Há meses que queria fazer um apanhado da história de Bogotá, capital da Colômbia, que com pouco dinheiro se tornou num famosíssimo exemplo de mobilidade sustentável. O blog Carectomy tratou disso e fez um interessante resumo sobre a cidade dos TransMilenio (os autocarros expresso que funcionam tipo metro e que andam a velocidades médias 2 ou 3 vezes maiores que os da Carris), da Ciclovia (dia sem-carros semanal) e do centro urbano devolvido às pessoas.
A provar que basta querer...

Alguns excertos:

Sobre as campanhas radicais de mudanças de mentalidade e comportamento (ou campanhas anti-egoísmo diria eu):
Cards, red on one side and white on the other, distributed among citizens and used as in football (soccer) games to show approval or disapproval of actions — particularly of car drivers

 -Mimes in the streets that taught automobile drivers to respect pedestrian crossings, to use seatbelts, and to minimize the honking of horns

-Actors dressed as monks encouraging people to reflect on noise pollution

Peñalosa envisioned a pedestrian-friendly city and endeavored to make it reality. He spoke of “a city that today seems utopian, with trees, bicycles, beautiful sidewalks, full of parks, with clean rivers, lakes, libraries, clean, egalitarian…” Peñalosa improved and expanded mass transit, planted trees, improved pedestrian walkways, traffic signals, and lighting, restricted citizen’s use of cars, expanded bicycle paths, enhanced public space, and installed barriers to prevent cars from parking on sidewalks (which was common). Store owners were so enraged by this measure, which they thought would jeopardize customer parking—and, thus, their business, that Peñalosa was nearly impeached. Ultimately, however, Penalosa won the popularity contest, with over 40% of residents rating his performance in office as “excellent”.

Peñalosa discouraged automobile use, calling cars “the worst threat to quality of life of this city.”