by Reuters
submitted: 2006-07-19
Nude cyclists peel off around Spanish cities
by Reuters
submitted: 2006-06-10
Cars Banned for the Day in Bogota
by Jared Kotler
submitted: 2001-02-05
Air Pollution Adds to European Death Toll
by Reuters
submitted: 2000-09-04
Images from Amsterdam - City of Bicycles
by Miles Poindexter
submitted: 2000-07-16
Dutch Bike School Helps With Cultural Integration
by Ernst Poulsen
submitted: 2000-04-05
Pedicab Drivers Sue Governor Sutiyoso for Operating Ban
by A. Rahman Paul BARTER
submitted: 2000-02-20
Italy Bans Cars For One Day In 150 City Centres
by Loris Tissino
submitted: 2000-02-11
The Dutch Have a Master Plan (for bicycles)
by Don Mathew
submitted: 1999-12-06
Secret to Long Life? Pedal, Pedal, Pedal
by Omaha World-Herald
submitted: 1999-11-21
[5 February 2001] Jared Kotler
BOGOTA, Colombia - Residents of Bogota commuted to work on foot, bicycles, roller skates and even an antique diesel locomotive Thursday, when a ban on private cars transformed the usually traffic-clogged capital.
Many found the one-day respite from the blaring horns, edgy drivers and added smog all too brief.
"I love it," said Juan Carlos Aristizabal, who left his car in the garage and biked 40 blocks to his telecommunications company. "It shows people there are other ways to get to work."
Natalia Navas looked wobbly crossing a north Bogota intersection on a pair of shiny white roller skates. But she, too, was happy to have left her car behind.
"It doesn't bother me," she said. "My job is close to where I live. And I love to skate."
Car-Free Day was first instituted a year ago in Bogota by Mayor Enrique Penalosa, a bicycle enthusiast who delivered speeches about the evils of the automobile. Voters later approved a referendum for an annual Car-Free Day, held the first Thursday of February.
During his three-year-term, Penalosa sharply restricted car use during rush hours, built hundreds of miles of bike paths, and stuck cement posts all over city sidewalks to prevent people from parking cars in front of stores.
The like-minded current mayor, Antanas Mockus, eagerly embraced Car-Free Day modeled after experiments in European capitals including Amsterdam, Paris, Munich and Rome. He rode the bus and pulled passengers around on a rickshaw-style bicycle taxi on Thursday.
"It's a marvelous city," Mockus said.
With 900,000 private cars on the road and 40,000 new ones sold each year, this subway-deprived city of nearly 7 million inhabitants has some of Latin America's most hellish traffic jams. A new public bus system that shepherded many "Bogotanos" to work Thursday is only beginning to impose order on the chaos.
Most people in Bogota played by the rules, but police said by midday about 250 scofflaw motorists had been pulled over, fined about $12 each.
Mockus said monitors noted high pollution levels at 6:00 a.m. as some car owners scrambled to get to work before the restriction kicked in 30 minutes later.
Although some residents grumbled, others profited.
"It looks like one big yellow train out there," beamed taxi driver Alberto Valero, who was busier as usual.
Freelance bicycle repairmen spread tools and pumps alongside bike paths, fixing flat tires for about 50 cents and adding air for about a dime.
Doing its part, a tour company operating a 1950s locomotive on weekends fired up its diesel engines and ran a special commuter run Thursday, taking hundreds of people to work.
Merchants, who last year waged a vocal campaign against Car-Free Day, this time marked the occasion with sales, live music, puppet shows and discounted taxi rides home.
Not all were exactly in the spirit. One shopping center distributed raffle tickets; the prize was a new sport utility vehicle.