The public demand for the construction of a cycling network in Rio de Janeiro in 1985-86, with several cyclist demonstrations led to the construction, in 1991, of the first bicycle tracks along the famous beaches of Ipanema, Copacabana and Barra da Tijuca, in a project called Rio Orla aimed at restructuring the seafront sidewalks, as the city looked forward hosting the 1992 Eco Conference. In the 1992-96 period the construction of a new cycling infrastructure gained momentum and bicycle use expanded. By the end of 99 Rio had 86 kilometers of bike tracks and lanes, including a connection from the residential middle class south zone to the downtown area. Since 97 the construction of the bicycle infra-structure has slowed down(1). Nevertheless the idea of bike use as alternative transportation has virtually conquered it's place in the city's culture.

César Duarte Biking in Rio...

Though smaller and less comprehensive than several Dutch and north European cities' bike networks Rio' s is quite impressive considered in a Brazilian and Latin American big cities' context. Although it has been well rated in opinion polls(2) and can be considered part of an effort to reduce automobile use, and consequently, CO2 and local effect pollutants, the establishment of a comprehensive bicycle network was never a clear cut choice of the city government but the result of intense green and NGO lobbying(3) , at first, and then of a rather isolated effort by the city's environmental department, with little support and, occasionally, some hostility, from the transport and urban development departments, continuously influenced by conceptions favoring investments in ever expanding express ways, viaducts, tunnels and broader carriageways, under the hegemony of automobile and bus oriented policies.

A 1994 research(4) gave us this profile of Rio's urban transport use:

INTERMODAL SPLIT OF DAILY TRIPS IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF RIO DE JANEIRO*:
Buses 61,02%
Cars (includes taxis) 11,5%
Trains 3,13%
Subway 2,28%
Ferryboats 0,66%
Motorcycle 0,26%
Other 0,17%
Total motorized (10.4 million daily trips) 79,04%
On foot 19,68%
Bicycle (170 000 users in the metropolitan area and 78 000 in the city) 1,28%
Total non motorized (2.7 million daily trips) 20,96%

* population: in the metropolitan area 10 million. In the city of Rio de Janeiro: 5.5 million.


This picture illustrates the dominance of bus commuting. Like in most big cities of the South, it plays the role carried out in big European or Japanese cities by rail mass transport. Another aspect to observe, of course, is the role of the automobile. There are approximately 1.7 million cars in Rio. Big investments in motorized transport in the last thirty years (5) have not been sufficient to cope with a constant growth in car traffic. The consequences are quite obvious: congestion, increased emission of pollutants, social inequalities, decay in the overall quality of life, loss of diversity in most neighborhoods.

The city's fastest growing area, Barra da Tijuca, to the south, is a good example of modernist urban planning favoring extreme automobile dependence. Masterminded in the sixties by the famous architect and urban planner Lucio Costa (a talented Le Corbusier disciple also responsible, in the fifties, for the Brasilia urban development project ) this area is mainly occupied by high-rise upper middle class condominiums and American style shopping malls with virtually no traditional urban tissue like streets, sidewalks or corner shops.

A new transport paradigm for Rio would have to consider the following strategic goals:

1)Reducing the demand for transport by promoting mixed use neighbourhoods and telecommuting.
2)Switching investment from new express roads and other automobile priority infrastructure to well balanced inter-modal mass commuting projects.
3)Investing in rail mass transport: trains, subway and modern tramways.
4)Rationalizing bus transport establishing free corridors and inter-modal networking.
5)Expanding bay and sea coast ferryboat and catamaran lines.
6)Implementing private car use restrictions in some areas of the city and traffic calming urban design.
7)Upgrading and expanding constantly non-motorized transport infrastructure favoring pedestrian comfort and cycle networking.

