Recent Posts by Darío
The grave consequences of road traffic crashes are not a common theme in election campaigns. Nevertheless, the legislatures of Chile, Mexico and Colombia have recently advanced or are in the midst of debating valuable legislation to reduce traffic deaths and ...
I recently had the pleasure of re-visiting Curitiba, Brazil, thanks to an invitation from the Smart Cities Expo. I made my first pilgrimage in 2000, when Bogotá was implementing its bus rapid transit system, Transmilenio, and returned twice after that. ...
Jaime Lerner passed away on May 27, 2021. A world-renowned Brazilian urbanist, he was three times mayor of Curitiba and two times governor of the southern state of Paraná. Besides his great ideas, he was a very kind person and ...
Road development throughout the 20th century was based primarily on the premise that more infrastructure eases traffic. But evidence shows that road building, instead of reducing congestion, actually increases traffic. When travel time by car is reduced and convenience increased, ...
This blog is also available in Spanish on IADB.org. For most Latin American and Caribbean cities, public transport is the single most important way to access opportunity and essential services for most urban dwellers, from finding a job to education ...
Mexico’s ‘Right to Mobility’ Amendment Could Shift Road Safety Discourse and Save Thousands of Lives
In a groundbreaking move for national road safety policy, Mexico has elevated to their constitution a universal right to safe mobility. On October 14, the country’s Chamber of Deputies unanimously voted in favor of adding an amendment to Mexico’s constitution: ...
They marched for human rights, for health care and education, but they came for the metro system, burning and damaging more than 86 stations across the city. Massive protests in Santiago last October forced the government to agree to rewrite ...
With her recent re-election, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo (Editor’s note: no relation to the author) has won a mandate to continue profound mobility transformations in the French capital. Her re-election manifesto promises an even more ambitious second term, furthering her efforts over ...
In the midst of COVID-19 precautions that have curtailed movement around the world, Colombia has released a new national road map for urban and regional mobility. It sends a powerful policy message that cities are saved by providing adequate access ...
At least 17 people have been killed, hundreds more injured, and thousands arrested in what is Chile’s most severe period of civil unrest in years. While President Sebastian Piñera reversed the Santiago Metro fare hikes that initially triggered outcry, protests ...
Bogotá will soon have a new mayor, but new data suggests one of the current administration’s major policy priorities – making the streets safer for pedestrians and drivers – should be continued. Bogotá’s Vision Zero Road Safety Plan, launched in ...
In 2003, London followed the example of Singapore and launched a congestion charge, requiring drivers to pay £11.50 ($15.90) to enter the city center and becoming a global example of how this innovative but sometimes fraught policy can work. Sixteen ...
Eighteen years ago, I was deputy general manager of TransMilenio S.A., the city agency running Bogotá’s brand new bus rapid transit (BRT) system. It was amazing to be there at the start of operations for this system knowing that it ...
European cities by and large have a sterling reputation when it comes to walkability and public transportation. Recent data compiled by Ralph Buheler, John Pucher and Alan Altshuler in the International Journal of Sustainable Transportation show that between 1989 and ...
Across Colombia’s cities, bicycle users are the most satisfied commuters, according to a new survey. In 2016, 86 percent of bicyclists in 18 cities were satisfied with their commutes, compared to just 48 percent for mass transit and 74 percent ...
