[sustran] Bogota Car-Free Day Update

[P. Christopher Zegras]

[Based on today's (8 Feb.) "El Tiempo" (www.eltiempo.com)]

Last Friday, a court injunction was sought by Francisco Rojas Birry to stop 
the Car Free Day proposed by Bogota Mayor Enrique Peñalosa.  Rojas Birry 
claims that the proposal violates fundamental private property rights, freedom 
of movement and the right to work of residents of Bogota and neighboring 
municipalities.

Mayor Peñalosa, meanwhile, justifies his actions based on the National 
Transportation Code, whic gives him the power to regulate traffic in the city.
The Mayor has proposed the Car-Free Day for this February 24th, a Thursday 
(for more information on the global "Car Free Movement" check out: 
ecoplan.org/carfreeday/index.htm).

According to a survey conducted by the Mayor's office, 63% of those surveyed 
support the initiative, while 35% oppose it.  Furthermore, 71% agree that it 
is a good way to get citizens to reflect on transport use in the city; 29% 
believe it is a bad way to achieve this goal.  Finally, 65% of those surveyed 
expressed awareness of the fact that only 14% of the population uses private 
motor vehicles, while 86% uses public transport service (444 people surveyed, 
margin of error - 5.24%).

In an op-ed in Today's El Tiempo, Arturo Ardila Gomez (aardila at mit.edu) gives 
four reasons (he calls three "technical" and one "frivolous") for supporting 
Bogota's Car Free Day:
1. To demonstrate that the city can function well without the auto. 
2. To demonstrate public transport's potential to provide a "high quality" 
service when it is not faced with the permanent interference of automobiles.
3. To use a simple one day experiment to show how different the city can be - 
less polluted and congested - with a change in transportation priorities.

and, finally Ardila's "frivolous" and "banal" argument:

4. To give the rest of the world some positive news from Bogota and Colombia - 
Ardila notes that just by announcing the CarFreeDay, some international news 
coverage of the city has become more positive.