Gil Penalosa

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Walking Bicycling Connecting Communities The
Art of Mastering Change
Gil Penalosa Executive Director Walk Bike for
Life www.walkandbikeforlife.org
2nd National Active Travel Conference Perth
Concert Hall Scotland May 13th, 2009
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Senior Senior
Member
Member
Consultant Consultant
Board of
Board of


Directors
Directors
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• If we had known 20 or 30 years what we know
  today
• our city would be different
• Comments from some decision makers in Southern
  Ontario

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• Others knew 30 years ago
• what we know today
• Two examples

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Copenhagen, Denmark
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Closer to the North Pole
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Nov. 1973
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(No Transcript)
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Change is hard, People it was not possible
.....because there were too many cars, the
weather was too bad and it was not our culture

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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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Evolution of CPHs Car-Free Streets 1962, 1968,
1988, 1996
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From car invasion...
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...to people places
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One entrance to city centre 1975 2005 cycling
increased 400
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Bicycling has doubled since 1990
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...and now there are other traffic jams
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...a nice problem to solve
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Some wonderful Complete Streets Pedestrians,
cyclists, transit and cars
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38 use bicycle as mode of transportation
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70 continue to bike all winter /snow
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The Best Bicycle City in the World Aim for 2015

• More than 50 bike to work
• 50 reduction of accidents
• 80 feeling safe bicycling

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• Another city to learn from best practices

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Vancouver Canada
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Vancouver chose a way of life

City staff, politicians and citizens have not
allowed new highways into the City in last 30
years
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Vancouver chose a way of life
1970s Planning Staff and Council minimal
public input

21st Century Planning Extensive Citizen
Engagement
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(No Transcript)
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Vancouver chose a way of life
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Vancouver chose a way of life

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30K speed limits, physical barriers
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Vancouver chose a way of life

Planning Land Use and Transportation together
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Vancouver chose a way of life
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Most Liveable cities The Economist magazine
2007 world ranking
cho
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• What can Copenhagen and Vancouver improve?
• Everything.
• Its a process of Continuous Improvement

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• Principle of Creating Great Cities
• You are never finished

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• Real danger for
• CPH or Vancouver
• Myth of excellence
• More difficult to move from Good to Great

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• What kind of cities
• are we going to build?

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• How do we want to live?
• (A city is only a means to a way of life)

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• We must improve the Communities that we have
  today.

We need to build communities differently Do
not spend a litre of gas getting a litre of
milk. How about a corner store within 500
metres? Every K?
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• What kind of cities
• are we going to build?

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When you define your city around cars,
you get more cars
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(No Transcript)
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When you define your city around people,
you get more people. Healthier and Happier
people.
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You also get Healthier Communities and better
Quality of Life for All
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Quality of Life and Economic Competitiveness
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• A good community is not a matter of engineering

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• It is more about people

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Walking Bicycling Connecting Communities The
Art of Mastering Change
2nd National Active Travel Conference Perth
Concert Hall Scotland May 13th, 2009
48
Perfect Storm Perfect Opportunity Beyond the
Baby Steps
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Brad Pitt Angelina Jolie With kids
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PeeWee
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ThinkingTalkingWalking CyclingPublic
Spaces
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ThinkingTalking
Not enough DOING!
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• How to move
• From Thinking Talking
• To DOING

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• Why a
• Perfect
• Storm?

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Prescription for the economic crisis No band
aidstime to BOLD
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Part of the solution, Not of the problem
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Walking Biking and the Environment
How to transport 60 people?
Pedestrians, Cyclists, and Buses take up much
less space than cars!!
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Greenhouse Gas Emissions from different forms of
Transport
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Walking Biking and Economic Development
What gives character to and is memorable
about a city is its pedestrian / bicycling
spaces. Tourism is Pedestrian!
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Walking Biking and Recreation for ALL
Clear Recreational Trend unscheduled and
unorganized activities
People are moving away from organized and
scheduled activities, to unscheduled and
unorganized ones (except soccer) i.e. walking
1 biking in top 5
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Walking Biking and Transportation

• Problematic symptoms
• Driving to the gym
• to walk on a treadmill.

