• Once you have taken the time and trouble to develop a detailed structure and fully professoinal operations plan in support of an area-wide car free day, even at the level of a huge and very busy city like Bogotá, the planning of a second Day becomes very much less time and resource intensive adn the final outcome far less uncertain.

• That said, perhaps the most outstanding single lesson of Bogotá-II is that it pays to give the time and attnetion needed to learn the lessons of expereince.

• The second Day was a great deal easier to organise since it took place this year against a baclgroudn of massive public understanding and support for the conept -- both as a reusot of the successful 2000 expereince and the successful October Referendum.

• Moreover, the Bogotá-II team - shop keepers - more cycle - Tmileno

• - uneroslved problems fo rnext time

To follow plans and progress, in addition to the information which is daily posted on this site, you are directed to the local Web page for Sin mi carro? and our latest links to the media coverage.

• Local Web page

• Selected Media Articles

• You may also find it useful to check through the main local media here to see what they have to offer each day.

• Official Announcement - Spanish language formal announcement and outline plan for the preparation and organization of the Day
• Preguntas Más Frecuentes - Frequently Asked Questions - answers to questions most often asked by people in Bogotá concerning organization and how they can best get around during the Day.
• Additional Background Materials - Reference and background materials on Bogotá, its traffic, transport system, institutions.. the context of the Day
• Brainstorming and International Tribune - Ideas, background materials, strategies and recommendations from the international expert community

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Note: The content of all pages can be quickly and roughly translated into and from Spanish. See Translate Help for more.

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International Support for Bogotá's Car Free Day

If a city with all the problems and pressures of Bogotá can organize and pull off a successful Car Free Day, this would be a tremendous fillip to the many cities in the developing world that desperately need new examples, models and ways of moving toward more sustainable transport systems. It is for this reason that we hope that the leading edge of the international transport community will get behind this project and contribute as they can to its success.

Things were made no easier by the fact that all the plans and preparations have had to be made in exactly one month of their contacting the CFD Consortium, since it is on that very date that "Sin mi carro?" will take over the street. Nonetheless, we took this as the stark reality of the moment (one more!) and tried to see what we can do with it. To this end, the Car Free Days Consortium made the decision to do what it can to rally international support and ideas for this. (You may care to think of this as a project within a project -- a world-wide Information Society effort in support of a pioneering local sustainability initiative. Perhaps a hint of a better and wiser future.)

The intention of this portion of the site is to provide a two-way communications pipe, starting by reporting succinctly to the international observers and partners on the main points of the final plan for Bogotá's Great Day -- including for its main operational elements and components, but also for the monitoring and follow-up efforts which are seen as vital concomitants of the overall pioneering effort. This is intended to work as a two-way process of information and exchange. If this whole thing works as intended, the final painstakingly considered and detailed program will reflect the rich process of iteration and creative interactions, not only on the part of the many local actors involved but also between them and the international support effort which is being organized and communicated via this Web site.

This section in fact has two sets of purposes. First, to serve as a handy checklist for any and all who wish to follow progress in the plans and preparations of the Bogotá event. And certainly no less important, for those people and groups in other places who are thinking about the possibility of organizing a Car Free Day of their own. These materials should provide valuable working tools for them, both in order to make up their minds, as counsel with ideas for getting the broad base that is vital if such initiatives are to succeed, and for the planning and preparation of their own events. Of which we can only hope that they will be many in number and excellent in their achievements.

Here are some of the things we intend to get together to do to help our friends in Bogotá in the coming weeks:

1. Register of International Support
   Sign the Bogotá Guestbook here, and let them know that they are getting the encour-agement of the leading edge thinkers and practitioners around the world. (Have a look at some of the other entries and comments before signing on; they may give you some ideas or inspiration. And if you can think of other colleagues whose name and work might help support this case, please ask them to join as well.)

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   Note to the Translator: If you have been asked to translate these materials, may we ask that you share them with us all, sending a copy of your translation to The Commons Postmaster so that we can add it to the site for those who may not be so comfortable working in English. We thank you, and they will thank you as well. The Com-mons . . . . sustainability, sharing, team work!

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