Topic
Bogota's Enrique Peñalosa's happy 'war on cars.'
Peñalosa biking on False Creek.
[Editor's note: Charles Montgomery has been blogging the World Urban Forum for The Tyee. To read earlier posts, go here.]
FRIDAY MORNING, June 22
If you think the problems facing the world's exploding cities are insurmountable then you need to spend a few hours on a bike alongside the former mayor of Bogota. That's how I spent Thursday afternoon, and it left me with new hope for the global south, not to mention the bloated 'burbs of Greater Vancouver.
Enrique Peñalosa presided over the transition of a city that the world--and many residents--had given up on. Bogota had lost itself in slums, chaos, violence, and traffic. During his three-year term, Penalosa brought in initiatives that would seem impossible in most cities, even here in the wealthy north. He built more than a hundred nurseries for children. He built 50 new public schools and increased enrolment by 34 percent. He built a network of libraries. He created a highly-efficient, "bus highway" transit system. He built or reconstructed hundreds of kilometers of sidewalks, more than 300 kilometres of bicycle paths, pedestrian streets, and more than 1,200 parks.
He did it all, in part, by declaring a war on private cars.
What makes us happy?
Peñalosa explained the philosophy behind this war--and Bogota's transformation--earlier Thursday during a plenary lecture at the World Urban Forum. He began with a sobering reminder to the mayors of developing world cities:
"If you base progress on per capita income, then the developing world will not catch up with rich countries for the next three or four hundred years. The difference between our incomes is growing all the time. So we can't define our progress in terms of income, because that will guarantee our failure. We need to find another measure of success."
The measure he came up with was shockingly simple. Happiness.
"And what are our needs for happiness?" he asked. "We need to walk, just as birds need to fly. We need to be around other people. We need beauty. We need contact with nature. And most of all, we need not to be excluded. We need to feel some sort of equality."
Before you dismiss Peñalosa as some hemp-hatted revolutionary, remember that this is a guy who titled his first book Capitalism: The Best Option.
The problem in Bogota was that most people didn't have access to the public space that is supposed to make such happy things happen. The wealthy had turned city sidewalks into parking lots for cars. Public parks had been fenced off, essentially privatized by neighbours. And for years, the government had been blowing its budgets on highways and road improvements, with the encouragement of Japan's international development agency, which was apparently in the business of creating new markets for Japan's carmakers. So while the wealthy in Bogota could spend their weekends in country clubs or private gardens, the poor had little but jammed streets and televisions to occupy their leisure time. Peñalosa resolved to establish a balance.
Peñalosa's official War on Cars began when he ordered the sidewalks cleared of cars. That triggered a movement to impeach him--unsuccessful, since it was in fact illegal for people to park on the sidewalks. He then launched a system which banned 40 percent of vehicles from the roads during rush hour. Peñalosa convinced his city council to raise the tax on gasoline, and used half the revenues to fund a rapid bus system that now serves more than 500,000 citizens.
After Bogota's first wildly popular "Car-Free Day" in 2000, residents voted in a referendum to make the event an annual affair. Most powerfully, the city was transformed from a place of hopelessness to one of civic pride.
Pedaling with the rock star of WUF
I've never seen a crowd of planners, politicians and sustainability wonks go wild like they did after Peñalosa's address. The guy got a standing ovation. Stuart Ramsey, a B.C. transportation engineer, explained why.
"Bogota has demonstrated that it is possible to make dramatic change to how we move around our cities in a very short timeframe," he said. "It's simply a matter of choosing to do so. We could improve our air quality and dramatically reduce our emissions anytime we want. It's easy to do. For example, we can improve the capacity of our existing bus system without adding a single bus. All it would take is a can of paint, and you'd have dedicated bus lanes. It doesn't require huge amounts of money. It simply requires a choice."