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Walking Biking and Transportation

• More problematic symptoms

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Walking Biking and Transportation
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Walking Biking and Transportation
Walking is a mode of Transportation
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Walking Biking a Human Rights issue? The
Right to Mobility
Even in the wealthiest and most sprawled
communities
Over 1/3 of residents do NOT drive! All under 17
yrs old 30 of 60 yrs old 15 of 18-60 yrs old
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Walking Biking and Transportation
Crosswalks
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Outbound Commercial Driveway
Before
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Outbound Commercial Driveway
After
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Walking Biking and Transportation
The best link to all Transit systems
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Walking Biking and Transportation
Parking Quantity? Quality? Location???
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Parking Quantity? Quality? Location???
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Quantity Quality Location!
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Walking Biking and Transportation
Parking Quantity Quality Location
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Walking Biking and Transportation
Parking Quantity Quality Location
Muenster, Germany Conversion of car parking to
bike parking San Francisco, USA
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Walking Biking and Transportation
Parking Quantity Quality Location
Muenster, Germany Conversion of car parking to
bike parking San Francisco, USA
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Complete Streets are those designed, built,
maintained and operated considering
Pedestrians, Cyclists, Transit, Motor Vehicles
Complete Streets
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Is this supported in design manuals?
Most transportation experts agree this road is
poorly designed
www.completestreets.org
www.thunderheadalliance.org
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Is this supported in design manuals?
Most transportation experts agree this road is
better designed
www.completestreets.org
www.thunderheadalliance.org
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What is a Complete Streets policy?

• A complete streets policy ensures that the
  entire right of way is routinely designed and
  operated to enable safe access
• for all users.

www.completestreets.org www.thunderheadalliance.or
g
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What is a Complete Streets policy?

• A complete streets policy ensures that the
  entire right of way is routinely designed and
  operated to enable safe access
• for all users.

www.completestreets.org www.thunderheadalliance.or
g
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Walking Biking and Health
Is this what our future looks like?
What about Personal Public Health costs?
Quality of Life?
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Daily trips walking or biking and obesity rates
Walk/Bike
Obesity
E Jacoby elaboration Data from Victoria
Transport I, 2002 and WHO, 2000.
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Obesity among women in The Americas
Chile
USA
Caribbean
Canada
Peru
Brazil
E Jacoby based on data from WHO, Monteiro, CFNI,
PAHO
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Does auto-dependency make us fat? Obesity falls
sharply with increased walking, cycling, and
transit use!
Source Pucher and Dijkstra, Promoting Safe
Walking and Cycling to Improve Public Health, Am
Journal of Public Health, Sep 2003.
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• Why a
• Perfect Opportunity?

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The stars are aligned!
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Myth Bicycle infrastructure is about painting
lines on the pavement
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• Transportation Priorities
• Pedestrians First
• Bicyclist Second
• Transit
• Then Cars and others

