Walking, Bicycling and Public Spaces: Lessons from Bogota and Beyond

Gil Penalosa, Executive Director of 8-80 Cities, presents one of his celebrated lectures at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University as part of The City Program lecture series. Penalosa emphasizes the urgency with which cities must address pedestrian and cyclist issues to face the wide array of challenges facing this generation, including environmental degradation, rising obesity rates, and economic competitiveness, just to name a few. Included are examples of cities throughout the world that are implementing innovative solutions to globally faced transportation issues.

Copenhagen's Car Free Streets & Slow- Speed Zones

In Copenhagen, you never have to travel very far to see a beautiful public space or car-free street packed with people soaking up the day.  In fact, since the early 1960s, 18 parking lots in the downtown area have been converted into public spaces for playing, meeting, and generally just doing things that human beings enjoy doing. If you're hungry, there are over 7,500 cafe seats in the city.

Melbourne: A Pedestrian Paradise

Melbourne is repeatedly cited as one of the most liveable cities in the world. Watch interviews with Robert Adams, Director of Design and Urban Environment Melbourne, Eliot Fishman from the Institute for Sensible Transportation, Gilbert Rochecouste the Director of Village Well, Kevin Luten from Urban Trans and Jan Gehl founder of the revolutionary architecture firm Gehl Architects to see how this city doubled its pedestrian traffic and transformed into a vibrant community through restricting car access, and giving priority to pedestrians, cyclists, and public space.
Made by StreetFilms (9:54 min)

Portland: Celebrating America's Most Liveable City

It's not often that a Department of Transportation receives love letters, but in Portland it's a regular occurrence. Frequently cited as America's most liveable city, Portland has spent the last 20 years promoting walking and biking as activities, and building the infrastructure to make such activities safe and possible. The result has been a quadrupling of the number of cyclists in the city, increased property values, and an improved quality of life for residents. Hear from Tom Potter, Mayor of Portland, Sam Adams, City Commissioner of Transportation, Mia Birk, Portland Bike Coordinator from 1993-1999 and many others on what it takes to create and keep up America's most successful walkable bikeable community.
Made by StreetFilms (30:00 min)

Parks, Bikeways & Open Space in Bogotá

Gil Penalosa, Executive Director of 8-80 Cities and former Commissioner for Parks, Sports and Recreation in Bogota Colombia, leads Clarence Eckerson Jr. of Streetfilms, Karla Quintero of Transportation Alternatives, and Aaron Naparstek of Streetsblog around Bogota's parks, streets and trails. Residents discuss the social integration and economic boom that has resulted from Bogota's transformation into a city that focuses on pedestrians, cyclists, and public space. Today, Penalosa says, a person could not be elected to the smallest ward of the city without making parks, open space and bicycles and pedestrian issues a major part of their campaign.
Made by StreetFilms (9:58 min)

Summer Streets 2008 (NYC)

Streetfilms follows New York City's first Summer Streets event that saw 6.9 miles of the city's streets, stretching from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park, closed to cars and open to people. Aside from the walking and cycling that took place, art activities and aerobics classes were held along the route. Interviews with Aaron Naparkstek of Streetsblog, Mark Gorton, Executive Director of Open Planning Project, Noah Budnick of Transportation Alternatives, and Janet Sadik-Khan, New York City's Transportation Commissioner who spearheaded the project, discuss the benefits and success of the event that was so well received one participant said “every day should be summer streets!”
Made by Street Films (4:37)

Video on vancouver.ca

This video presents a vision concerning how inclusive planning – that puts on walking and cycling – can create world class cities such as Copenhagen, Denmark, and Amsterdam. Due to its recognition as one of Canada’s greatest cities, Vancouver is now striving to compete with these cities, and become one of the best places to live in the world. By creating a complete grid of safe bicycle and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, as well as public places for people to enjoy, Vancouver will be able to showcase the opportunities and benefits that can come from focusing city planning around active transportation.

Articles

The New York City Pedestrian Safety Study & Action Plan
-NYC Department of Transportation, 2010
NYC Department of Transportation undertook an extensive study of pedestrian safety and produced an unprecedented Pedestrian Safety Action Plan. This report examines five years of data about traffic crashes that have caused serious injuries or fatalities to pedestrians, and identifies underlying causes that can be addressed to reduce these crashes. Mayor Bloomberg has recognized the urgency of reaching this goal; as stated in Sustainable Streets, he “is committed to improving traffic safety as a fundamental public health issue.” Traffic fatalities and injuries have wide impacts on the city in terms of economic, equity, environmental and quality-of life costs. Traffic fatalities and injuries are not an unavoidable consequence of an auto-oriented society. Road safety is an issue that can be substantially addressed by informed design and engineering, education and enforcement.

Deadliest for Walkers: Male Drivers, Left Turns
By Michael M. Grynbaum
New York City’s transportation planners offers unusual insights into the precarious life on the city’s streets, pinpointing where, when and why pedestrian accidents have most often occurred. The study confirms some of the century-old assumptions about transportation in the country’s biggest city, yet it undercuts others.