Peñalosa now advises cities around the world on how to make sense of their own transportation systems. I tagged along with the former mayor and his entourage of Colombian politicians and activists as they hit Robson on a fleet of rented bikes. I observed the first rule of Colombian cycling: never break a sweat. The second rule: establish a critical mass of riders, and you don't really need to pay attention to traffic lights.
Peñalosa explained that he is actually a fan of traffic. "First of all, it's a sign that you have enough density to support transit. Second, it is one of the best ways to get people out of their cars. Anywhere you look in the world, when people use public transport, it's not because of some high level of consciousness. It's because private driving is restricted. What is the easiest way to restrict private cars? Traffic. Just look at New York."
It occurred to me that traffic is experienced differently in Bogota and Vancouver. In Bogota, it's the rich who sit alone behind the wheel in their rush hour frustration, dreaming of more lanes. Here, I think it is generally the middle class and working poor: they own cars, but have to commute from the 'burbs because they can't afford to live in our jewel-box downtown. Some might consider it only fair for the province to build the Gateway Program's new bridge and highway lanes.
"Well, sometimes the solutions to our problems are not obvious," responded Peñalosa between licks of his ice cream cone. "We think that traffic jams are going to be solved by building more roads. But that has never worked, anywhere in the world. Building more roads will just lead to more traffic jams."
A Vancouver connection
It would be nice if cities didn't have to wait until they were staring into the abyss before changing course. But Peñalosa's Bogota proves that change is not so much a matter of spending big money as it is a matter of choice.
"Transport is the only urban problem that actually gets worse as you get richer," he said. "It's only solved by changes in our behaviour. And this is always a political issue."
What seems to have surprised Peñalosa is that his policies have been lauded by international environmental groups as green activism for their salubrious effects on local air, public health and greenhouse gas emissions. But for him the idea of giving all citizens equal rights to transportation, education and public spaces have always been matters of social equity. What pleases him most is the notion that, at least on Bogota's greenways, children are no longer terrified of being hit by cars.
One more thing. Where did Peñalosa find the inspiration to transform his city? Why, at Jericho Beach in 1976, where his father was the secretary general of Habitat '76.
To read Charles Montgomery's previous blogs from the World Urban Forum, go here. Montgomery is author of The Last Heathen, winner of the Charles Taylor prize for Canadian non-fiction, and is at work on a book about mega-cities. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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moodyguy
6 years ago
Comments on "The Mayor Who Wowed the World Urban Forum"
Great-an inspiration
Stuart
6 years ago
With all the Gateway hype we hardly ever here abort the U-Pass program, the most successful program this decade.
UBC and SFU and most of the colleges are on board, you pay only around 90 bucks per semester for a unlimited transit pass, its paid with your tuition if you like it or not. If you ride or not, guess what people use what they pay for. Rider ship is up 35 - 40 % and their building over empty parking lots at SFU.
All we need collective cheap transit that provides rapid service, like a sky train on wheels, I say make our legacy to have free transit in the GVRD, scrap the Gateway program, imagine if every home owner paid say 100 bucks per yr and all citizens were provided with free transit, the system would be flooded with money for more express routes and people would flock to the buses, the hwys would empty for those who have to have their car.
If we paid collectively we would not need further tax increases or fare hikes, you could have ICBC
pitch in per quarter with saved cash for reductions in claims etc. Reductions in road work and expansion.
rob
6 years ago
It seems to me that there are technical solutions to all of our urban challenges but absolutely zero political will, at the provincial level.
The Campbell Liberals cut all funding to public transit when they came to power but they have money for a 200 million dollar 4 lane bridge in Kelowna which should make traffic worse, not better ( see the BC Sprawl report ; smartgrowth.bc.ca/downloads/Sprawl2004.pdf).
I like the idea of public transit but here in Kelowna, we are the most car dependent city in BC. Everyone has a private car and almost half the population ( 50,000 people ) cross the bridge at peak times in summer.