Bicycle use is therefore just one aspect of this new paradigm yet to come. Some of it's elements have started do develop in the womb of the hegemonic automobile dominated transport model. The percentage of bicycle transportation use found in that 1994 study (1,28% of the daily trips, or 168.369 cyclists in the metropolitan and 77.627 in the city of Rio itself) can seem very modest but, compared to other low figures related to fairly traditional means of mass transportation like the trains(3,13%), subway (2,28%) and ferryboats(0,66%), it becomes somewhat more significant. There are 3 million bicycles in the city of Rio. The study excluded the recreation uses limiting it's scope strictly to home-workplace bike trips which, as we will see later, are not the only possible transport use. In a subsequent 95 poll, 14% of the interviewees said they had already used bicycles for transport purposes, 71% said that they might eventually use and only 15% asserted bluntly they would never use them.

Another poll aimed specifically at three west zone low income neighborhoods, found substantially higher figures in daily bike use to workplace destinations and other kinds of non recreational trips.(6) 52% claimed to own a bicycle. From those owners 34% said they used it for transportation, 58% just for leisure and 8% claimed not to use it, ever.

Some Dutch influence

Our action in Rio was very much influenced our 93 Amsterdam visit. This omnipresent network, well connected to other transport modalities and built in a clever, socially and administratively integrated methodology, was a good source of inspiration though there are big differences in scale, social, economic and cultural conditions. Amsterdam started to act systematically on its bicycle ways system in 1979 by forming a special work group composed of several municipal departments and users. Fifteen years of planning, well integrated action and a regular budget resulted in the construction of an enviable network of bike lanes, tracks and parking facilities quickly accessible in any part of the city. This accomplishment was favored by an historical-cultural inheritance: the bicycle was very much used in the city up to the fifties. From the sixties to the end of the eighties, like elsewhere, there was an important automobile boom that strongly undermined bicycle use.

The resistance to increasing, pollutant and uncontrollable traffic intensified from 1975 on, when the Dutch Union of Cyclists(ENFB), was formed and started to lobby for recovering bicycle use and limiting automobile use. The entity won political influence, particularly through city counselor Michael Van de Vlis, who became responsible for the traffic and transport policies, in 1978. In the eighties the Working Group could rely on annual budgets that varied between 500 thousand and 2.5 million dollars destined to deal at first with what they called the biker's ‘bottle necks’, critical points for the cyclists. Federal and state resources, destined to more extensive bike tracks in parks, alongside highways and channels were also made available.

It is important to point out the role of ENBF whose volunteers worked on the streets preparing sketches of suggestions to be later developed by city technicians. The group was capable of elaborating and discussing in detail about 10 projects per month and of planning the solution for 200 critical 'bottle necks' in several neighborhoods. All public works plans in the city were previously discussed with the Working Group thus allowing the bicycle ways system expansion plan to take advantage of every new regular re-urbanizing, drainage or other street reform works, favoring the construction of bicycle lanes, tracks and parking racks at a substantially lower cost. By 93, 26% of the daily displacements in the city were made on bicycle (34% by car and 40% in the public transportation: subway, trolley trams and buses). 80% of the inhabitants of the city own a bicycle, although just half of them use it on a daily basis. The inhibiting elements seem to be thefts, the difficulty of transporting objects and cold and rainy weather.

Bike networking as a political challenge

	Bicycle way on Recreio Beach

The first bicycle ways built in Rio along the beaches, in 92, met some criticism assuaged in the fierce discussions about the Rio Orla re-urbanization project itself. They were seen as basically recreational which is only partially true. The clashes over bike ways being or not a transport alternative really heated up in the second phase. As works began, in 94, for the 14 km Mané Garrincha bike track, connecting Copacabana to downtown Rio, right through a dense urban area, interfering (quite moderately) with the traffic and reducing some parking space, opponents of the project and part of the press argued loudly that the whole idea was crazy and would not resist the city's hot climate, describing bicycle transportation use as "cold country stuff" that could only be successful in cities like Amsterdam or Copenhagen. Anybody familiar with the rainy climate, cold winter and chilly winds of the north of Europe, can easily see that this was plain nonsense and that Brazilian climate conditions are actually much more favorable to regular bicycle use for short and average distances (up to 15 km) than in Europe. As for the 'heat factor' it is, of course, perfectly viable to have schools, offices, shopping malls and specific public lavatories to provide some shower facilities and public changing rooms for employees, students or users. In a 95 poll(7) this factor revealed itself as quite unimportant: only 1,36% mentioned 'heat factor' as a liability.

