STUDY OF STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE CYCLING IN FOUR LATIN AMERICAN CITIES: THE RESULTS FROM BOGOTA, ROSARIO, MEXICO CITY, AND RIO DE JANEIRO

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), as part of its commitment to the development of sustainable cities in Latin America, has supported the development of a platform to promote cycling in the continent. As part of the... [ view full abstract ]

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), as part of its commitment to the development of sustainable cities in Latin America, has supported the development of a platform to promote cycling in the continent. As part of the platform’s development framework, four cities (Bogotá, Mexico City, Rosario, and Rio de Janeiro) were studied and compared in terms of their abilities to promote cycling. This paper uses a comparative methodology to assess the promotion of cycling and presents the results from the four cities. The fundamental criteria on which the comparisons were based were demand, infrastructure, regulations, and promotion of cycling. On the whole, we found positive aspects in terms of the increase in both the size of the bikeway network and demand from cyclists. This was particularly the case in Bogotá, where the increase in cycling has led to the city having the most extensive bikeways in the region. In the region, multimodality bicycle programs have also become common, as have the implementation of specific informative campaigns in each city. However, the comparisons that we undertook showed the need to improve road regulations. We also found that in the four cities the advertising campaigns do not paint the cyclist as vulnerable, and they also do not portray the responsibility of drivers as something fundamental in preventing fatalities. Due to the social inequality evidenced in this study, design and develop strategies that increase the status of the bicycle as a social and gender equal transport mode is a necessary promotion in this cities. In this sense, it is worth highlighting the success of the "Sunday cycling" program, in which there is a new contact with the bicycle and create a change of vision. Lastly, this study found there to be a need to define strategies to gather suitable information that demonstrates regulatory actions as well as the promotion of management and development indicators.