Of city streets free from car traffic each Sunday of the year in the American continent.
1.5 million
People going to Ciclovia events every weekend.
33 cities
Are implementing a Ciclovia-recreativa as a weekly program.
Another 75 cities
Are currently hosting a Ciclovia event at least twice a year.
Who's next?
The Open Streets epidemic must go on!
What is it?
Ciclovias are city streets that have been freed from motorized traffic to allow, during a few hours a day, usually on Sundays and holidays, the free and safe circulation of thousands of people on bicycle, skate or foot.
How is it?
They generate recreational spaces where physical, cultural and educational activities are developed to promote community building and foment healthy lifestyles, while enabling the recuperation of public spaces at the human scale.
Like it?
City governments and policy makers can find in the Ciclovia concept an effective and economical program to promote public health, local economic development and social cohesion in their communities.
QUITO, ECUADOR - Mario Muñoz, President of the CRA co-founder organization, Biciacción, has accepted an invitation from the Ministry of Transportation and Public Works to join the team that will be executing the National Plan of Ciclovias. Below is a message by Mario Muñoz to CRA members and collaborators.
BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA -- El jueves 8 de diciembre, Bogotá contó con uno de los eventos más representativos de la temporada decembrina. La Ciclovía Nocturna en su versión N° 14, habilitó cerca de 87 kilómetros de vías para el uso de cerca de 3,250,000 ciudadanos que se transportaron en bicicletas, patines o caminanando, y que gracias al trabajo de 3,548 personas de diferentes entidades se logro cumplirle a la capital con este gran reto.
Para la versión 2011 se instalaron 8 estaciones recreo-culturales ubicadas en diferentes puntos de la ciudad. Allí, los usuarios disfrutaron de las presentaciones de diferentes artistas nacionales. También, durante esta versión los usuarios de la Ciclovía apreciaron shows pirotécnicos en 5 puntos de la ciudad, y para los más pequeños se ubicaron 7 malecones recreativos en donde se ofrecieron diversas actividades lúdicas para compartir en familia.
Este año, y por primera vez, en la Ciclovía Nocturna se desarrollaron desfiles de comparsas artísticas sobre las rutas. Espectáculo que permitió a los usuarios apreciar la riqueza y diversidad cultural de la capital colombiana. La Ciclovía Nocturna es un evento que transforma los imaginarios de los ciudadanos, convirtiendo la capital en un espacio propicio para el sano esparcimiento y la diversión.
Mauricio Ramos, IDRD Bogotá Fotografía: Periódico El Tiempo, 09 de Noviembre de 2011.
Let us step back from our passion for bikes as a means of social transformation and environmental salvation, just for a bit, and look at the tremendous impact that transportation has on our lives. Late 20th century transportation, dominated by fossil fuel powered vehicles, was a marvel of speed and power. But not efficiency or equity. Because oil was cheap and plentiful, we built transportation systems that ignored economics. Now that oil is becoming scarcer and more expensive to mine--and the world’s population has expanded to 7 billion persons--we have to begin accounting for the true costs of transportation based on petroleum.
On the eve of the much expected Open Streets season in North America, where dozens of initiatives will be celebrated this summer, and after a particularly encouraging beginning of the year in Latin America where Ciclovias have gained significant political territory, it might seem silly to ask, will Open Streets last?