Perhaps things need to get much worse before we are ready to learn from other parts of the world. This has been a great series and the CBC has been doing City Space programs that provide local examples from here and other parts of the world.
murdock
6 years ago
Jerico 76,
so all we need do is have such a battered bank account that none can afford to travel via means other than foot.
Or have fuel be so expensive as it was in the early to mid 70's.
I think the world of peak oil and the looming market bubbles popping should cause both conditions to come about this generation.
Cycling Commuter
6 years ago
Stuart wrote:
imagine if every home owner paid say 100 bucks per yr and all citizens were provided with free transit
Who's going to pay for this "free" transit? The tooth fairy? In Ottawa, $500 per year of property taxes already goes toward transit, and it's still not "free." Unskilled, unionized diesel bus drivers get paid several times more per year than average struggling taxpayers who are forced to pay the relentlessly increasing cost of transit they never use.
I don't want to see more of MY tax dollars wasted on smelly, noisy, carcinogen-spewing, road-destroying, athsma and obesity inducing diesel buses. I would much prefer to see MY tax dollars being invested in more sidewalks, more bikepaths, more pedestrian/bike overpasses over busy roads, support for a robust job-swapping system that helps people find work close to home, high quality videoconferencing facilities for delivering health and education services to each neighborhood, and a program to issue part-time cab licenses to ALL safe drivers who own electric, plug-in hybrid, or (for now) hybrid vehicles. In the long-term, I would like to see suburban land utilization doubled by placing ALL neighborhood roads in trenches beneath new buildings (basically, elongated, multi-block-long underground parking lots.)
It's a fraud to promote diesel buses as "environmentally friendly." Diesel bus exhaust is far more carcinogenic than gasoline exhaust and infinitely more carcinogenic than plug-in hybrids that run on hydro, wind or solar-generated electricity. Buses seldom go directly from where you are to where you want to go. The zig-zagging routes and constant starting/stopping significantly reduce both fuel efficiency and time efficiency. Buses do a huge amount of damage to roads. Significant environmental harm is caused by repeated resurfacing of roads that have been destroyed by buses. The relationship between vehicle weight and road damage is non-linear. A small, light vehicle doesn't cause the roadbed to flex at all. Big, heavy buses cause significant roadbed flexing. This flexing causes small cracks to appear in the road bed. Water seeps into the cracks. In the winter, the water freezes and expands, widening the cracks during each freeze-thaw cycle.
Most of those who try to force people out of cars into diesel buses also claim to support women's rights. What happens to women's rights when nurses working the night shift are sexually assaulted while walking from bus stops to their homes late at night?
When I was a student, I lived near the Boundary Road / Central Park area and worked a part-time evening job near New Westminster. Riding the bus to work after school was reasonably efficient. The bus was generally 1/3 to 1/2 full. But on the way home after 11 pm, I was usually the only passenger on a huge diesel bus all the way from New Westminster to Central Park. How can this be efficient? When I was unable to leave work before the last bus, I had to walk all the way home. This left me short of time for a proper night's sleep before school the next morning.
If there was a proper and safe bike path between home and work, I could have biked both ways. With part-time cab licenses available to all safe drivers, I could have caught a ride home in a passing car and the driver would have been happy to get a couple of bucks toward the cost of fuel if they were going in my direction anyway.
Cycling Commuter
6 years ago
murdock wrote:
peak oil and the looming market bubbles popping should cause both conditions to come about this generation.
Bakeries in Bogota got rid of their diesel delivery trucks and hired a bunch of young people to deliver bread on 3-wheel work bikes with large, waterproof boxes. The savings in fuel costs, truck capital costs and truck maintenance costs more than paid for the work bike riders' wages.
This approach put a lot of unemployed young people to work, reducing neighborhood crime rates. And it kept local money local instead of sending it away to oil producers and truck producers.
Such an approach is very practical for small neighborhood bakeries, but not so practical for large, centralized bakeries.