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Different Riders, Different Needs
Population Bar ALL residents
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Different Riders, Different Needs
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Different Riders, Different Needs
No way no how
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Different Riders, Different Needs
Enthused Confident Comfortable in traffic with
appropriate facilities. Bike lanes
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Different Riders, Different Needs
Interested but concerned
Interested but Concerned Not comfortable in
traffic. Prefer low-volume, low-speed. Bike
boulevards. On arterials, grid of bikeways
physically separated from cars and pedestrians.
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Different Riders, Different Needs
Interested but concerned
Interested but Concerned Not comfortable in
traffic. Prefer low-volume, low-speed. Bike
boulevards. On arterials, grid of bikeways
physically separated from cars and pedestrians.
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Different Riders, Different Needs
Interested but concerned
Interested but Concerned Not comfortable in
traffic. Prefer low-volume, low-speed. Bike
boulevards. On arterials, grid of bikeways
physically separated from cars and pedestrians.
Enthused Confident Comfortable in traffic with
appropriate facilities. Bike lanes
Who is our target segment? Who do we want
Bicycling?
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Who do we want cycling in our community?
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Who do we want cycling in our community?
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Who do we want cycling in our community?
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Who do we want cycling in our community?
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Who do we want cycling in our community?
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Safe Bicycling for ALL
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Need to make Cycling Safe, Convenient,
Attractive, and Feasible for EVERYONE!! John
Pucher Cycling for Everyone
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Transportation speeds Pedestrians at 5
kph Bicyclists at 15 kph Cars at 40 kph Each
NEEDS separate facilities
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8 / 80 Rule
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(No Transcript)
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Step 1 Think of a child that you really Love,
your son/daughter, grandchild, niece, etc.
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Step 2 Think of an older adult who is
approximately 80 years old and you really like
your grandparent, parent, friend
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Step 3 Would you send this child and/or this
older adult on a walk or bike-ride on that
infrastructure? .
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If you do, it is safe enough. If you dont, it
is NOT
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(No Transcript)
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Actually, if every thing that you do in a city is
great for the 08 80, it will probably be good
for everyone else
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8 / 80???
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Most people do not think twice of parking on the
bike lane areas
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Most people do not think twice of parking on the
bike lane areas
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Cyclists move to the pedestrians space as they
do not feel comfortable riding on bike-lanes next
to SUV at 60 KPH
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Some physical separation from cars and
pedestrians is necessary
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Cycling in Holland
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Montreals separate facilities
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Paris separate facilities
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Safe and comfortable for all pedestrians,
cyclists, transit and car drivers
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Two lanes each way becoming one for car, one for
bikes with a cycle-track Copenhagen, 2007
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Cycle tracks offer the convenience of bike lanes,
but SAFE for all
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Cycle tracks offer the convenience of bike lanes,
but SAFE for all
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Cycle tracks offer the convenience of bike lanes,
but SAFE for all
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Beyond Baby Steps
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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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Streets for cars...
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...or streets for people
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Streets for cars...
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...or streets for mixed use
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Streets as car storage...
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...or streets creating communities
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Streets for retail...
Nyhavn
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and after
...or streets for people
Nyhavn
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...or streets for people
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Visitors from NYC to Copenhagen
Commisioner for Planning Amanda
BurdenCommisioner for Transportation Janette
Sadik-Khan
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NYC Gets Its First-Ever Physically-Separated Bike
Path
NYCs Transportation Commissioner Janette
Sadik-Khan said bicycles will be separated from
auto traffic. "It represents the kinds of
innovative ideas that we can explore to make the
streets more livable" New York Times, September
20, 2007
Complete Street
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Broadway Ave. Manhattan
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NYC continues with impressive improvements
(Broadway Ave)
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NYC continues with impressive improvements
(Broadway Ave)
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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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NYC continues with impressive improvements (Broad
way Ave)
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Re-Making Iconic Places Times Herald Squares

