Interview with Enrique Peñalosa

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Duration: 12 minutes and 8 seconds

Country: United States

Language: English

License: CC Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

Genre: Documentary

Producer: The Open Planning Project

Director: Clarence Eckerson Jr.

Views: 2,180 (505 embedded)

Posted by: bluey on May 1, 2007

As mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, Enrique Peñalosa accomplished remarkable changes of monumental proportions for the people of his country in just three years. Peñalosa changed the way Bogotá treated its non-driving citizens by restricting automobile use and instituting a bus rapid transit system which now carries a 1/2 million residents daily. Among other improvements: he widened and rebuilt sidewalks, created grand public spaces, and implemented over one hundred miles of bicycle paths. TOPP Executive Director Mark Gorton discusses with Peñalosa some of these transportation achievements and asks what the future could hold for NYC if similar improvements were made here.

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The essence of the conflict today, really
is cars and people
That is the essence of the whole discussion
We can have a city that is very friendly to cars
Or a city that is very friendly to people
We cannot have both
The Open Planning Project presents...
a conversation with Enrique Peñalosa
I'm here today with Enrique Peñalosa
the former Mayor of Bogotá Colombia
Who is one of the...
...leading figure in the world
in terms of actually accomplishing changes on the ground
that have made life better for pedestrians
I mean, in many different ways in the city
but he... his policies were really...
...revolutionary
in terms of rethinking the way
you know, transportation works and its relation to the city
You gave a talk this morning, and...
...one of the things you said that was interesting
was this idea, when you say you talk about transportation
the first thing you have to do is...
...is decide what you want
- Before we know what the idea of transport is
we have to know what kind of a city we want
but in order to know what kind of a city we want
we have to know how do we want to live, really
because a city
is really only a means to a way of life
The list of the least a democratic society should have is
public pedestrian space of great quality
sidewalks, pedestrian streets, plazas
sports facilities, parks
and public transports or public libraries
could be considered as public space as well
- So, how did you decide for yourself?
- We can see what cities have worth, in the world
We have had city for five thousand years
We have had cars for only about eight years
or so, in significant amounts
So, for five thousand years
all streets were for people
Were pedestrians streets
A child could walk ten blocks
without any fear of being killed
We should have cities
with very large network
of pedestrian only streets
Not the quaint, little pedestrian street
downtown here and there, but
hundreds of kilometers of pedestrians streets
where people could go ride bicycles,
jog, just sit and read a newspaper in a bench
without having cars going in front
look at people walking by
What we find more and more is that a good city
is the one city where you want to be out
and a city that is good for the most vulnerable citizens
I would say a city where you have
many people in the street who are handicapped
who are old people
who are children, children by themselves
- Could you talk a little bit about your experience
as a politician in going through the process
of implementing some of these changes?
- What we try to do
is to restrict car use
to create public transport
to do bicycle ways
and to create public space
We took the road network
and created a bus system
that is called bus rapid transit
You give exclusive lanes to the buses
Our system has
a velocity and a capacity, that is very similar
to the best subways in the world
Clearly this is possible because
we give priority to public transport
in the use of road space
So public good prevails over private transport
We created a very large bicycle network
A protected bicycle path network
A protected bicycle path is a symbol
that a citizen on a $30 bicycle
is equally important as one
on a $30000 car
- Your experience in Bogota was that
bicycling went from
I mean, I think as fringe activity
to carrying a real fraction of the transport
- When we started
bycicle was almost insignificant
Zero
Or 0.2% of the people in Bogota
used to bicycle
Now
nearly 5% of the people
only after 6 years or so
We get almost 400000 people
bycicle everyday
- After you put in these changes
and I should state that these are
for cities around the world
among the most significant changes
in terms of moving away from cars
and towards focus on pedestrians
and bicycles and public transit
Practically of any city I can think of
In a short period of time
Maybe you can talk a little bit about
what the public's mind set was beforehand
