A look at Bogota, Colombia

Environmentalism is probably the last thing anyone would think of when mentioning Columbia as the country has been mired in conflict for the past 30 years; violence, drugs and slums are your stereotypical images of the country.

However, the mayor (now former mayor) of its capital city Bogotá, Enrique Peñalosa, has managed to transform his city by introducing an annual car free day, raising the tax on gasoline and creating a rapid bus system, among other plans.

“During his three-year term, Penalosa brought in initiatives that would seem impossible in most cities, even in the wealthy north. He built more than a hundred nurseries for children. He built 50 new public schools and increased enrollment 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 kilometers of bicycle paths, pedestrian streets, and more than 1,200 parks.
He did it all, in part, by declaring a war on private cars.”

Although the mayor left office in 2001, the way Penalosa reinvented the city is remarkable because it shows that developing nations are not helpless, dependent nations that need to be showered with aid all the time, it also highlights how much a creative and trustworthy civil servant can accomplish if his/her goal is to truly help the people, and lastly it illustrates the obvious environmental implications of how we can alter our cities through radical yet feasible ways.

Click here for a short video about the mayor.

The mayor before him, Antanus Mockus, was also quite eccentric, he’s famous for having hired mimes to model civil behavior in the streets.

Happy Car-Free Day!

Happy Car Free day

September 22 is Car Free Day.(click to see bigger)

A bit late I know but park the car, and take that metro or bus and/or ride your bike for a day instead. For the sake of Mother Nature, your health, having some fun, alleviating traffic, cutting our oil addiction and supporting corrupt dictators. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with driving a car (unlike many one dimensional people). There is a tendency to vilify cars and disregard their benefits and convenience; rather it is the consequences of owning cars that should be focused on. Driving less should be the first step and from there you gradually eliminate cars.

If you are interested in CM and cycling, check out this documentary on the beginnings of Critical Mass in San Francisco, the mayor Brown crackdown and the spread of the Critical Mass phenomenon.
I wish Critical Mass gets introduced in Beirut sometime soon. Anyone in Lebanon interested in starting one up together? I don’t even know how much interest (if any) Lebanese people in general would have but it’s worth the shot, maybe next summer!

Check out also these cool transport-related illustrations.