A councillor wants to bring the idea of kilometres of car-free streets to Toronto.

Kristyn Wong-Tam tells the Globe and Mail she plans to introduce a motion at council later this month asking the city to look at launching a "ciclovia" next summer.

A ciclovia is Spanish for a bike way. It's the name used for festivals around the world that close off kilometres of roads to cars, giving pedestrians and cyclists free rein.

It started in Colombia in the '80s and has spread to cities like Guadalajara, Mexico, New York, Vancouver and Winnipeg. Some cities do it once in a while, others do it every Sunday morning.

Wong-Tam got the idea when she visited Guadalajara last winter during the 2011 PanAm Games. The city closed 60 km of roads for an event called the Via RecreActiva.

Wong-Tam tells the Globe that she has never experienced anything so transformative in her urban life.

Toronto already has Pedestrian Sundays in Kensington Market, but a ciclovia would be on a much larger scale.

The next council meeting when Wong-Tam wants to bring this forward is October 30th and 31st.