In fact, the potentiality for bike ways in Brazil is immense, not only in large cities but, specially, in small and medium size ones with tradition of bicycle use. There is, though, a really serious obstacle: insecurity due to chaotic and dangerous traffic and the risk of being mugged or having one's bike stolen. In the same poll 28.9% mentioned it as a major inhibitor. In Brazilian cities the use of physically unprotected bicycle lanes (ciclofaixas) is not a safe enough solution. Of course having a painted lane for bicycles can represent a first step, better than no separate marked cycling space at all, but a network depending exclusively on bike lanes, quite common in several European and American cities, would tend to attract a very limited number of users in addition to those brave ones that already take their chances amidst our chaotic traffic.

In big Brazilian cities it is important to have separate-running cycle tracks(ciclovias) though one cannot always discard lanes, well demarcated by yellow paint strips with beams, in those places where it is not possible, or not yet possible, to build bike tracks, physically separated from the carriageway and also from the sidewalk. Sometimes an unprotected lane is a first step towards a proper bicycle way in the future. An example of this is the João Saldanha bicycle way, between Ipanema and Copacabana. In 92 it was improvised as a 4.5 m wide bike lane, on Francisco Otaviano street, connecting two heavy traffic beachside avenues with separate-running bike ways alongside the beachfront sidewalks. The street has several shops, a school, a church and parking in the bicycle lane became frequent (as well as on the sidewalk itself). Cars trying to force their way through traffic jams often invaded it. Several serious accidents, including two fatal ones, occurred with bikers hit by cars. In 95 the lane was transformed into a 3 m wide protected cycle track. There was a fierce uproar especially from shopkeepers, dwellers and students' parents who used to park their cars on the lane or on the sidewalk. The priest presented a protest petition with more than a thousand signatures and there were furious letters in the news papers.

With his family in Copacabana

Through dialogue, persuasion and some minor concessions the environmental department managed to calm the quarrel. It was possible to demonstrate that conditions for bikers and pedestrians were to improve. Even the drivers would benefit from a wider carriageway with no parking on the right side. The resistance, that would have been too big do handle politically in 92 when there was virtually no visible bicycle use on that street, in 95 was still quite tough but could be overcome by persuasion since it became clear to most people that protecting the cyclist properly and keeping the cars from parking on the lane and blocking them off the sidewalk was after all a reasonable decision.

The process of building all those cycling facilities was combined with several public campaigns, some organized by the environmental department, some spontaneous. The most interesting of the latter kind was the 93 Tuesday Night Bikers. It was a weekly evening ride with several thousand bicycles along the south zone beachfront to downtown. It followed the route of the beach bicycle ways (the Mane Garrincha one was still being planed) but on the avenues. The traffic was diverted, police motorcyclists and ambulances accompanied the ride. It was a sport and leisure event but helped to create momentum for bike ways. Other events generally linked to bikers' environmental education were promoted directly by the environmental department as well as the publication of leaflets and the broadcasting of TV focusing on cycling traffic rules.

Establishing a bike network in a big city is a step by step process where the important thing is to gradually upgrade safety and comfort conditions, as well as cultural stimulus for bicycle use. It isn't always successful. In New York the experience seems to have backfired. In Paris it appears difficult to expand it beyond Boulevard Saint Germain. Some Asian cities particularly in China appear to be downgrading the cyclists, but others have created different forms of coexistence. Tokyo, for instance, has a high rate of bicycle use, lots of parking facilities but no bike ways. Cyclists share sidewalks with pedestrians. Cycling, generally combined with rail, accounts for 13% of Japans' daily short distance trips. Sidewalk sharing is an experience that certainly cannot be reproduced in other contexts, in not so spatially disciplined cultures, it however illustrates the idea that bicycle ways are just one element of the equation. Even when we can not build a bike track or frame a lane, there are other possible actions: a small ramp, a passage, filling holes in the asphalt near the sidewalk where bikers ride, micro-interventions that improve cycling conditions.

