ABSTRACT
Colombian cities have seen increasing attention to cycling as an urban mobility ‘fix’ and sustainable development goal. Cycling-inclusive infrastructure interventions are considered necessary to improve cycling safety and an effective tool for increasing ridership. Though municipal administrations are eager to show progress, the resulting projects are often poorly planned or designed. In response, the Colombian Ministry of Transport commissioned the ‘Cycling Infrastructure Design Guide for Colombian Cities’, formally adopting it as a planning instrument in 2018. The experience of Despacio, a Colombian NGO charged with developing the guide, has shown that the document’s potential to improve planning practices includes: (1) technical guidelines and specifications, (2) legal justification for technical decisions, (3) a shift of focus from individual infrastructures to cycling-inclusive networks and (4) tools for (comparative) evaluation of projects and policies. This policy brief sets out these considerations through an overview of cycling infrastructure practices in Colombia and a discussion of two recent projects carried out by Despacio.
