete en Bici programme (Get on Your Bike), and I was recently lucky enough to join in. It’s an utterly joyous experience, with over 60km of roads closed to motor traffic for three Sunday mornings every month, and where over a hundred thousand people regularly participate.

London previously had the FreeCycle portion of the Ride London event – a seven mile traffic-free route in the centre of the city. It was just a single day in the year, and the event was cancelled for 2025.

London Cycling Campaign decided to step in to fill that gap, and set up the London Cycling Festival – a series of cycling events and closed streets hosted across sixteen London boroughs, sponsored by Lime Bikes, with most of the events taking place on Sunday 25 May.

I designed the overall identity for the festival, including customised posters and digital assets for each of the boroughs. Most of them stuck with the London Cycling Festival name, but there was also the Hounslow Cycling Mela, and Hackney Sunday Streets.

I cycled around the city on the Sunday, and visited the events in the City of London (Guildhall Yard), Hackney (Hoxton Street), and Islington (Highbury Fields). It was great to see so many people out in the sunshine, and enjoying traffic-free roads and led cycle rides. Compared to the mass participation events in Bogotá and Mexico City, these were really small scale, but they hold the promise of something much bigger if the London boroughs, TfL and the Mayor of London can come together and imagine something truly transformative.