This blog prides itself on bringing news, ideas and projects from all over the world. Previously we have posted a range of South American stories including several from Peru, Brazil and Colombia. Surprisingly, this post is about South America, but comes via a longer report from the Hindustan Times no less! At a time when we are feeling very insular and localised, it is a good reminder that others internationally are experiencing similar conditions, but perhaps meeting it differently. Pedal on, South America! Enjoy! NG.
Capital cities in South America such as Bogota, Lima, Quito, Santiago and Buenos Aires have expanded bike lanes, closing off miles of roads to cars, in an effort to ease crowding on public transport to maintain safe distancing.
From Bogota to Buenos Aires, rising numbers of residents in some of South America’s major capitals are getting on their bikes as the coronavirus pandemic drives city officials to expand bike lanes and promote cycling as a safe way to travel.
Capital cities such as Bogota, Lima, Quito, Santiago and Buenos Aires have expanded bike lanes, closing off miles of roads to cars, in an effort to ease crowding on public transport to curb the spread of Covid-19 and maintain safe distancing.
South America is now battling the global pandemic with many cities still under strict or partial lockdown, and Brazil ranked second globally in total cases of the virus, behind the United States.
“COVID has been a fundamental factor in achieving what nothing else could have – expanding bike lanes and network length by orders of magnitude instead of slowly and timidly as before,” said Carlos Pardo, senior manager at the Washington- based New Urban Mobility Alliance, a group of cities, non-profits, companies and operators of mobility services.
“COVID made governments aware that it wasn’t a big risk to implement a system of bike lanes,” Pardo told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
‘In the drawers’
Plans to expand bike networks in cities, such as Lima, have been in place for decades but officials hadn’t pushed cycling as a sustainable means of transport until the pandemic hit.
“Many cities had the stuff in the drawers. The plans are ready .. the bike lanes have been identified for years but hadn’t been built,” Pardo said.
In Lima, where about 7 in every 10 people use public transport, promoting alternatives to ease overcrowding on buses and the subway is a priority as the city tries to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
“In Peru, there’s been a huge change. The minister of transport has made cycling a key policy,” Pardo said.
The government has announced plans to create 300 kilometres (185 miles) of temporary bike lanes in the coming months across Lima.
“I suspect that many of the temporary bike lanes are going to become permanent. There is momentum,” Pardo said.
Bogota already had a 550-kilometre (340-mile) network of bicycle lanes criss-crossing the capital before the coronavirus outbreak.
Since Bogota’s lockdown started in late March, 80 kilometres of temporary bike lanes have been added, which are now set to become permanent.
Under the lockdown, about 300,000 trips a day are being made by bicycle, mostly by essential workers, and nearly 70% of people riding bikes today used other forms of transport before the pandemic started, according to Bogota’s secretary of mobility.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed with modifications to the original text.