Menged Le Sew — Streets for People

Menged Le Sew — Amharic for "streets for people" — began as a monthly car-free day in Addis Ababa, closing six transport corridors to motor vehicles on one Sunday of the month. Six years on it closes 29 corridors monthly and a further 12 corridors every Sunday, with a dedicated 3km cycling corridor among them. The days are run by the Ministry of Transport with regional governments, UN-Habitat and ITDP, and have spread from the capital to regional cities across Ethiopia. What started as a demonstration has become an argument about permanent street design: several corridors opened for car-free Sundays have since been redesigned with wider footways.