during a “ciclovia” event in Guadalajara, Mexico last week.
Photo: Rex Burkholder
[Scroll to end of story to hear the interview.]
Metro Councilor and BTA co-founder Rex Burkholder recently returned from a trip to Guadalajara Mexico. The Ciudad Humana or “Human City” Foundation, (an organization based in Bogota, Colombia that promotes healthy streets) asked him to share his insights into building a sustainable and equitable transportation system.
During his trip he participated in a “ciclovia” which are defined by Wikipedia as,
“…a permanent designated bicycle route or a temporary event closing of the street to automobiles to allow dominance by other users.”
Here are a few photos from his trip:
500 bikes for the event.
Photo: Rex Burkholder
neighborhoods where locals showed off their street culture.
Photo: Rex Burkholder
Hoping to cure congestion and armed with a groundswell of support from citizens demanding more affordable and cleaner transportation options, South American leaders in cities like Quito, Ecuador and Bogota are under increasing pressure to establish more ciclovias.
The media has also taken notice of this shift away from motor vehicles. Two stories last week — an editorial in Boston Magazine that urges readers to “take back the streets” and the other in The Christian Science Monitor that said car-free zones are “on the rise” in America — illustrate this trend.
In Portland, there is talk of experimenting with a car-free Alberta Street during the Art Hop this year, and next summer, an international conference on car-free cities will be held at Portland State University.
In a phone call this morning, I asked Burkholder about his experiences in Guadalajara and the potential for a ciclovia-type event in Portland. He told me about his inspiring experience of sharing the street with 100,000 other people, his ride on a tricked-out lowrider bike, and how he thinks it’d be “cool” to try and make a ciclovia happen on Martin Luther King or Interstate Blvd. in Portland.
Listen to the interview below or download the MP3. (4:48, 4.4MB)
[audio:burkholderMexico2.mp3]