Rick from the Windsor Bicycling Committee alerted us to this great video about Ciclovía, a program in Bogotá, Colombia that sees 90kms of road closed down and made available to cyclists, inline bladers, pedestrians, etc. They even set up stages around the city and offer free aerobics classes! The purpose is to get the citizens active, and fight obesity. In the meantime, though, they’ve stumbled across a way for the people of Bogotá to come together, and be proud of their city.
Ciclovía (also ciclovia, English pronunciation: /ˌsiːklɵˈviː.ə/, Spanish: [θikloˈβia]) is a Spanish term, meaning “bike path,” used in Latin America to mean either a permanent designated bicycle route or a temporary event closing of the street to automobiles to allow dominance by other users. Permanent designated bicycle lanes are also known as ciclo-rutas, while streets temporarily closed for that purpose are always called ciclovías.
The video is on a website called streetsblog.com, out of NYC. Here’s a link!
http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/12/03/ciclovia-a-moving-experience-in-bogota/