Sunday Streets to Great Streets: Enrique Penalosa

The program — entitled “Sunday Streets to Great Streets” — is part of the public launch of the San Francisco Great Streets Project, a new campaign led by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC) and the San Francisco Planning + Urban Research Association (SPUR). The SF Great Streets Project aims to catalyze the return of our city’s streets to their rightful place as the center of civic life by working with government, business and neighborhood leaders to test, analyze and institutionalize placemaking. 

“San Francisco deserves great streets and public spaces,” says Leah Shahum, SFBC Executive Director. “We can learn from Mr. Penalosa’s work in Bogota and around the world about how San Francisco’s public realm can be not only more attractive and sustainable, but also more well-used and economically vibrant.”

San Francisco’s successful Sunday Streets program is based on Penalosa’s wildly popular “Ciclovia” system in Bogota. Penalosa’s urban development model includes more public spaces, the Transmilenio, an extensive network of cycle paths, the ‘pico y placa’ system that allows car owners only to use their vehicles on specific days, greater pedestrian access and improved public transport. Thanks to his work, Bogota has become an international gold standard for Bus Rapid Transit. Penalosa was recently awarded the Gothenburg Prize for Sustainable Development for his design and application of urban development in Colombia’s capital city.

Supporters of great streets in San Francisco hope that the city is moving in a similar direction with the successes of Sunday Streets, and the trial Pavement to Parks program, as well as recent commitments to an expanded Bicycle Network and Bus Rapid Transit system.”