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Bogota: a city transformed

ABC Online

PM - Bogota: a city transformed

[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2005/s1303555.htm]
PM - Tuesday, 15 February , 2005 18:46:00
Reporter: David Mark

MARK COLVIN: Bogota in Colombia may seem an unlikely place for an experiment in urban renewal, but that's exactly what took place when Enrique Penalosa ran the city. His three-year reign as mayor transformed the congested city of seven million citizens.

His mayoralty was based on a principle of equal rights for all people to transport, education and public spaces. Cars were out. Bicycles, buses, schools, parks, plazas and pedestrians were in.

In Australia for a series of public lectures, Enrique Penalosa believes that Australian cities could be equally transformed, but there is a cost.

David Mark asked him about his success in Bogota.

ENRIQUE PENALOSA: We were able to change the priority from a city for cars which is what had been built for the last 80 years, to what I believe is much more a city for people, and especially for the more vulnerable people, with things that may be very obvious, but they were very difficult.

We made sidewalks. We widened footpaths in many cases, even taking away space from car roads. We built, or rebuilt, about more than a thousand parks. We built some fantastic schools and nurseries and libraries. And we built about 350 kilometres of bike paths, and we created maybe what is today the world's best bus system.

DAVID MARK: What were the results of all this achievements? How did they impact on the social and economic well-being of the city?

ENRIQUE PENALOSA: I think the results were, first, from a city that was almost despised by its inhabitants, we were really hopeless, and they really thought the worst thing that happened to them in life was to have to live in that city, into a city where people have a lot of self esteem.

Also, the city crime, for example, the murder rate, went down from 87 murders per 100,000 inhabitants to, like, 24.

If you improve the pedestrian qualities of the city you get more safety. You get improved real estate values, because I mean, I want… my main worry's equality and happiness, but many people think real estate values are more important, so the interesting thing is that both of them are benefited.

DAVID MARK: You obviously made massive changes. How were you able to do that, to make such huge changes in a city of seven million people?

ENRIQUE PENALOSA: What we did, I like to emphasise, is nothing extremely expensive. It's not great public works, I mean, maybe just to make a wide sidewalk on a bikeway, you know, it's not something that is going to cost billions.

It's more of a political cost than an economic cost. And we clearly, we put the things, we are going to make the city more democratic, where public good is going to prevail over private interest.

DAVID MARK: You've seen some Australian cities. You've been in Melbourne and now Sydney. How do Australian cities, or at least the two that you've seen, compare with other cities around the world in terms of congestion and our dependence on the car?

ENRIQUE PENALOSA: I think Australian cities are fantastic, you know, I think they're absolutely beautiful cities where people do a lot of sports and they have a lot of parks, fantastic parks, and they have some very good transport, I mean, in terms of rail and trams.

But I think one thing that has to be avoided is to build more highways, because they stimulate people going farther and farther away. So if we want to stimulate density, there are two things that must be done.

First, no more highways. Second, you have to put public transport on the highways that you do have.

So this is one thing that I think could be improved, to have more bikeways, and I do believe that with a bus system that is to be given total priority in road use, you could really solve basically most of your transport problems.

DAVID MARK: Australian cities, particularly Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, are very congested and very dependent on the motorcar. Can they be changed, or is the job too big?

ENRIQUE PENALOSA: Any great city has to restrict motorcar use, but one thing that is clear is that people will not give up their cars voluntarily. I mean, this is a matter of political decision. These are not engineering decisions.

A good city is not the result of many selfish individual decisions. First you have to have a vision of what is it that you want, a collective vision. And then you have to restrict many individual behaviours.

There clearly is a conflict between a city for cars and a quality city for people. This is something that has to be realised fully. You cannot have both.

MARK COLVIN: Enrique Penalosa with our reporter, David Mark.

© 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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