Enrique Penalosa, former mayor of Bogota is a visionary, world-renowned urbanist and proselytizer for Living Streets, a London-based group that advocates pedestrian-friendly streets.
In his four years as mayor of Colombia’s capital city (1998 to 2001), Peñalosa transformed Bogota into a model for mobility, equity and sustainability. By prioritizing public transportation and pedestrian scale, Peñalosa’s vision brought dramatic change to one of the world’s most challenging urban environments.
Peñalosa developed one of the world’s most effective bus-rapid transit systems, currently serving more than 500,000 Bogota residents daily. He built a network of bike paths and developed 1,200 public parks, adding pedestrian promenades with a hierarchy of street lanes. He coupled radical automobile restrictions with a dramatically enhanced public realm, inaugurating the city’s first car-free day.
In addition, he overhauled and upgraded thousands of units of public housing, building libraries and developing a system where the country’s quality private schools managed the city’s public schools.
Peñalosa travels and lectures extensively as a senior adviser for the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, a global organization that promotes environmentally sustainable and equitable transportation projects. He was in Colorado last month, and offered a critique of central Denver and its neighborhoods. Peñalosa was struck by the juxtaposition of wide streets, narrow sidewalks and the absence of density — the kind of density that promotes a lively public realm.
“Density doesn’t mean 30-story high-rise buildings,” Peñalosa said. “Density can be achieved with four-, five- or six-story attached buildings.” He pointed out that human-scale and livable streets don’t favor the automobile over the pedestrian. Rather, it should be done by slowing traffic, creating bike lanes, building wider sidewalks and interesting intersections where both people and cars are accommodated.
Denver’s new Strategic Transportation Plan articulates these principles, but the reality of day-to-day decisions by the city engineer and her staff certainly don’t support them.
Peñalosa was surprised at the under-utilization of the Platte River, pointing out that along with the “nice bicycle way, it could have formidable pedestrian promenades, with buildings alongside, cafes, shops and so on. And the roads should be located back, behind the buildings,” he suggested as we took the back route, along Wewatta Street, from the Millennium Bridge to Denver’s River North neighborhood.
He acknowledged our preference for light rail, but pointed out that bus-rapid transit, using high-quality buses, is preferable.
“Denver is a beautiful city that will continue to grow,” Peñalosa said. “It’s a mistake to make a bigger highway.” Easy-to-access public transport and an elevated public realm are more sustainable and effective ways to move people.
Imagine . . . a great city!
Susan Barnes-Gelt (sbg13@comcast.net) is a consultant to local architectural and development companies.
