Bicycles No Longer Mere Recreation in Argentine Capital
Bicycles are mushrooming around Buenos Aires. Credit: Juan Moseinco/IPS
BUENOS AIRES, Dec 30 2012 (IPS) - A programme launched in Buenos Aires three years ago to encourage the use of bicycles has already brought results: the use of this environment-friendly means of transport has increased fivefold in the Argentine capital.
“Buenos Aires, mejor en bici” (Buenos Aires, Better by Bike) is the name of the project that emerged in 2009 in the Healthy Mobility Office of the Transport Subscretariat of the Argentine capital, with the aim of extending protected bike lanes in the city.
“When we started to work on the idea of making bicycles an alternative means of transportation here, they only accounted for 0.4 percent of all trips. That has now gone up to two percent,” the director of Healthy Mobility, Paula Bisiau, told IPS.
To achieve this, work was carried out on three fronts: the creation of a network of bike lanes; the establishment of a free, public bicycle sharing system; and a campaign to encourage bicycle use.
“Buenos Aires is flat; the climate, except for the occasional rainy day, is mild; there are many students and people who practice sports…this was a city that could become very bicycle-friendly,” the official explained.
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