Interview with Enrique Peñalosa
As mayor of Bogota, Colombia, Enrique Peñalosa accomplished remarkable changes of monumental proportions for the people of his country in just three years.
Peñalosa changed the way Bogota treated its non-driving citizens by restricting automobile use and instituting a bus rapid transit system which now carries a 1/2 million residents daily. Among other improvements: he widened and rebuilt sidewalks, created grand public spaces, and implemented over one hundred miles of bicycle paths.
TOPP Executive Director Mark Gorton discusses with Penalosa some of these transportation achievements and asks what the future could hold for NYC if similar improvements were made here.
Enrique Penalosa is GOD!
OMG! Please clone Mr. Peñalosa and send the copies everywhere!
Viva Senor Penalosa. He truly is a visionary, and one who has actually seen his dreams become reality!
Bring Mr. Penalosa to Cleveland please! Seriously, how can you get a hold off him? Is there any way?
Another great example of the power of possibility and creativity. Just because it had never been done before doesn't mean it couldn't be done!
Excellent video, excellent interview. I was in Bogotá in the 80´s, traffic was a total mess, worse than Mexico City. I was also in Bogotá a few months ago. I must say I was completely amazed at the positive change these improvements have made. It was also nice to see how proud the people from Bogotá are.
[...] Stringer’s historic “Manhattan on the Move” transportation conference, our hero Enrique Peñalosa met up with the staff of Transportation Alternatives to ride up to the [...]
Inspiring. What a legend.
[...] Enrique Penalosa always makes me swoon. In our field, he is godlike status. When he speaks you devour every phrase [...]
I have long admired the practices shown on this site. The walkable, bikeable city seems to heavy snowfall for those same situations. The ice isn't safe and the slush is miserable to walk in. I can see that mass transit is good for snowy locations, but is there anything else that could be implemented? If a northern city invests in infrastructure, they want it to be usable for the whole year. Also, what about the traffic calming concepts--do they interfere with snow plowing? It seems like there would have to be plowing to walk or bike too.
it's interesting to think that we're now fighting to restrict the use of cities by motorists. it reminds me, in a simple way, of the the pendulum swing towards organic foods. if we hadn't been so eager to use pesticides in the first place....
progress can happen too quickly. why did we create so many parking spaces in the first place? why did we relinquish so much of our cities for vehicle use?
but enough about what coul've/should've! Penalosa makes it seem so simple; let's fix NYC.
Antonio's got a point - think of all the things we're willing to change these days in the name of progress.
Maybe I'll reconsider getting that iPhone now!
Truly a visionary and a man to watch. His honesty and accurate potrayal of the obvious conflicts between cars and people is too easily ignored by most leaders.
In St. Louis, the region has made a dramatic and large commitment to the opposite approach in putting cars over people. Amazingly, local leadership continues to be surprised by depopulation trends.
Thanks so very much for giving this great man a broader audience. Linking real estate values to smart transportation design is the way to convince skeptics.
I too scream VIVA Senior Penalosa!
Living in a country where some scholars and those with the responsibility to make changes like those started by Enrique Peñalosa, are still finding excuses not to make them and see the solution only based on cars, this interview only strengthen my opinion regarding will to change is almost everything needed to really change.
Some supposedly expert scholars that make plans for our capital city council, still think that there's a need to make traffic easy for cars, that including bikes in the plans will cause more deaths of bikers. People still paint the line on the ground and think that they're making anything for the cause.
Our capital city has only around 1/3 of Bogota...
We've got, almost everywhere, from 70% to 90% of the street to the car (huge roads with lots of parking space, small and full of obstacles sidewalks), even on building new roads there isn't any care for pedestrians. Roads are built without sidewalks, bus stops are defined by a pole, people get the bus on the side of the street, on the tarmac, on the rain. And I live on one of the most rich councils of Portugal (Oeiras), with lots of offices from the big Portuguese and multinational corporations. We've got a stupid way of financing the councils, based on the construction rate, increasing real estate speculation, creating corrupt councils, leading to few innovation and to no will to benefit the population.
*sigh*
With the will to show the interview to people unable to understand English, I took the time to transcribe this interview on dotSUB and translate it to Portuguese:
http://dotsub.com/films/interviewwith_1
You can register there and translate it to your native language, it would be wonderful to promote further the strong message the work of Mr. Peñalosa holds.
Thanks.
[...] "and that really got everyone's attention." The Monitor calls Bogota, Colombia the "model city for road closure." The city started closing streets to cars once a week in the early 1980s as part of its [...]
and he's a fellow blue devil. what's not to love?
[...] vehicular traffic. Only Luis Eduardo Garzón, the mayor of Bogotá, Colombia (where former mayor Enrique Peñalosa promoted radical cyclist- and pedestrian-friendly measures), briefly mentioned bike lanes. Other [...]
Awesome! So good. I think every city should take at least one long street downtown and restrict personal vehicle use. 5th and 6th avenues? in downtown Portland are going through major renovations where there is a rail line, a bus lane and a car lane. Why not ditch the car lane for more bicycle/pedestrian use? You don't need to drive on those streets anyway.
