Car-Free Sunday SG will be back starting this Sunday with new community-driven activities. The car-free route has also been redesigned to extend into the Telok Ayer conservation area to host new activities. Besides more activities for participants, the new run of Car-Free Sunday SG will feature full closure of more roads for the public to better experience and enjoy a car-free city centre.
Over the six editions in the pilot run of Car-Free Sunday SG earlier this year, interest among the community grew as various community groups came to organise and participate in activities, bringing greater vibrancy to the Civic District. The new run of Car-Free Sunday SG will see more new ideas and initiatives from the community that will appeal to an even wider audience, including the young and elderly, and less abled, making the event a truly inclusive one.
Those looking for nostalgia can look forward to a series of activities at the Telok Ayer conservation area. The area will be closed to vehicles to host different activities, allowing participants to explore and experience another integral part of our city centre, and see our heritage district in new perspective.
This Sunday, volunteers from the Hokkien Huay Kuan will offer free guided tours of the Thian Hock Keng Temple at Telok Ayer Street. Participants can learn more about the monument that is one of Singapore’s oldest and most important temple for immigrants from southern China’s Fujian province. There will also be a Pioneer Trail at Ann Siang Hill and Telok Ayer Green where participants will learn about the trades and lives of Singapore’s early immigrants. They can also tuck into scrumptious breakfast food and enjoy the aroma of fresh coffee at the cafes along Telok Ayer Street and Amoy Street, which will be opened earlier from 8am.
At the Civic District, children, the elderly and the less abled can enjoy the car-free city centre effortlessly by taking free rides on a “bike train” or trishaw. Conceptualised and made by a Bishan resident, the bike train – comprising multiple bicycles connected in a train-like trail – was first designed to allow fellow residents to cycle around the neighbourhood together, and will now make regular appearances at Car-Free Sunday SG for the young and old to pedal together. For the less abled and the elderly, volunteers from Cycling Without Age are bringing back their specially built trishaw to ferry them around the car-free route.
In line with the car-lite spirit of Car-Free Sunday SG, more community cycling groups will organise guided cycling trips to bring the public from various locations around Singapore into the Civic District using the Park Connector Network. Amateur cyclists can take this opportunity to join LoveCycling SG, Brompton Riders@SG, Anza Cycling and Joyriders to try out cycling as a means of commuting to the city centre.
Refer to Annex A [PDF, 350kb] for more details on the activities.
In the pilot run of Car-Free Sunday SG, participants enjoyed a car-free route that looped around the Civic District and Central Business District (CBD). Seamlessly connected to the loop around the CBD, a new extension to the route into the neighbouring Telok Ayer conservation area will provide participants with an enhanced car-free experience.
The addition of the Telok Ayer Loop – comprising McCallum Street, Amoy Street, Boon Tat Street, Telok Ayer Street and Stanley Street – will bring the total walking, cycling and jogging route to approximately 5.5km to offer the public a car-free experience in this integral part of our city centre.
The new run of Car-Free Sunday SG will also see more roads fully closed to vehicles, creating more cycling and jogging lanes for participants to have a better car-free experience.
The CBD Loop, previously comprising the partially closed Shenton Way and Robinson Road, will now comprise the five-lane Robinson Road and four-lane Cecil Street. These two roads will be fully closed to vehicles as buses plying these roads will be diverted to Shenton Way.
See table below for details of road closures and Annex B [PDF, 296kb] for the road closure map.
Members of the public are encouraged to take public transport or cycle to the event venue. At the event, participants can cycle on their own bicycles or rent one before the event from Car-Free Sunday SG’s partner bicycle rental companies and collect the bicycles at Connaught Drive during the event. Refer to Annex C [PDF, 1,525kb] for cycling access points to the Padang.
Car-Free Sunday SG is a community initiative by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), Land Transport Authority (LTA), National Parks Board (NParks), National Arts Council (NAC), Health Promotion Board (HPB) and Sport Singapore (SportSG), supported by a host of community and interest groups to promote the car-lite message and enliven the streets. The second series of Car-Free Sunday SG will run for at least six editions. See Annex D [PDF, 62kb] for the list of dates for upcoming editions.
Visit http://ura.sg/carfreesundaysg to find out more about the event.
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