Riding Bogota’s Bountiful Protected Bikeways

Monday, August 8, 2011

Riding Bogota’s Bountiful Protected Bikeways

Since 1998, Bogotá, Colombia has built more than 300 kilometers of protected bikeways. Streetfilms recently had the chance to explore the city's bike network with the man responsible for building it, former mayor Enrique Peñalosa.

"When we build very high quality bicycle infrastructure, besides protecting cyclists, it shows that a citizen on a $30 bicycle is equally as important to one in a $30,000 car," said Peñalosa. And as mayor, he walked the walk, extending the network of protected bikeways to every community.

"He spent all of the money that he had developing public space for pedestrians and bicycles," said Carlos Felipe Pardo from SlowResearch.org. "If you go to other places, you have people in the mud walking but the cars on a perfect road and here it is the opposite."

Now the investment in cycling infrastructure is paying off. After starting off with hardly any bike commuters, Bogota is pushing a five percent bike commute mode-share.

Eric McClure

Wow, the whole city is filled with "radical," "experimental," two-way protected bike lanes.
Anonymous

Wait, a citizen on a bike is as important as one in a car? That can't be true. How are cyclists supposed to learn valuable "lessons" or be "served right" if people can't run them over with cars and trucks? It's really just cheating the cyclists out of those important, character building benefits.
http://walkbikejersey.blogspot.com/ Andy B from Jersey

Wow! From the initial screen capture I was expecting to be underwhelmed but I wasn't at all from what Elizabeth showed us. Very nice!

Quite a few bollards though. I'd be worried about crashing into those.
http://www.greenidea.eu Green_Idea_Factory

What is the bike modal split in regards to gender? 5% in such a huge city is a lot of people but it's also a very diverse city as Peñalosa says directly: That path connects rich and poor but how many rich and how many poor people cycle for transportation?
Esteban

Bogota is such an amazing city that often times gets overlooked by Buenos Aires, Santiago, Sao Paulo, etc. Wonderful initiative.
http://karenlynnallen.blogspot.com/ Karen Lynn Allen

"When we build very high quality bicycle infrastructure, besides protecting bicyclists, this is a powerful symbol that shows that citizen on a $30 bicycle is equally as important to one in a $30,000 car."

Democracy in action.
Bogota Cyclist

If you actually used these lane everyday you'd know that they are dangerous and it is safer to ride in traffic than on the cicloruta. More people are riding bikes, not because of the lanes, but because having half the cities main arterial roads dug up to build an inefficient mass transport system means that the bus takes 2 hours longer than a bicycle. People are willing to risk their safety in horrendous traffic to save up to 3 hours a day in commuting.
Anonymous

whoa, bikes cost $30 in bogota?
Dawg

Would be interesting to know the history of the development of Bogota. Most of the streets shown in the film look HUGE (i.e. pretty easy to add bike paths). This model could apply to many of the suburban-style cities in the US, but probably not the denser cities like NYC, SF, Philly, etc.
Anonymous

Great video. I need to promote this.
http://twitter.com/ReneAriza René Ariza

ok
http://twitter.com/ReneAriza René Ariza

Here in Bogotá, there are plenty of bike paths, yes. But, unfortunately, they are not as used as they could, due to -mainly- urban violence: robbery, theft and the like. Bogotá is not Copenhaguen. This issue, the social context in which the bike paths were laid out, is yet to be addressed.
Grinch

I grew up in Bogota and I think
infrastructure for bicycles has improved over the last 15 years,
there are definitely more cycle lanes these days. However, they do
require ongoing maintenance. I don't think that has been happening
in poorer neighbourhoods, where cycling lanes are very run down,
which makes it unsafe for cycling- no wonder a lot of cyclists end
up riding on the road instead-. In contrast, cycling lanes in
more affluent and wealthy areas are better maintained, just a
reflection of social inequality in Colombia. It is all very well
for these guys in the urban development departments, who I wonder
how much cycling do around the whole city, to be proud of them,
because there is reason to be. But, it is also important to be
critical and to realise that there is still room to improve.
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/chris-morfas/2a/482/610/ Chris Morfas

Prior to the installation of Bogota's many bollards, cars had taken to parking on sidewalks and other inappropriate places.
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/chris-morfas/2a/482/610/ Chris Morfas

Bogota really is a fascinating experiment in bikeway design, with certain paths working much better than others.

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