From our good friends at the Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space blog we find this wonderful video entitled Cycling Friendly Cities funded by the government of the Netherlands. They discuss planning for bicycle infrastructure in Amsterdam and Houton in Netherlands, Copenhagen, Denmark and Bogota, Columbia. The portion showing so many people biking in the snow was especially revealing. I loved the quote from a planner in Bogota: "If you can make a city more bicycle friendly you can make it more human." How cool is that? Click here for the YouTube Link if it doesn't start below.
Enjoy!
Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria.
That quote wasn't made by just "a planner in Bogota". That was Enrique Penalosa, the former mayor and the author of the script for the film.
Penalosa is a real visionary and I've been reading about him over the last few years. I first heard about him and the projects that he accomplished in Bogota a few years ago at the National Building Museum where the projects were being featured. (The exhibit is still available online: http://www.vanalen.org/exhibits/PublicSpace/PubSpaceMain.htm#)
Penalosa is a featured 'placemaker' on the website of the Project for Public Spaces: http://www.pps.org/info/placemakingtools/placemakers/epenalosa
The quote that most struck (one that I'll always remember): is the following:
"High quality public spaces bring people out. Safety increases; people enjoy their city and acquire a sense of belonging. More than sidewalks or bicycle paths, we built symbols of equality and respect for human dignity"
Posted by: Kevin Beekman | September 04, 2007 at 03:02 PM