Ciclovia en Bogota

I was pointed to this excellent video about the ciclovia movement in Bogota, which if you haven't heard of, is well worth reading up on.  The city closes many of the main streets for most of the day on Sundays and they are instead used for walking, biking, skating, as well as just communities gathering together.  The healthier lifestyle that comes with this activity (encouraged by the free dance and workout classes offered during each week's ciclovia) has inspired other cities throughout South America and the rest of the world to adopt similar measures.

You can see the video at Streetsblog; it's the third in a three-part series (here are the links to the first, which is about the ciclovia itself, and the second, which is about the city's bus rapid-transit system).  They're all worth a few minutes of your time to watch, but I especially liked the focus on the impact the ciclovias have had on bike- and pedestrian-friendliness in the third.  It makes you wonder what we could do in this country if only our cities had the political will.

Melissa Esposito is the Car-Sharing and Bike-Sharing Program Coordinator for Arlington County and a Metro/bike commuter.

Comments

[Bogota Bike Tours]

Bogota's Ciclovia is a wonderful and almost unique phenomenon. It's much more than just bicycling. Thousands of people turn out on bikes, skates, jogging, even in wheelchairs. There's also music, food and free public aerobics classes. It's the one time when rich and poor Bogotanos mix.

Unfortunately, recent mayors haven't given the Ciclovia much importance, and there's danger of it being cut back and reduced. Many drivers don't like it, because they consider it a nuisance and blame it for traffic jams - even tho there are traffic jams every day, with or without Ciclovia.

I should know, as I have a bicycle tour and rental business located in Bogotá's La Candelaria neighborhood.

www.bogotabiketours.com

Bogota Bike Tours

Bogota Bike Tours

[Kevin Beekman]

Glad that someone posted about that again. Don't forget to look back at these earlier entries that tell more of the story:

http://www.commuterpageblog.com/2007/12/from-the-good-p.html

http://www.commuterpageblog.com/2007/09/enrique-pealosa.html

http://www.commuterpageblog.com/2007/09/people-oriented.html

[Shannon]

I lived in Bogota for about a year, and Ciclovia was indeed very cool. You'd also see street performers and groups just hanging out.

The funny part, though, was that they biked the same way they drove - without regard to lanes, rules of the road, or the laws of physics. So bicyclists would lurch into each other fairly often.

Also check out Bogota's TransMilenio transit system and their rules on who can drive on what days. While the city is far from perfect and full of dangerous minibuses and nightmarish traffic, there's a lot of innovation happening down there.

[Meighan]

That is fantastic! I was really struck by what's possible if the citizens of an area make responsible transit a priority. (How awesome is it that no one gets elected there anymore without addressing this?) If they can lay 200 miles of trail in a year in Bogotá, imagine what the DC metro area could do!