ABC National Radio - By Design presentation: Bogota urban reform

[ozbob]

Bogota urban reform

For many years the Colombian capital Bogota conjured up images of a dangerous, traffic-congested city where pedestrians feared to tread.

But during the years 1998 to 2001 the then mayor of Bogota, Enrique Penalosa, put into place a radical program of urban change: promoting a city model that gives priority to children and public spaces, restricting car use in the city, instituting from scratch a successful Bus Rapid Transit System; and building hundreds of kilometres of sidewalks, bicycle paths, greenways and parks.

--> http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bydesign/stories/2008/2162449.htm

Very worthwhile listen

[Zoiks]

Wow... that is simply amazing. Some of those figures are just incredible.
I wonder if we will ever get a mayor or government official with the balls to do something like this.

I think the biggest problem with acceptance of less road and more public transport is that people see few successful initiatives. But this is changing with the success of the green and goodwill bridges, along with the SE busway. This has spawned new bridges and new busways. Its a shame development is stifled in rail infrastructure.

Think about this as a city.

• Wide bikeways everywhere
• Lightrail running through the city again and spreading out in the greater metropolitan area.
• Heavy rail taking long distance commuters on realigned tracks at high speed.
• Buses running on dedicated buslanes which are on all major road corridors which feed the rail systems
• Congestion charges in the city
• Current busways converted to light rail
• Trains running max 15min offpeak 4am to 12am and 30min 12am to 4 am.