Active Transportation for America: The Care for Increased Federal Investment in Bicycling and Walking
Active Transportation works in creating the transition between car-oriented infrastructures to pedestrian-friendly land use in order to increase a far more efficient use of transportation resources. It is clear that the current car-centered transportation policy has lead our communities into chronic congestion, disastrous gas bills, and highly inefficient transportation systems that lead to major health problems. The implementation of active transportation will allow us to create sustainable communities, by promoting physical activity and more liveable settings.

Q.&A.: Transportation Secretary on Biking, Walking and 'What Americans Want' by Leora Broydo Vestel
The United States transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, recently caused a stir when he
proclaimed that bicycling and walking should be given the same consideration as motorized
transport in state and local transit projects. Critics, conversely, believe the secretary is taking the country in the wrong direction. Mr. LaHood, formerly a Republican congressman from Illinois, spoke with Green Inc. about his reasons for introducing the new policy, the impact it will have on transportation financing, and why bike paths are a good bang for the buck.

A Footprint of Delight: Exploring Sustainable Happiness
A magnificent study was conducted by Catherine O’Brien and the National Center for Bicycling and Walking, investigating the factors that contributed to the delightfulness and sustainability of a city, reflecting on the residents’ overall happiness. The majority of people’s results projected a significant desire for a more pedestrian and cyclist-friendly community, with peaceful and beautiful green spaces that are appealing children, youth, and seniors.

Streets for Chicago: Complete Streets Policy
Streets for Chicago is a campaign that has been implementing the concept of Complete Streets, in where the infrastructural space is safely shared by pedestrians, cyclists, and motor vehicles at all times. The Chicago Police Department launched the Pilot LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) speed gun system and increased the number or Red Light Cameras in order to deter excessive speeding by motor vehicles, as well as to increase awareness at cross-walks to infer safer facilities for pedestrians.

Ciclovia: the Car-free Zone
Daniel B. Wood writes an inspiring article illustrating the growth of car-free days all throughout America, in where the city closes down the streets to cars, in order to allow pedestrians and cyclists to exclusively enjoy the outdoors. This concept is very popular in many places around the world including Bogota, New York, and Paris. Alongside, many cities such as New York and Atlanta are now prohibiting the entrance of vehicles into the city’s public parks.

American Planning Association: Complete the Streets!
A complete street is defined as a road that accommodates motorists, bus riders, bicyclists, and pedestrians, including people with disabilities. More than 2 dozen jurisdictions in the US have now adopted laws in where all main roads must mandatorily be built to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists, with the exception of streets where they are prohibited, where the costs are excessive, and where there it’s not necessary (residential).

Walking and Cycling to Health by Pucher et. al., 2010
This article uses a comparative analysis of city, state and international data to determine the magnitude, direction, and statistical significance of the relationship between active travel and rate of physical activity, obesity, and diabetes. A growing body of evidence suggests that differences in the built environment for physical activity (e.g., infrastructure for walking and cycling, availability of public transit, street connectivity, housing density, and mixed land use) influence the likelihood that people will use active transport for their daily travel. People who live in areas that are more conducive to walking and cycling are more likely to engage in these forms of active transport and Walking and cycling can provide valuable daily physical activity.

Walking in Air: Pedestrian Bridges
Pedestrian bridges reunite downtowns with waterfronts, add dynamic forms to city skylines, give historic vehicular bridges new life, and bring citizens closer to nature.  However, planners have managed to place them in a lower priority in accordance to park planning. This has restricted many pedestrians from safe accessibility to these areas.

Walking Advocacy

America Walks : A national coalition of advocacy groups which works to promote walkable communities across the U.S.

Canada Walks

Colorado Walks : Colorado Walk's works to promote walking as a fitness activity and method of transportation by creating pedestrian friendly communities across Colorado.

iCANwalk- Walk and Bike More - drive less!: CANwalk promotes walking and community walkability across Ontario. Our aim is to encourage active transportation - walking, biking, in-line skating, skateboarding - instead of traveling by car, for short trips.

National Center for Bicycling & Walking : A program of the Bicycle Federation of America created to promote healthy, walkable and bikable communities.

Pedbikeimages.org : PBIC works to improve community walkability and bikability through promoting these transportation methods.

Pedestrian and Bicycle Publications : A list of publications to provide individuals with valuable pedestrian and bicycling resources

Perils for Pedestrians : A monthly Television series promoting awareness of the issues affecting the safety of people who walk and bike.

Walk Arlington : An initiative of Arlington County that promotes walking as a form of active transportation.

Walk Boston : An initiative of the state of Massachusetts that promotes walking as a form of active transportation.

Walkable Communities, Inc. : An organization out of the U.S. formed to help all types of communities to become more walkable.

WalkON : A partnership of regional health networks aimed at improving the walkability of cities across the southern regions of Ontario.

Walk San Diego : A regional grassroots organization dedicated to making communities more walkable.