Car-Free Sunday returns this weekend with slew of family-friendly activities

SINGAPORE – After being held outside the town area for the first time last month, Car-Free Sunday will return to the Civic District and Telok Ayer this weekend with the area being transformed into a "people-friendly and car-free environment".

In a press release on Monday (May 21), the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said the annual Families for Life Celebrations will be back in this month's edition of Car-Free Sunday SG.

"Thousands of families will enjoy family time at the Civic District with a wide myriad of family-friendly activities such as the Families on Wheels where families bring their own wheels including bicycles, rollerblades, skates, scooters, strollers/prams, wheelchairs, or personal mobility devices, for a wheeling fun time on the closed roads within the Civic District," said the press release.

The event, which will be held from 8am to 12 noon on May 27, will coincide with the first Sunday of the mid-year school holidays. Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong will be flagging off the event at 8am.

A highlight of the event will be a "Bouncy Wonderland" in the Padang, with 50 bouncy castles as well as sports and obstacle inflatables.

Other family-friendly activities include "Walk the Chalk", where participants will get a rare chance to doodle on the car-free road using chalk at Telok Ayer Street, as well as free trishaw rides where people can enjoy the sights of the city while being ferried by volunteers.

On the "Walk the Chalk" initiative, which is curated by four final-year students in Communication Design from the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) under the Glasgow School of Art, (SIT) student Diana Ainee said: "We wanted to be involved in a project that not only talks about the environment but actually do something about it… The convenience of a car comes at the expense of the environment as it contributes to increasing carbon emission. By going car-lite, we will have more space to do fun things!

"'Walk the Chalk' is an opportunity for us to doodle on a car-free road, and through this, we can see and experience how vibrant and lively the city will be with fewer cars."

Car-Free Sunday, which was first introduced in 2016, is a community initiative by the URA, Land Transport Authority, National Parks Board, National Arts Council, Health Promotion Board, Sport Singapore and Singapore Land Authority.

April's Car-Free Sunday event was held at the innovation hub at one-north, with drone showcases and coding workshops. The event saw a turnout of more than 3,000 participants.

Subsequent editions of Car-Free Sunday this year will run in July, October and December. The event is held on the last weekend of each month.