Entering Cochabomba was a bit frightening... more than 40 miles of suburban cities and the highway full of giant trucks and taxis that didnt mind cutting off cyclists one bit. We were much relieved to see a sign, "The Start of the Bike Path". How amazing, and what perfect timing as we were being stressed out. The bike path, which ran for about 8km from a suburban city to maybe 10 blocks outside of Cochabomba, was indeed more relaxing to ride in. However, it had speed bumbs and so as a cyclist you were forced to slow down before each intersection with cars. Now, if a city wants to promote non-motorized transport, shouldnt they be putting the speed bumps in way of the cars crossing the bike path, not vice versa? This was our first introduction to the poor design of Cochabombina bike infrastructure. We heard from a friend that there was an article about biking as transportation in one of the main Cochabombina newspapers, Los Tiempos, in the last sundays paper. We decided to check it out, so we went to the office of Los Tiempos and asked to speak with the author, thinking we could interview her about what she knew about bike organizations in Cochabomba. It turns out, she started interviewing us, and then took our photos, and thats how the article in Los Tiempos (which we put in the last blog entry) came to be. However, we also got a chance to interview her, and we learned quite a bit. Luz Marina Canelas--- First of all, she told us, there are currently no organizations promoting the bike as alternative transportation in Cochabomba, and as far as she knows, not in any city in all of Bolivia. However, her newspaper, Los Tiempos, has started a new campaign to celebrate their 55th anniversary called Los Tiempos Close to You (Cerca de Ti) in which the newspaper is working in 4 areas, one of which is the Environment and Ecology. Luz is in charge of this area, and has decided to chose the bicycle as the main thing to promote environmentalism in Cochabomba. She has started a publicity campaign on biking and will write at least one article a month until the summer about the benefits of biking as transportation. She also is working with private bisnesses to finance a large publicity campaign that includes posters, newspaper ads, billboards, fliers and more, all promoting biking. She does not want to work with the government because the politicians always politicize things and that will make it more complicated and a lot slower. She prefers to work with private companies, the police, the transit authorities, and others who are more stable than politicians and so things move along faster. The project is still in its initial stages, so she i
Claire and Cristhian in Quito on bicycle con los jovenes de Sol de Primavera
The Tour and the Objective
On this trans-national bike tour, we will travel more than
Our goal is to do research and collect stories on bike cultures and movements in order disperse them and help the cross-fertilization of various movements by creating resources of information and promoting networking between towns, cities and countries.
domingo, 2 de marzo de 2008
Bike Culture in Cochabomba!
Entering Cochabomba was a bit frightening... more than 40 miles of suburban cities and the highway full of giant trucks and taxis that didnt mind cutting off cyclists one bit. We were much relieved to see a sign, "The Start of the Bike Path". How amazing, and what perfect timing as we were being stressed out. The bike path, which ran for about 8km from a suburban city to maybe 10 blocks outside of Cochabomba, was indeed more relaxing to ride in. However, it had speed bumbs and so as a cyclist you were forced to slow down before each intersection with cars. Now, if a city wants to promote non-motorized transport, shouldnt they be putting the speed bumps in way of the cars crossing the bike path, not vice versa? This was our first introduction to the poor design of Cochabombina bike infrastructure. We heard from a friend that there was an article about biking as transportation in one of the main Cochabombina newspapers, Los Tiempos, in the last sundays paper. We decided to check it out, so we went to the office of Los Tiempos and asked to speak with the author, thinking we could interview her about what she knew about bike organizations in Cochabomba. It turns out, she started interviewing us, and then took our photos, and thats how the article in Los Tiempos (which we put in the last blog entry) came to be. However, we also got a chance to interview her, and we learned quite a bit. Luz Marina Canelas--- First of all, she told us, there are currently no organizations promoting the bike as alternative transportation in Cochabomba, and as far as she knows, not in any city in all of Bolivia. However, her newspaper, Los Tiempos, has started a new campaign to celebrate their 55th anniversary called Los Tiempos Close to You (Cerca de Ti) in which the newspaper is working in 4 areas, one of which is the Environment and Ecology. Luz is in charge of this area, and has decided to chose the bicycle as the main thing to promote environmentalism in Cochabomba. She has started a publicity campaign on biking and will write at least one article a month until the summer about the benefits of biking as transportation. She also is working with private bisnesses to finance a large publicity campaign that includes posters, newspaper ads, billboards, fliers and more, all promoting biking. She does not want to work with the government because the politicians always politicize things and that will make it more complicated and a lot slower. She prefers to work with private companies, the police, the transit authorities, and others who are more stable than politicians and so things move along faster. The project is still in its initial stages, so she i
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