It is also important to understand that bicycle ways are destined for the common user, not for experienced and well trained cyclists. These, in general, prefer the traffic, like to speed in hallucinating zigzags competing with the cars. As we build cycling infrastructure in a big city we want to stimulate bicycle use for trips to the beach, shopping, school, office, movies, by people that previously didn't bike. We know this represents less cars in a traffic jam or less passengers commuting in crowded buses. If we achieve the goal of having a significant part of the short distance urban trips on bicycle we will obviously reduce local pollution effects and CO2 emissions and improve quality of life in various ways.

Several strategic elements

Actually, public works of bike ways or lanes are part of a range of interventions destined to stimulate and to give more safety and comfort to the use of the bicycle as means of transportation. The design manual of the Dutch traffic engineering(8) lists five basic requirements for a successful cycle network:

1)Coherence: forming a coherent unit and links with all departure points and destinations of cyclists;
2)Directness: offering as direct a route as possible;
3)Attractiveness: design fitting in with the surroundings so as to make cycling there as attractive as possible;
4)Safety: maximum guarantee for cyclists and other road users;
5)Comfort: enabling a quick and comfortable flow of bicycle traffic.

They apply those criteria to all different aspects of the process of establishing the cycle network. In Holland and several other European countries there are national policies that help local non motorized transport programs by, at least, creating a favorable administrative environment. A cautious and detailed planning process precedes action. In Brazilian cities, and specifically in the Rio case, conditions are quite different and very much related to an ongoing political struggle to affirm the pertinence of non motorized alternative transport and then cope with bureaucratic obstacles and budget restraints.

	Intense bike traffic in Copacabana

In these conditions that might be similar in other cities, in the South but also in the North, where the government and most of the public are still very much exclusively motorized transport oriented, implementation should also take into account some strategic elements, very much linked to administrative and, thereby, political conditions: the demonstration effect; good social and administrative integration; the importance of efficient maintenance ; the basic support infrastructure and , last but not least, continuity.

The demonstration effect. It is convenient to start in an area of great visibility in order to create a cultural impact and an effect multiplier. In the case of Rio de Janeiro it was good to start from the seafront and the connection of the middle class south zone to downtown. As we have mentioned before, there was some harsh criticism in the media, city council and inside the administration itself. The main resistance came from drivers living in areas where bike ways were likely to suppress street parking space (frequently blocking illegal parking on the sidewalk). These criticisms, though strident, didn't find much of an echo in the overall public. Polls conducted in different areas of the city demonstrated an impressing approval of up to 88%. Most of the constructed bike ways became highly successful, specially the Mane Garrincha and the beachfront ones. The exception was the Ayrton Senna bike track alongside twelve lane Americas avenue, in Barra da Tijuca, used only by a relatively small number of bikers.

Another kind of criticism that levelled later on was that these bicycle ways were in fact more for leisure use than for transportation and that they privileged the wealthier neighborhoods of the city. Also the fact that they were executed without a previous master plan. These restrictions are partially correct but should be put into context. It is a fact that the Mane Garrincha did not lead to a massive use of people biking to downtown work destinations coming from the south zone neighborhoods. It's accesses to the downtown area have a lack of 'directness' problem. The bike track becomes a 'shared strip' and makes a detour through the Flamengo Park which isn't the shortest route. Shorter accesses bypassing the park had been planned but were not executed, due to budget cuts when the expansion pace slowed down abruptly, in mid 96.

So most of it's bicycle traffic is concentrated between three south zone neighborhoods, Flamengo, Botafogo and Copacabana, where we have bay and ocean beaches, lots of street commerce, big shopping malls, schools and universities, movies, in mixed use high density streets. This bicycle way is intensely used every day with a strong increase on weekends. Though the bikers' destinies are beaches or commerce rather than workplace, and these bike trips are often associated with the idea of getting some physical exercise and contemplating the beauty of Rio's south seafront, they should still be considered an alternative transportation use since they replace a potential displacement by car or bus. Specific leisure bicycle use, with no transport significance, is in fact limited to situations where one bikes around in a home to home destination just for fun or physical exercise, or when someone puts his or her bike on a car rack, drives to a park, bikes in it and then drives back. The transport logic is given by the substitution of a motorized mode by a non motorized one and thus should include a wider range of bike trips than simply the residence - work destiny.

