A City Is Successful When Its People Are Happy

Enrique Penalosa, the Mayor of Bogota, discusses how transportation has changed the nature of this Colombian city.

1 minute read

July 8, 2003, 9:00 AM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"When I was elected mayor of Bogotá and got to city hall, I was handed a transportation study that said the most important thing the city could do was to build an elevated highway at a cost of $600 million. Instead, we installed a bus system that carries 700,000 people a day at a cost of $300 million. We created hundreds of pedestrian-only streets, parks, plazas, and bike paths, planted trees, and got rid of cluttering commercial signs. We constructed the longest pedestrian-only street in the world."

Thanks to The Practice of New Urbanism Listserv

Wednesday, October 12, 2005 in Yes Magazine

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