‘The Pied Piper for sustainable transportation’ and his radical idea: Put people first

By CHRISTINE MCLAREN, The Globe and Mail

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He has also lived his message: Mr. Penalosa, 57, helped to transform Bogota when he served as the Colombian capital’s commissioner of parks and recreation in the late 1990s. He has since become an evangelist for livable cities that put people, not cars, at the centre of planning. As the executive director of Toronto-based non-profit 8-80 Cities, he has worked with more than 150 cities on every continent, convincing them that rapid improvements to mass transit, bike lanes and pedestrian walkways are not as impossible as they may think.
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Many politicians are also “timid,” he adds. “The minute they’re elected, they’re thinking about how to get re-elected, and the way to get re-elected is to do more of the same. Maybe a little bit better but more of the same. But unfortunately now we not only have to focus on doing things right, but also we need to focus on doing the right things.”
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“It’s not about walking or cycling or parks or sidewalks,” he says. “Those are the means. The end goal is how to create a vibrant city with healthy communities, where the citizens are going to be happier.”
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