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Pedestrian Spaces
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Manhattan
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Pearl Street Plaza Brooklyn 2007
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Pearl Street Plaza Brooklyn 2007
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Bogotá Colombia
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Bogotá
It was decided not to build elevated highways
proposed by JICA (Japanese Int. Cooperation
Agency) with over 5B investments Conceptual
drawing in the national paper
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Bogotá
After
Before
Side-walks for people... Not for cars!
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Bogotá
Previous transportation system
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Bogotá
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Bogotá
Transmilenio BRT 600,000 daily rides in first
year 2,000
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Bogotá Innovative transportation systemSpeeds
between 24K and 30 k
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Bogotá
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Bogotá
21 of passengers used private cars before
Transmilenio
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Main line has 42,000 passengers peak hour one way
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Bogotá Integrating with pedestrians and
bicyclists
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Bogotá Integrating with pedestrians and
bicyclists
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Bogotá Integrating with pedestrians and
bicyclists
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Bogotá Integrating with pedestrians and
bicyclists
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Separated Bicycle path network 280K /174
mi. in 3 years
Bike share From 0.4 to 5 From 28,000 to
350,000 and growing
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Bogotá
Bike-path network 280K /174 mi in 3 years
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Bogotá
Bike-path network 280K /174 mi in 3 years
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Bogotá
Bike-path network 280K /174 mi in 3 years
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Bogotá
Bike-path network 280K /174 mi in 3 years
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Bogotá
Taking the kids to school
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Bogotá
Taking the kids to school
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Bogotá
Taking the kids to school
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Bogotá
Taking the kids to school
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Bogotá
Taking the kids to school
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Bogotas Ciclovia Car-Free Sundays
Spectacular 7 hour per week paved City Park
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Bogotás Ciclovia

• What is it?
• Every Sunday and Holiday some of the most
  important roads in Bogotá are closed to cars from
  700 a.m. to 200 p.m. and open for Recreational
  Activities

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Existing infrastructure StreetsNo capital
costs, just operational ones. And political will!
Bogotás Ciclovia
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Bogotás Ciclovia

• Total distance K /Mi
• 1995 13K / 8.0 mi
• 1997 91K / 56.5 mi
• 2007 113K / 70.2 mi

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Bogotás Ciclovia

• Participation
• Every Sunday over 1.5 million people
  participate!
• Young and Old,
• Men and Women,
• Rich and Poor,
• Tall and Short,
• ALL!

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What attracts people most, it would appear,
is other people William H. Whyte
Bogotás Ciclovia
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Bogotás Ciclovia
Aerobics / World Record
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Ciclovia continues to grow with new activities
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Ciclovia on American Airlines magazine
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Odense, Denmark
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Odense Small in population, VERY bicycle friendly

• 190,000 People
• 100,000 Jobs

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Involving people of all ages New ways of
cooperating - with new partners
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Sustainable Transportation Plan
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Different seasons...all ages
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People of all ages, all activities
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Support elements
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Bikeways physically separated from cars and from
pedestrians
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Bikeways physically separated from cars and from
pedestrians
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If you dont count...YOU DO NOT COUNT!
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Support services...air pumps all over
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Clear and appropriate signage
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Electronic information guides
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Lockers for pedestrians and cyclists
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Public restrooms along the bikeways
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Bike parking with chain incorporated
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Outdoor bicycle parking
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Entrance to indoor bike parking
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Bike parking with ramps and stairs
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Nice indoor 24 hour bicycle parking
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Pedestrians first...then cyclists
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Green wave at the speed of the cyclist
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Green wave at the speed of the cyclist
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Fantastic Challenges and Opportunities
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• What kind of cities
• are we going to build?
• How do we want to live?

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It is NOT about money (it is about priorities)
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It is NOT a technical issue.
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• From thinking and saying to DOING

1- Leadership
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• From thinking and saying to DOING

2- Political Will (Guts)
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• From thinking and saying to DOING

3- Public sector Doers  
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• From thinking and saying to DOING

4- Public Participation
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• From thinking and saying to DOING

5- Sense of Urgency
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Ready, Fire, Aim

NOT Ready, Aim, Aim, Aim
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Vision
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Work
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Vision Work
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The ducks are in a row

• It is about doing things right.
• But more important,
• Its about doing the right things!

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Thanks
2nd National Active Travel Conference Perth
Concert Hall Scotland May 13th, 2009

Walking Bicycling Connecting Communities The
Art of Mastering Change Gil Penalosa Executive
Director Walk Bike for Life
For more information and/or to receive our free
monthly newsletter www.walkandbikeforlife.org