http:///bikescape.blogspot.com
He recently went to the Towards Car Free Cities conference held this year in Portland Oregon. There he recorded various podcasts including one that has the keynote speech for the conference given by Gil Peñalosa.
As Commissioner of Parks, Sports and Recreation, Peñalosa initiated Bogata's trailblazing ciclovias, where each Sunday ninety one km of streets are returned to the commons for non-motorized use. 1.5 million people use the ciclovias each week and now the practice is migrating to other cities around the world. You can download the mp3 of his speech and the subsequent press conference at:
http://bikescape.blogspot.com/2008/06/towards-car-free-cities-keynote-speech.html
There is also a short film made of the Ciclovias in action in Bogata that you can watch.
Here is what I got out from his speech:
His questions for those who are in local government and the community:
- What kind of cities do we want to have?
- How do we want to live?
- Do we want to retain skilled people here long term? They need a reason to stay.
Getting things done to achieve the vision:
- It is not about the money but priorities.
- Not about the technical issues - there are solutions somewhere in the world to use.
How to move from thinking to doing something:
- Leadership from those in the community
- Political will and a clarity of vision - general interest of the many must prevail over the particular
- Need doers in the public sector - we pay rates and taxes to get things done.
- Reqires community engagement
- Needs a sense of urgency
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