Note: This week we have a guest article from our friend and fellow Transport Planner, Richard Hart. Richard is currently based in Mexico and has written several articles on transport planning. More articles from Richard can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardhartnz/
A great article and read, thank you Richard for contributing your thoughts:)
Andrew
What happens when a city of over 20 million people closes tens of kilometres of the main avenues for vehicles for 6 hours every Sunday?
Exercise!
Last Sunday I had my first taste of the phenomenon here called 'Muévete en Bici' (literally 'Move yourself by bike').
I have read and seen information online about this event, but experiencing it in person was something else!
The event was first held all the way back in 2007 to support the growing use of bicycles in Mexico City. In that edition of the event, only 10 kilometres of avenues were closed to traffic. This allowed people the freedom to cycle safely away from cars and trucks every Sunday from 8am till 2pm.
Since then the open route has grown from the initial 10 kilometres to more than 48 kilometres allowing the people of the city to take to the streets to enjoy the space.
Since 2007, an estimated 28 million people have enjoyed the weekly event, with a record Sunday attendance of 115 thousand people (Source).
Check out the map of the event from the 16th of March when 61km of roads were open for cycling and running. The map also indicates free services and activities available along the routes.
So, this past Sunday I checked out the event. The rest of this post recounts my experience of the Muévete en Bici event and what I noticed, including:
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Public transport services continue to operate
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Sporting events make use of the closed streets
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Traffic across the open route is controlled by workers to improve safety
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Free bike service workshops are located along the routes
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People of all types are out enjoying the event
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Other cities do their own Muévete en Bici events
First, I grabbed one of the public rental bicycles, and headed over to La Reforma, the main avenue here.
La Reforma is usually very busy with vehicles. But today it was busy with people walking, cycling and running.
La Reforma is 12 lanes wide in total. This is made up of two general traffic lanes in each direction as service lanes, separated by wide medians from the three general traffic lanes and one bus lane in each direction in the central part of the avenue. But today that central part was just for the Muévete en Bici event.
Public transport services continue to operate
Using the two service lanes in each direction, they maintain public transport bus services along La Reforma. This minimises the disruption to people who still need to get around the wider city on Sunday while the event is on. This also allows people to get to La Reforma to enjoy the event if they live further away.
Sporting events make use of the closed streets
At first, I noticed a lot of people walking around with medals on and race bibs. It turns out there had been a 5km running event which had made use of the closed streets. I've since found out that this is relatively common as there is a 10km in a few weekends time on Sunday along Reforma also making use of the standard closed streets.
All the people made it quite tricky to navigate the space by bike, but by taking it slow it was possible.
Once I got away from the running event finish line, the space opened up, and there were more bikers than walkers and runners, with a few rollerbladers mixed in too.
Traffic across the open route is controlled by workers to improve safety
Along this road, wherever there was a main intersection there were people positioned to control the flow of the vehicles along the intersecting road and us along the cycling street. These workers had megaphones to provide notices about the event, and at some major spots they would pull a banner across the waiting cyclists and runners to prevent people from moving across the intersection until it was clear again.
Free bike service workshops are located along the routes
Positioned along the route too were several free bike workshop stations for those using their own bikes. They also have free public bike hire hubs along the route for those who cannot pay for the Ecobici shared bike system.
People of all types are out enjoying the event
I saw a lot of people of different ages of all types cycling and enjoying the outdoors.
In the afternoon, I thought I would get out an enjoy the event some more, so decided to go for a run around the southern section of the closed off streets.
In this section it was far less busy, however, there were many more intersections which slowed things down. In these streets they managed to maintain traffic flow on one side of the road for one direction only, while using the other side for the event.
At some of the more minor intersections, they fully closed off the side roads to reduce the number of potential conflicts.
Other cities do their own Muévete en Bici events
I have since learned that other cities in Mexico also have their own weekly Muévete en Bici events, allowing people from all over the country to enjoy their streets in a different way once a week.
Overall, Muévete en Bici is a wonderful event that allows everyday people to experience the city in a different way once a week. It is very popular and provides people the safe space to get outdoors and do some exercise.
Mexico City seemingly has managed to mitigate some of the potential negative impacts closing streets to vehicles by continuing public transport services and managing intersections carefully with workers posted to control the flow of traffic.
By having this event every single Sunday it becomes part of the weekly flow of the city. Everyone knows that it happens every Sunday and can adapt their routines to work around the event.
Imagine if we could implement something similar in New Zealand cities! Can you imagine Tamaki Drive in Auckland being open for running and cycling every Sunday? Or what about the Golden Mile in Wellington? Or Victoria Street in Hamilton?
How great that would be!
Transit Trends · Andrew Collings, KA Advisory. Read and comment on the original on LinkedIn.
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