Cities all over the developing world are struggling to come to terms with the rapid growth in motorization, which has resulted in air pollution, congestion and increased traffic accidents. We are all familiar with Manila’s problems and its attempted solutions. However, most of us are less familiar with the case of Bogotá, Colombia, which is one of the very few cities that have been able to put in place a more sustainable transport system.

Asian Development Bank, Shell Philippines, the Partnership for Clean Air (PCA) and the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia) have invited Enrique Peñalosa, the former mayor of Bogotá, and the architect of the transport revolution in Bogotá to visit Manila and to share his experiences with the transport and air quality management community in Manila.

Enrique Peñalosa is an accomplished public official who has demonstrated the success of his innovative ideas and management abilities while he was Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia. During his tenure from 1998-2001, he led a profound city transformation by carrying out a different urban paradigm, giving "priority to children’s happiness over automobile mobility." As Mayor, he:

• Created a new highly successful bus-based transit system modeled from Curitiba’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), based on exclusive corridors and high capacity buses, called TransMilenio, which is now the international model.
• Initiated the construction of bicycle paths in Bogotá and left more than 250 kilometers built or under construction. Today, it is the longest bike path network in the developing world with more than 300 kilometers.
• Promoted a city model that progressively restricts private car use, especially during peak hours, eliminated thousands of illegal parking bays and included several hundreds of high quality sidewalks.

Since March 2001, Mr. Peñalosa has been a frequent speaker and advisor on sustainable urban transport, whose advice has been sought by organizations such as World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and United Nations, as well as several national and local governments.

See: Program of Activities and links to presentations