The most intense bicycle use to the work place or to train, subway or bus station destinations, was clearly identified in our polls in the west zone of the city. It became quite obvious that an important investment should be made in the area. This was set in the 96 budget, for a third phase of the bicycle ways program but was severally cut by a mayor's decision, limiting the investments to those bicycle ways already under construction at that time. In the following years budgets were kept at a lower level limiting the development of the network in that area of the city.

It would have been good to have a previous city scale master plan and meticulous studies but the fragile political conditions under which we had to intervene, conditioned this style of opportunity planning and action, a sort of 'let's go for it!' strategy. It was important to start the program in the most visible area of the city, where it would inevitably have the biggest cultural impact and also the toughest opposition. It wouldn't have specially advanced our purpose beginning timidly in a park, some discreet route trough secondary streets, or a peripheral industrial zone with a consistent bike use but far from the city’s cultural and political center. The genesis of the bike ways in a city, where there is no consensus previously granted and is the subject of a political clash, should have as much visibility as possible. Therefore, in coastal or riverine cities it is good to start from a valued waterfront and in other cities from a highly cherished area that could meet this purpose and become fashionable. The next step, however should favor itineraries with the largest count of bicycles and possible connections with other transportation systems like train and subway stations, bus terminals, and stops, assessed on detailed studies for the best alternatives.

Integration is very important:

· internal to the City administration;
· with users and concerned citizens in general:
· to other transportation systems.

Integration inside the local administration itself is extremely important but can be, like in the Rio case, somewhat difficult. The best practice for implanting a bike network relates to a united and well coordinated effort encompassing different sectors of the municipal administration. Taking advantage of every single re-urbanizing work to expand the cycle network at low cost is absolutely crucial. Missing the occasion doesn't mean just a lost opportunity to reduce costs (9) but a near to fatal postponement. Once the street works are over it will be highly inconvenient to break up everything all over again, a few months later, in order to build the missing cycle way. So every time a street reform does not involve cycling infrastructure it is in fact relegating it to a distant and unforeseeable future.

Unfortunately, quite different from what happened in Amsterdam, in the Rio experience this kind of integration was not granted systematically. Sometimes it did happen like in the Rio Orla Project, but most of the time it did not. A major setback was the high profile Rio Cidade re-urbanizing project remaking the sidewalks and urban installations in several of the most important axes of different parts of the city, in the 95-96 period. In general it improved pedestrian conditions but very little cycling infrastructure was integrated to it, because of the opposition of the urban development department and it's contracted architects' offices and intense political rivalry between the urban development and the environment departments.

Alfredo Sirkis Amsterdam model bike racks

The ideal instrument for integration is a working group where several municipal and state organs are involved and users represented. In Rio the municipal Working Group for Cycle Systems was created in 93 and chaired by the secretary for the environment. It became a very useful forum and a planning collective where 'bottle necks' and critical points were detected and interventions decided; where plans for new bicycle ways were discussed. The best ally in this kind of planning is the inveterate cyclist who knows each detail of a route and is capable of proposing practical solutions. There was also some planning for a long period: the priority routes determined according to bicycle flows and possible links to the public transport system. Around 500 km of bicycle tracks and lanes were planned. The integration between the various municipal departments became effective at the technical level but was frequently jeopardized by political infighting at the higher echelon.

Good maintenance is crucial. Bike ways should always have specific conservation contracts, because they are a much more delicate a type of infrastructure than the roads and carriageways. An attentive eye to the drainage performance after every rain fall, is important since rainwater pays a serious role in degrading the bike way. In a hot climate, it is more convenient to use concrete than the more abrasive asphalt. The fist cycle tracks on the beachfront were made of common asphalt, later on red concrete was used. Neither resists poor maintenance. Taking good care of the bike traffic signs is also very important. In Rio they are submitted to intense vandalism. Recently bicycle ways conservation has been poor and this, of course, does not stimulate use expansion.