It's easy to unionize large, centralized bakeries, but near impossible to unionize small neighborhood bakeries. There's no need to unionize neighborhood businesses if some of them are cooperatively owned to provide a safety valve as with credit unions. But union bosses who rake-in huge profits in the form of union dues from large, centralized corporate bakeries will use every dirty trick they can think of to fight neighborhood cooperative bakeries. Continuing to rake-in massive union dues profits is far more important to big union bosses than supporting neighborhood economies and thereby cutting unemployment, crime, pollution, congestion and traffic fatalities.
Sam Salmon
6 years ago
Having visited Bogotá I can say without reservation that the changes as wrought by Penalosa's administration are quite obvious.
Instead of a smog choked Andean city (so common throughout Latin America) Bogotá is a quiet orderly place with excellent transportation options.
rob
6 years ago
You can run buses on bio-diesel AND support bikes for short runs like deliveries or taking commuters from central drop off points to their final destination. Replacing machines with labour makes sense and saves energy and cuts down on pollution. Those are some good points CyclingCommuter.
Unions are not all bad but neither are they the solution for everything. I like the idea of community owned resources to provide services for the local economy. The idea that cities can act where federal and provincial politicians fail to holds a great deal of promise.
What is the point of driving someplace and then not being able to park or almost getting run over trying to cross the street? Some areas should be car free zones.
We need a mix of solutions and we need to look at other parts of the world. Our politicians in BC could care less about people. You cannot stand in front of a bunch of bike taxis and get your picture taken but you can do that for a big fat useless bridge...
Things are not bad enough yet, people can still delude themselves that easy, linear solutions can be found like a bigger bridge or more police or higher buildings. Peak oil might be true but we have the Tar Sands and natural gas prices have fallen from 15 to 6.5. It might take a few more years or until traffic gridlock and air pollution is so bad that it cannot be ignored before serious actions are taken.
RickW
6 years ago
Stuart:
Are you a communist or something? What will all the companies with road building equipment do........go on welfare? Find honest work?
RickW
6 years ago
cycling commuter:
The same thing that happens when women are prevented from having abortions........? Ain't nobody's business once the initial "good deed" is done......
As to who will pay for free transit, why the reduction in costs to healthcare from breathing dirty diesel alone will likely do the trick.......
Jeffrey J.
6 years ago
What another great article!! Imagine this article showing up on page one or two of the Vancouver Sun. We could really stir people's imagination. Most people would salute this solution, as I resent having to use my car as much as I do.
BC Mary
6 years ago
The words were literally taken right out of my fingers, Jeffrey J, as I too wondered why we had never heard squeak about the marvels of Bogota or why the name of Enrique Penalosa isn't known world-wide.
What a guy! What a concept! Cripes, I'd even visit Vancouver again if such sanity returned to the town where I was born.
Crass
6 years ago
BC Mary, Jeffrey J., et al:
We are never ever ever going to get anywhere in Canada, or Vancouver, with the current crop of politicians leading us into oblivion. We got neo-Conservatives and Neo-Liberals at all three levels of gov't in the Lower Mainland, who are doggedly determined to pay back their election campaign donors, like the BC Road Builders Association. I argue that absolutely nothing significant in positive transportation policy is going to happen until we kick these CORPORATE WELFARE BUMS and fleecers out of office RIGHT NOW!
Otherwise, trying to change things will be akin to training a cat to bark.
IAMC
6 years ago
Unfortunately Crass both governments you refer to are wildly popular right now. Why ? Because they give us hope for a prosperous future. Even 44% of union households support the BC Liberals. Our Premier is basking in unprecedented support by the masses.
Who would want the NDP back again ? What ideas do they have ? We are so fortunate that Canadians have become more conservative. It surprises me to see the shift away from liberalism in Canadians, but it's avery welcome change.
Crass
6 years ago
IAMC:
Did you read the article?
Successful societies should be more about measuring the level of happiness of its citizens, not solely based on the prosperity of its citizens.