and then afterwards
- There is always
resistance to change
per say
and also
all of these policies
which have social content
have conflicts between
those who own cars
whose use we are going to restrict
and those who don't
People opposed very much, for example
we had to get rid of tens of thousands
of parking bays
which have been illegally
carved out where there should be sidewalks
so we took tens of thousands of parking bays away
and we made big sidewalks
and there was a huge outrage from shop owners
but then afterwards they realized
how much life had improved
how the real estate prices had gone up
how crime had gone down
how they were selling more
- After you left
were these policies continued by your successors?
The mayors that have come afterwards
have continued
and it would be impossible
really, for someone to reverse
these policies
and on the contrary
I think we will have to
make them even more radical
our dream is to totally ban
car use during peak hours
everyday
In many countries
they have car free days
where they close off a few streets to cars
during a day
but we close the whole 7 million habitants city to cars
during one week day
a thursday
And this again
is not only an experiment
in environmental transport
but this an exercise in social integration
because we get upper income people
and lower income people
everybody going out to find public transport
we allow taxis to operate that day
but most people use buses or ride bicycles
We show ourselves
that it's possible to organize the city
without private cars
- In addition to being mayor of Bogota
you've also been a visiting scholar
in NYU
and you've lived in New York
so you have an apartment here in New York
- Yes, I love New York
- And I guess, we were just walking down the street before
and you were talking about
some of the things that you would like to see
and that you think make a lot of sense to do here
and it would be great to get some of your ideas on that
- I think what changes cities
are things that are different
I would almost say crazy
New York for example
could turn all Broadway
into a pedestrian street
all the way
from the bridge to the tip on Manhattan
And if you don't to turn the whole Broadway
into a pedestrian street
do take half of Broadway
into a very large, giant sidewalk
with bicycle ways
And at least on Sundays
it could be closed up completely
so to allow people to access Central Park
from different areas of Manhattan for example
I think there are some wonderful things
that have been done recently lately
The bike way around...
...the island
The Hudson River park
This is wonderful, but
here in Manhattan for example
there could be at least a few
cross town bicycle ways
We cannot continue to
decieve ourselves thinking
that to paint a little line on the road
is a bike way
A bicycle way which is not safe
for an 8 year old
is not a bicycle way
Hopefully to do a whole network
of very well protected
physically protected bicycle ways
all across Manhattan
And only a few hundred cars
which are now parked
would be affected
by these measures, which is nothing
next to the millions that would bennefict from this
The 42nd street project
where they turned 42nd street into a pedestrian street
from East River to the Hudson River
put in a TRAM
It would be fantastic!
Manhattan has all the qualities
for a successful pedestrian and bicycle street
because Manhattan is dense
is very dense
distances are relatively very short
so it's perfect for walking or for bicycling
and is very flat
so there are no significant hills
So, these are just some of the projects
which could be implemented in Manhattan
Mathematically it is totally impossible
to solve the transportation problems of a city
using cars
because cars simply don't fit
it's impossible
if everybody wants to move by car
Time lost in traffic jams is increasing every year
There is a conflict
between a city that is frienldy to cars
and a city that is friendly to people
because if you have very wide streets
where cars go very fast
they become obstacles to people
they are menacing
they are threatening
The United States is a fantastic society
it's an example to the world
in so many aspects
as a part in its culture
the movies, the music
the universities, the libraries
but not everything is
ideal
and one of those problems is this
suburban highway culture
I believe New York could be
even better
If we would take a lot of space away from parked cars
and give it to pedestrians, for example or to bicycles
The importance of public pedestrian space
is obvious in how every sidewalk is clogged
The mayor of Manhattan and the city council members
would be surprised how they may
receive much more political beneficts
from these measures
which are relatively cost free
We underestimate the power of dreams
The most difficult thing is to dream
and to create a collective dream
or a shared vision
I think it's time to take the great risks
and to do something new
to do the new New York

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