Re: [sustran] Bogotá elections....

Rutul Joshi joshirutul at yahoo.co.in
Mon Oct 31 11:35:02 JST 2011


Hi Carlos, 


It is indeed sad for the sustainable transport initiatives if they are bracketed like this (as penelos-esque). It can probably be the worst thing happening to any ideas - if they are viewed as being 'owned' by someone or one organisation. 

I also see that either we are waiting for a good administrator/ mayor/ municipal commissioner to turn up or we are chasing them by jumping from a city to city. And isn't this waiting for a good administrator is like 'waiting for godot'! 

The major issue in sustainable transport is the continuity of the policies and not the project-centric thinking.Somehow it has been difficult to make a case for a long term adaptation of policies. Wherever this has happened, those cities have been successful in long run. If citizens groups come forward to participate in this process than the sustainability is ensured even more. I know that it is all very well to say all these but to operationalise this is very difficult in day-to-day life. It has also been difficult to find people, organisations to be engaged with cities on a long-term basis. 


I hope, 'Godot' arrives and we can change these things! ;)


best,
Rutul






________________________________
From: Carlosfelipe Pardo <carlosfpardo at gmail.com>
To: Rutul Joshi <joshirutul at yahoo.co.in>
Cc: Global 'South' Sustainable Transport <sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>
Sent: Monday, 31 October 2011 6:15 AM
Subject: Re: [sustran] Bogotá elections....

Hi Rutul,

In his (18-page) government proposal Petro states that he will:

- continue building TransMilenio (he says he'll use hybrid buses, who knows where he'll get them)
- build cablecars in the outskirts of the city (hilly, low-income neighborhoods)
- Eliminate "pico y placa" (plate restrictions)
- organize "congestion zones" with park-n-ride
- Increase bikeways and enforce the exclusive use by bicycles.

But when asked for details, I have heard none. His advisors are very old-school transport engineers (predict and provide kind of things) . It is almost a rule that whatever the government proposal says, the first thing they'll do when they start is redevelop the whole thing into their government plan, which is what we should wait for.

The other issue, as Mike's blog notes, is that Petro has never had any management experience (Mike says that he did in the guerrilla, but not even then!). He has been a senator for a long time, as is our current mayor (now in jail for corruption/incompetence). and he was previously of his political party as well.

Finally, one issue that has happened in the last two mandates is that, whenever anyone proposes something related to sustainable transport, those ideas are seen by many as "Peñalos-esque" and don't have much support from government. This is a real pity because many ideas have been reduced to nothing (or plainly rejected immediately by government) just because of this perception of "bikes = Peñalosa", more or less... we shall see if the same immaturity reigns in this new government.

I hope it helps, and I hope to have more info soon. Any others who have other views are most welcome to provide their views. I am absolutely not the best or the brightest to provide my views on this, I know some in this list have even worked closely in Peñalosa's campaign and can give us other, more in-depth positions.

Best regards,

Carlos.

On 30/10/2011 07:19 p.m., Rutul Joshi wrote:
> Hi Carlos,
> 
> Thanks for the post. For an outsider, it is difficult to understand the ground situations in Bogota and why Penelosa lost even after (what is being called as) the transformation of the city. It was indeed good to attend your talk about what has happened after Penelosa's exit from the Mayor office about 10 years back.
> 
> It would be great if you can throw some light on what is likely to happen? What are Petro's policies? This post doesn't portray a very bad picture though: http://mikesbogotablog.blogspot.com/2011/10/bogotas-next-mayor. <http://mikesbogotablog.blogspot.com/2011/10/bogotas-next-mayor.html>html <http://mikesbogotablog.blogspot.com/2011/10/bogotas-next-mayor.html>
> 
> best,
> Rutul
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Carlosfelipe Pardo <carlosfpardo at gmail.com>
> *To:* Global 'South' Sustainable Transport <sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>
> *Sent:* Monday, 31 October 2011 4:16 AM
> *Subject:* [sustran] Bogotá elections....
> 
> For anyone interested in Bogotá elections, Peñalosa just lost. Our next
> mayor will be Gustavo Petro, 1 Jan 2012-31 Dec 2015. In terms of
> sustainable transport, I doubt we'll make any more progress than what
> has happened in the past 7 years, which is not really positive at all...
> 
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Carlos.
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