Shared Hosting Resources...
I couldn't understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting...
[...] Streets Films: Interview with Enrique Peñalosa [...]
Im from Colombia and lived in Bogotá for about 17 years now and in all this time the only real lider thinking about changing the city for better and not for worse was Enrique Penalosa...I´ve voted for him when he run for Mayor and WE WON of course...and also voted for him when he run for SENATOR of the Republic...and guess what.....HE IS COMING BACK! HE IS RUNNING FOR MAYOR OF BOGOTÁ AGAIN what else can one ask from God? Im getting my pen ready for THE day! I love PENALOSA
As someone who grew up and has lived in Bogota her whole life, I must say that my city really experienced a big change both in the urban and the identity aspects during the last 12 years. Having had Enrique Penalosa as the Major of our City, was the best thing that could ever happen to our public spaces, our parks, our transport system, our public libraries, and most important, the sense of belongingness of our citizens.
Before Bogota went through this polyfacetic process of transformation, the capital city was said to belong to nobody in particular, something that was in part the result of a massive migration of people from the smaller cities and towns all around the country, who came to Bogota looking for better opportunities. After the construction of the first phases of Transmilenio, the hundreds of kilometres of the so called 'Ciclorutas' (bike lanes), the mega-libraries designed by some of our most famous architects, the schools, the recovery of many areas of the city that had some urban, cultural or historical meaning, and the cultural citizen educational programs undergone by Antanas Mockus who followed Peñalosa as Major, we (bogotanos)do think in Bogota as our city; we feel very proud when we see people coming from around the country or even the world, who come to visit the city for the changes they know it has had, people who have heard that we had the fortune to have a team of great people working to turn Bogota in one of the cities where good administration practices have worked, turning it into an admirable urban centre.
We nice interview with Peñalosa. Congratulations!!!
Great interview. I wish we could lure him to Toronto to deliver the same message...
I saw Dr. Penalosa speak at a transportation conference in Long Beach CA, and was blown away. His message is so easy to hear and understand because he speaks the truth and common sense. Hopefully his message will not be lost in political, socio-economic forces in America. As an advocate for people with disabilities and seniors, it is vital that these pedestrian and bike friendly pathways be created in the US for the inevitable senior tsunami. All hail Dr. Penalosa!
AMAZING!!! I wish this could be done in my country!
[...] http://www.streetfilms.org/archives/interview-with-enrique-penalosa-long/ [...]
I am the film programmer of the Sustinabel Living Festival in Melbourne Australia. I would be interested in showing this film at our upcoming Film Festival. Is it possible to gain a high res copy somehow?
I heard of this man, Enrique Penalosa when I was working on my thesis on the relationship between traffic congestion and car dependency in my city, Kuching in theState of Sarawak, East Malaysia. I WISH someone can pass me the goodDr. e-mail. I have been working on sustainable urban transport programme (for 3 years now) but nobody listens as the national government policy on the national car PROTON eats into the life of every Malaysian adult who thinks that the car is the answer to accessibility. I envy Bogota and Curitiba and creative city councils in the USA that seize opportunities to give street back to the people for pedestrianization, bike, street buses, train etc.
Can someone pass me this great man's e-mail or contact. We are in the process of preparing for an Conference on Kuching Healthy City, an international evbent for the Alliance for Healthy City , western Pacific and getting Dr. Penalosa here to speak about community spirit in developing a sustainable uban transport programme/project. Thanks.
I first heard of Dr. Enrique Penalosa when I was working onmy thesis on the relationship between car dependency and urban traffic congestion. Now I am involved trying to get urban public transport programme moving. Seems that in malaysia, nobody wants to know about buses and bike - practically all Malaysian adults are caught up in modern lifestyle and driving individually in their own cars. Sad but true.
I would appreciate if someone out there could pass me Dr. penalosa=s contact numbet (e-mail that is) as I sure would like him to come over and help me in my little cit of Kuching. The opportunity could be during our 10th Kuching Healthy City Conference wherby we, the working committee would be delighted to invite him as a keynote speaker. Thanks people.
[...] Interview with Enrique Peñalosa [...]
[...] Gavin Newson of San Fransisco, Enrique Penalosa of Bogota or Gerd Leers of [...]
[...] love this, don’t miss some of our past interviews. Here are just a few: Janette Sadik-Khan. Enrique Penalosa. Gridlock Sam. Donald Shoup. Randy [...]
[...] - 17,962Hal Grades Your Bike Locking 3: The Final Warning! - 16,495T.A. Century 2007 - 16,374Interview with Enrique Peñalosa - 16,016Melbourne: A Pedestrian Paradise - 15,242Boulder Goes Bike Platinum - 14,472Raised [...]
[...] - 17,965Hal Grades Your Bike Locking 3: The Final Warning! - 16,505T.A. Century 2007 - 16,374Interview with Enrique Peñalosa - 16,017Melbourne: A Pedestrian Paradise - 15,242Boulder Goes Bike Platinum - 14,472Raised [...]