Crass
6 years ago
IAMC: Is a Conservative federal gov't that was not voted for by over 60% of the electoral population "wildly popular'?
No wonder we can't trust capitalists with the economy, when simple arithmetic proves to be so elusive to them.
IAMC
6 years ago
It's harder to be happy when you are poor. By ensuring a prosperous economy, the Govt. is doing their job. The NDP had moratoriums on mining and fish farms. It was a terrible mistake for our citizens to let the NDP write off a decade.
Crass
6 years ago
IAMC: Will your your children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, if you have any, be equally prosperous as you, when most of our natural resources have been used up to purchase such useful consumer items as gas guzzling SUVs, large community-killing soul-destroying homes surrounded by the same in the suburbs, weed trimmers, and the endless array of pointless consumer goods whose only purpose is to distracting people from how meaningless and spiritually disabled their consumer driven lives really are?
We are living the high life now, and generations to come will pay for our selfish stupidity.
IAMC
6 years ago
Well Crass, a hundred years ago someone would have written something as gloomy as you, and look how stupid they would seem now. We won't run out of resources as we will continue to invent efficient technology that will ensure our lifestyle forever.
Gloomy
6 years ago
Really?
Seems to me that prices are high because of shortages!
What exactly will we do when we run out of say: copper?
Perhaps it does not matter as we probably will be out of drinkable water before then! or whatever we have will be spoken for by USA.
Maybe you are qualifying the "we" to only mean people with money?
RickW
6 years ago
Before we "defeated" communism, they used to say that, under communism, everyone was created equal -- except that some were more equal than others.
Under "capitalism", PPP's will ensure that the money to fund IAMC's "new technologies" will be equally extracted from everyone, but will be applicable only equally to those who can afford to shop in that deliberately restrictive marketplace.
IAMC
6 years ago
Gloomy; Prices are high. Yes you are right. That is how the free market sorts this kinda thing out. When copper gets too expensive to use, we will use aluminum. When aluminum gets too expensive we will so smart, we can go back to copper, because of the energy efficient technology the Americans will invent.
Don't worry, be happy.
RickW
6 years ago
IAMC:
Tried that in the 70's. Caused many house fires. Bad example of "innovation", but good for GDP (as any disaster is).........
castilleja
6 years ago
Cycling Commuter wrote that s/he is tired of 'subsidizing' transit with tax dollars, and that we should instead use that money to improve bike facilities.
I wholeheartedly agree that we need to invest more in bike lanes and facilities, and make the city friendlier and safer for bikers, pedestrians and the like.
But thinking of transit as being "subsidized" is misleading. Why is it that roads are an 'investment' - one which costs millions of dollars a year in repairs alone - while transit is considered 'subsidized'.
Instead, Cycling Commuter, I would be angry that MY tax dollars are going to subsidize infrastructure that supports and encourages car use (something that I, as a bike commuter, would never do).
Yes, you can always make the argument that investing in roads helps cycling commuters as well, but the sheer amount of road space and the level of repairs needed after 3 years of car use does not compare to either the space or repairs that are needed after 3 years of bike use.
We should stop subsidizing car use, and invest instead in bike lanes, sidewalks and public transit.
IAMC
6 years ago
I would buy castilleja's argument about subsidizing cyclists right of way, if there was a licence fee on each bicycle. What right do they have, when they aren't contributing like auto drivers.
Alcibiades
6 years ago
IAMC
And how, precisely, do auto drivers contribute?
Alcibiades
6 years ago
for example?
Alcibiades
6 years ago
As did the Easter Islanders, for example?
More like we'll resort to war to sort things out!
electric_bicyclist
6 years ago
I heard this Honorable Mayor speak at the Spirituality workshop at WUF, and his words are very inspiring. He said that there were no cyclists in Bogota until his city created bike lanes, and suddenly 5% of total travel was done by bike. Vancouver launched 4 more bike lanes in 2006, just in time for WUF, very nice.
