Riding Bogota’s Bountiful Protected Bikeways

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Enrique Penalosa:  [00:07] We have two worlds.  One is for ciclovia which is when we close the streets for cars every Sunday, 100 or so kilometres, and then we get like a million people out riding bicycles.  But then this permanent ciclovia, this permanent bikeways we call cicloruta, make a difference from the Sunday ones. 

Felipe Morales:  [00:27] This is our cicloruta or in English, cycle paths, exclusive lanes for the transit for bicycles in the city. 

Carlos Felipe Pardo:  [00:37] It is a true network of cycling and it’s a true network of high quality bicycle infrastructure. 

Guillermo Dietrich:  [00:44] It’s amazing the quantity of ciclorutas that here in Bogotá I think that there are 350 kilometres.  We are working in this direction [unintelligible] also and I think that this is the direction that we have in the cities to improve the public transportation, to improve the quality of the infrastructure.

Enrique Penalosa:  [01:03] This is Juana Maria Greenway, it connects some of the wealthiest areas of the city to some extremely poor areas.  And then people use it for transport. 

Bram Van Ooijen:  [01:14]: The great thing about Bogota’s bicycle routes and greenways is that it’s not only a cycle path, it’s not only a sidewalk, but it’s everything around it as well. 

Enrique Penalosa:  [01:22] People used to be ashamed using a bicycle because that was a sign of being the poorest of the poor.  When we build very high quality bicycle infrastructure, besides protecting cyclists, this is a powerful symbol that shows a citizen on a $30 bicycle is equally important to one on a $30,000 car.

Carlos Felipe Pardo:  [01:43] I think the infrastructure empowered people. 

Andres Felipe Vergara:  [01:46] I cycle all the time because the time, it’s faster, because the economy, you have to spend money in gasoline or parking the car and because I am autonomous, I can go when and where I want and that’s why I have my, the group, Ciclopaseo de los Miercoles that promotes the use of bicycles and that’s a way to teach everybody how to use the bicycle in the city. 

Carlos Felipe Pardo:  [02:13] There are basically two types of cycle ways.  One is on the sidewalk.  It’s beside the pedestrians and space was built additional to what was already available for pedestrians.  The other is the one that we have here where I’m standing and it is one in the median.  There is also for example the Alameda which we are today.  It’s basically a space only for non motor transit, so you only have bicycles or people walking on that.  And what I think is most useful to see in the metro [unintelligible] is that he spent all the money that he had in developing public space for pedestrians and for bicyclists.  He spent no money in cars.  He didn’t put anything there.  If you go to other places you will see that you have people in the mud walking, but then cars in a perfect road and here is the opposite of what you see everyday in every other city that hasn’t solved its transport problem. 

Enrique Penalosa:  [03:11] When we arrived at City Hall nobody used bicycles, like maybe 0.1% of the people used bicycles.  Now we have about 5% of the people using bicycles everyday to go to work.  Still very small, but it’s already 350,000 people.   

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