Cycling safety, inequalities, and citizen participation in Bogotá by Camilo Torres
January’s G&E Thursdays session saw 4th year geography PGR Camilo Torres present his PhD research on cycling safety in his home city of Bogotá. With high levels of cycle participation, Bogotá enjoys a reputation of being a cycling-friendly city. However, the continued high numbers of cycling casualties suggest this example of ‘best practice’ is not all that it seems.
Through a mix of focus groups, interviews, spatial analysis and archival analysis, Camilo’s research unravelled the reality of cycle participation in the city, illustrating the collective and socioeconomic aspects of cycling safety and the successes and failures of transport policy.
By using the concept of The Right to the City to understand Bogotá beyond infrastructure and individual behaviour, his work highlights the need for both cross-cultural research and participatory policymaking methods to help deliver relevant and meaningful interventions.
His work will help inform future transport planning and policy, as well as being a valuable addition to this field of research which is largely dominated by studies of the global north.
Many thanks to Camilo for sharing his findings with us!
Join us for February’s G&E Thursdays session (23 February) to hear from Tracy Asamoah-Boateng about her research with off-grid rural communities of Ghana.