This story from Treehugger is a great follow up to our recent post featuring former Mayor, Enrique Peñalosa and his inspiring TED Talk on creating cities of the future. Peñalosa was responsible for Bogotá’s first car-free day back in 2000, which was subsequently approved as an annual event. Last week marked a new first in the greening of Bogotá with the city offering citizens a car-free week!
The initiative is the brainchild of local biking advocacy group, Mejor en Bici (Better on Bike). They made the push for extending the day to a week and the city agreed. So last week, Feb 6-13 marked a first for Bogotá, as the city cleared the way for cyclists and pedestrians on a network of roads which were completely closed to cars.
Rachel Jaffe of The City Fix argued that “This week-long extension shows that Bogotá’s bicycling infrastructure is strong enough to where the economy’s vibrancy does not have to be compromised for the country’s sustainability initiatives. Other developing countries should follow Bogotá’s example and seek out ways in which sustainable transport can simultaneously help economic, health, and development goals”.
An admirable example not just for “developing” countries, but even more so for developed countries, as Treehugger’s Zachary Shahan kindly points out!
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