The Security aspects should be considered right from the beginning of the project, at every phase. The cycle way should always be very well illuminated, avoid empty places or areas with poor visibility that can favor muggers. The presence of the police or security guards bikers patrol is an important factor in reducing this insecurity. In Rio the Environmental Detachment of the Municipal Guard formed a special bikers squad to protect users and enforce bike traffic rules. The results were fairly good, and the bicycle ways in Rio are reasonably safe.

Absolute security, of course, is near to impossible. But visible patrolling day and night integrated to a general crime preventing strategy for the whole neighborhood is very important. Bicycle policing has it's specific role for it gives better observation conditions than car patrolling and greater mobility than on foot. In the night period it is also a dissuasion element to vandalism: graffiti, destruction of signposts and parking bicycle racks. Coping with common theft is quite difficult even in European and American cities. Amsterdam, for example, has an extremely high figure of stolen bicycles. The solution, in this case, is not to use locks with flexible steel cable, relatively easy to cut, but those of two piece hard metal.

Another problem concerning bike use in Rio is transgression by bikers, drivers and pedestrians. Cariocas (Rio’s inhabitants) are notoriously undisciplined drivers and pedestrians and it would be a true miracle if they became prudent and rule-abiding bikers. With the bicycle boom, after 92, there was also a steady increase in accidents involving bikers. A set of rules was approved by the city council after long discussions in the Working Group, with bikers, traffic specialists, etc...

These rules try to prevent the cyclists from racing at high-speed; pedaling on the left side lane of the bi-directional tracks, doing acrobatic or imprudent maneuvers; disrespecting pedestrians’ crossing priority at the intermittent red light; stopping in the middle of the cycle way to talk to someone on the sidewalk. Pedestrians should not walk inside the cycle track or lane (unless it has as a ‘shared strip’ status). Two tracks only (in the Flamengo Park and around Rodrigo de Freitas lake) have ‘shared strips’ status where people can both walk and bike, with priority for the pedestrians. These are specific situations due to the absence of sidewalk space. The general rule in Rio’s bicycle ways is that you can also run or skate (if aligned on the right side) but not walk inside them. Learners or unfit skaters are also forbidden. Other rules fine severely motorcycles or parking cars in the cycle network. Some of the fines are severe but enforcement is weak and disregard runs high.
A support infrastructure. Well organized storing facilities with bicycle parking racks are important to stimulate bike use and they can precede the construction of bicycle ways. One of the obstacles to bicycle use is, of course, not having a safe place to leave it. Train stations or subway, bus or ferryboat terminals, shopping, clubs, movies, parks, beaches, squares are all areas that need to have bike parking racks with someone in charge. The racks in Rio were inspired on the Amsterdam model enhanced and adapted to our specific circumstances.

We have already mentioned, in the case of hot climate cities, the demand for public and private showers and dressing rooms. It is important as well to have bike maintenance shops in strategic points of the cycle network. Cheap rent bikes that can be returned at different location points around the network are also a very important element in this support infrastructure. Copenhagen has a one thousand bicycle City Bike system with automatic coin locks in 120 racks scattered around the whole city center. This kind of service maximizes the potentialities of bike use and can be achieved by a partnership with the private sector.

Continuity is the basic element for a successful cycling network. In the same way that keeping on pedaling is vital to prevent a bicycle from falling, expanding the city cycling network is vital to consolidate alternative non motorized transport. A constantly upgraded bicycle infrastructure will attract more and more users, help to reduce automobile use, congestion and pollution, humanize and add charm to a city.

Discontinuity is one of the chronicle difficulties in Brazilian public administration. Rio’s cycle network has suffered from it but, nevertheless, is likely to survive and expand in the future. The creation and good maintenance of a network of bicycle ways and support infrastructure capable of stimulating the increase of safe bike use is just one of the many components for sustainable urban transport. Probably not the main one, but it certainly does play a role that should not be neglected. It is a relatively cheap but promising investment for any city that would like to promote a new paradigm and to associate its image to this ancient yet modern tool of free and environmentally clean human powered transport.