However, despite that incremental gain in Vancouver cycling, the overall picture for Sustainable travel in GVRD is disappointing, in my view: There are very, very, very few cyclists outside of Vancouver, despite the 14 electric bike/cycle/car events that I've organized (more events than Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association, VEVA has done in the last 4 years) as well as efforts by the cycling community.
Therefore, ebike/bike shop owners have to ask themselves why the automobile has won the war? In my opinion, there are at least SIX MAJOR THRESHOLDS to regular bike communting/travel that must be overscome before people will take up cycling as anything other than a sport. A discussion of these barriers would take too long to discuss in this thread, however.
In summary, Sustainability is threatened by the lack of Toyota-durable and Honda-comfortable pedal and electric bikes -- just my two cents.
http://www.geocities.com/robert04mat/BEST_ELEC_SCOOTER.html
The good news for VEVA and electric bike owners is that EV batteries can be revived up to seven times its normal (rechargeable) lifespan. For an ebike or electric scooter, that means three years' use, instead of just six months per battery pack -- if you know how, that is.
RickW
6 years ago
Alcibiades:
By consuming horrendous amounts of non-renewable resources (good for GDP), then spewing forth many and copious toxins (also good for GDP)?
RickW
6 years ago
Alcibiades:
They didn't run out of resources....they just discovered they had too many people to share the one tree left, and no "innovative technology" to make like Christ's loaves and fishes..........
IAMC
6 years ago
Alcibiades; Automobiles have a licence plate on them. In Alberta, many years ago, bikes had to have a small licence plate, for which they owner payed a small fee to the govt. This would be a fair way to have bike owners help to pay for bike lane and such. I am amazed that they don't have to have insurance, considering all the havoc they create on the roadways.
Auto owners also pay a lot of taxes when they fuel up.
Alcibiades
6 years ago
When drivers start paying for the roads, the bridges and the mayhem and pollution they cause, you might have a point. Until then, as usual, you have none - the more cyclists we have on the roads and streets the better. When cyclists start running over cars and killing the occupants you will also have an argument.
Alberta is a very backward place.
Alcibiades
6 years ago
Rick W
It was this nonsense of IAMC's I was responding to with the Easter Island bit:
Like the Easter Islanders, we're starting to run out of options while IAMC whistles into the wind.
cocean
6 years ago
Jeffrey J, BC Mary, while the Bogota's success didn't make front-page news in the MSM, it did catch the attention of Christopher Hume (TorStar), who noted that Peñalosa was the only speaker to get a standing ovation: http://tinyurl.com/fvodu.
IAMC
6 years ago
Alberta's a backward place ? Is that why they pay their teachers way more than in BC ( nurses too )
Auto drivers do pay for infrastructure when they they pay the taxes at the gas pump. What do cyclists pay ? Nothing, I say make them pay a licencing fee at least. That would be fair, wouldn't it ?
darcy.mcgee
6 years ago
Yeah. This
is not a rule, it's stupid. It's the reason I won't ride in Critical Mass.
Respect traffic laws. You expect cars too. One didn't tonight, and I almost got plowed over sideways on a motorcycle.
Stupid drive in a light blue Honda Civic who was eating didn't stop. It wouldn't be very funny if he did that to your critical mass.
Alcibiades
6 years ago
IAMC
No. Alberta is extremely backward. The province produces more CO2 than any other province and almost 1/3 of Canada’s total. Drivers pay very little of the infrastructure expense and none of the environmental costs - which are shouldered by all citizens whether they drive or not. Start charging tolls for all drivers on all roads when they enter the city centre - as is done in London England. Leave cyclists alone - they are part of the solution to the problem created by drivers and the spew from their cars.
The little licenses you remember from Calgary were a civic measure and had nothing to do with recovering infrastructure costs. As to teachers and nurses in that province - you might want to ask a few about how valued they feel about their role in the backward province. Money, not that you'd know it, isn't everything.
