Bogotá

Wiki Wednesday: Ciclovía

With New York's big Summer Streets premier less than 72 hours away, this week we're highlighting the StreetsWiki entry on the mother of all car-free events, Bogotá's Ciclovía. Actually, the phrase "car-free event" doesn't quite do justice to a weekly gathering of a million people along 70 miles of streets. And as the authors note, much more goes on at Ciclovía than the name alone implies:

By Ben Fried

3:32 PM EDT on August 6, 2008

With New York’s big Summer Streets premier less than 72 hours away, this week we’re highlighting the StreetsWiki entry on the mother of all car-free events, Bogotá’s Ciclovía. Actually, the phrase “car-free event” doesn’t quite do justice to a weekly gathering of a million people along 70 miles of streets. And as the authors note, much more goes on at Ciclovía than the name alone implies:

Bikes dominate the name and the landscape of Ciclovia, but there is
a lot more to it than that. Ciclovia days in Bogota are combined with
Recreovia (pictured at right), a program of free public exercise
activities in parks and other car-free areas.[7] Activities include
dancing, yoga, and aerobics, led by professionals who are paid by the
city and accompanied by festive music.
It also provides tremendous business to vendors who serve Ciclovia participants.[1]

Credit for this entry goes to Meg Saggese, Lily Bernheimer, Corey Burger, Nathan Schneider, and Paul Cone. Feel free to get in there and edit, if you’d like.

On a related note, I’ve noticed an uptick in user-submitted entries on StreetsWiki lately. Thanks for depositing your knowledge with the Livable Streets Network, Streetsbloggers. Keep it coming and watch for your contributions on Wiki Wednesdays.

Ben Fried

Ben Fried started as a Streetsblog reporter in 2008 and led the site as editor-in-chief from 2010 to 2018. He lives in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, with his wife.