IAMC
6 years ago
Money makes the world go round. Drivers are workers by and large. Because they are workers, they par a huge amount of taxes. Therefore, they do contribute to the money pot we all have to pitch into.
As far as Alberta goes, thank God we have this economic engine fiering on all cylinders, because it makes all richer.
RickW
6 years ago
http://www.assmotax.org/Releases/AMCT%20release:%20The%20Automobile%20Subsidy.php
Can't argue with IANC, Alcibiades. He isn't capable of responding outside of $$$$$. Wait until he gets cancerand starts squawking...........
RickW
6 years ago
http://www.freegan.info/
Freeganism is a total boycott of an economic system where the profit motive has eclipsed ethical considerations and where massively complex systems of productions ensure that all the products we buy will have detrimental impacts most of which we may never even consider. Thus, instead of avoiding the purchase of products from one bad company only to support another, we avoid buying anything to the greatest degree we are able.
Alcibiades
6 years ago
IAMC
Since you are so sanguine about what Alberta's filthy habits are doing for the world and us, you might want to take a little time and read the following:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19131
Not that I have any confidence it'll change your mind.
freebear
6 years ago
Remember IAMC stands for I Am Clueless:
Join the club and just ignore the deluded fool!
The main point of the article and the former Mayor of Bagota is that it is all about choice.
We can choose to live happy sustainable lives. Of course our economic system doesn't care one way or another as long as 'we' consume more, be it land, plants, animals, fossil fuels, minerals, and so on.
Of course there are no limits-Mars beckons!
freebear
6 years ago
Funny, how this article which highlights how we choose how we live has seen so few postings!
Just another indication of how we are choosing to nothing?
And re-confirming that the vision for Canada, BC and it communities is more of the same?
freebear
6 years ago
Correction:
........choosing to do nothing
peefer
6 years ago
Not many postings because the concept is just too difficult for people whose brains were addled by growing up inhaling exhaust fumes. We cannot possibly magine a city where you have a choice to NOT take the car. Why it's, it's, positively anti-consumerist, anti-capitalist, it's Un-American!
rayne_koest
6 years ago
As someone who has seen first-hand the changes in Bogota over the last 15 years*, I was excited to *finally* hear Peñalosa speak.
His exubarant and inspirational delivery had people all around me sitting up and taking notice... it was a rallying call that equally motivated those from developed and developing regions. After talking myself blue in the face telling coworkers and friends how much the city had improved the rousing response made me feel the teeniest bit vindicated.
That instant I thought to myself: I'll bet everyone in this room would go to Bogota this instant if they could.
So here is something that I would like to put out there right now to whoever is reading this: Go to Bogota.
Forget the Hollywood movies. Think Bogota, one of Latin America's largest (7 million or so folks) most developed and cultured cities. Home and birthplace of extremes - which includes an extremely successful transportation plan. Heck Lonely Planet has Colombia listed as a top ten backpacker destination this year.
See the Transmilenio, see how many people use it (but keep hold of your purse). Rent a bike and explore the Cyclovia bikeway network, get out on Sunday when they close the roads and go for a spin with most other Bogotanos (or Rolos as they are known). No, it isn't the perfect utopia that we might have gleaned from Peñalosa's talk (heaven knows that a cyclovia running down the centre boulevard of 4 lane highways needs more access than the odd ramp every few kms), but that's not the point - it works. It can work.
Check out the high-density living, the majority of 3-4 story buildings, the difference in mentalities. Most people there prefer the apartment life, its safer, allows them to be more central. It's a different mentality, not North American car/burb-centric, and not European - not with the extremes, but rather some hybrid grown up from circumstance and sheer Colombian ingenuity.
Bogota has lessons that Vancouver (with the lauded but largely exclusive Yaletown developments) cannot teach, and more importantly lessons that almost all cities represented at WUF3 can learn from.
*I had the pleasure of visiting Bogota this past February for a week, arriving on February 2nd, 2006. Day Without Cars.