	The author with fellow militant bikers.

* Alfredo Sirkis, journalist, writer, city councilor of Rio de Janeiro for the Green Party (PV), since 1988. Ex-member of the Executive Committee of ICLEI. In 1991 lobbied for the inclusion of cycle ways in Rio Orla project. As Secretary (commissioner) for the environment of the city, from 1993 to 96, was the main responsible for the cycle network expansion projects and public works. Created and chaired the Working Group for Cycle Systems. In 99 he is back at the City Council is also the vice-president of the Ondazul Foundation a Brazilian NGO. Email: sirkis@alternex.com.br

PS Currently(2005) the author is the Secretary for Urban Management of Rio de Janeiro.

Notes

(1) Bicycle ways build in the 91-92 period:

Area length in km zone
Copacabana, Leme, Ipanema and Leblon beaches** 13 south seafront
São Conrado beach** 2 south seafront
Barra of Tijuca beach** 13.5 south seafront
Maracanã Stadium 1 north
Rodrigo of Freitas lake (shared pedestrian-bike strip) 7,5 south
Total 37
** built as part of the Rio Orla project.

In the 94-96 period:

Area length in km zone
Mané Garrincha(Copacabana-Flamengo) 14 south/center
Marechal Rondon (Copacabana) 1 south
João Saldanha (Copacabana-Ipanema) 1 south
Rubro Negra (Leblon - Lagoa - Gávea) 3 south
Praia do Dendê 1.5 north
Orlinha 1.5 center
Ayrton Senna (Barra da Tijuca) 8 west
Av. Automovel Clube 4 north
Total 34


In the 97- 99 period:

Area length in km zone
Bangu 4 west
Campo Grande 4 west
Avenida Meriti 3 north
Jardim America 2 north
Parque da Catacumba 0.5 south
Parque Nacional da Tijuca 1.5 north
Total 15


Rio's Bicycle network budget expenses*** estimate in US dollars.

94.................................................................................................................750 000
95..............................................................................................................1 650 000
96..............................................................................................................2 200 000
97.................................................................................................................300 000
98.................................................................................................................820 000
99(prevision)..................................................................................... ............820 000

*** the 91 and 92 estimates are not available for there was no specific budget. Bicycle ways in this period were integrated to the Rio Orla and Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas re-urbanizing projects. In 93 there was no investment budget for bicycle ways works but it was a very important organizing and planning year.


(2) An April 1995 poll by Infoglobo research institute, linked to O Globo daily newspaper with the residents of the Rio south zone neighborhoods.


What is the main reason that, in your opinion, inhibits people from biking for transportation purposes?

dangerous traffic - 11,22%
personal safety risk - 9,87%
distance and time - 8,03%
absence of bicycle parking racks - 7,81%
health reasons - 6,30%
unfavorable topography - 2,13%
absence of dressing rooms and shower - 1,36%
other reasons - 11,22%


A December 1994 poll ****conducted by State University of Rio (UERJ) in the low income west zone of the city :

Bike ownership

yes - 51.4%
no - 48.6

Owners' use

just for leisure, exercise - 57.6%
for transport - 34.3%
doesn't use at all - 8.1

Would use more frequently if there were:

bicycle ways - 66.6%
safe parking bike racks - 14.7%
showers / dressing rooms - 5.7%
never would - 9.5%

Opinion about having bicycle ways in the neighborhood:

very important - 88.2%
not very important - 9.2%
against - 2.6%


****researched focus group: total 500; gender: 45% male, 55% female; age: 38% up to 20, 34% from 21 to 30, 15.4% from 31 to 40; 8.2% from 41 to 50; 4.2% over 50

(3) In 85, 86, 90, 91 and 93 there were cyclist demonstrations organized by the Green Party and by NGOs, demanding the construction of bicycle ways in Rio. Three successive mayors Saturnino Braga (85-88); Marcello Alencar (89-92) and César Maia (93-96) agreed publicly and/or signed an official program compromises with the Green Party to build them.

(4) IPLANRIO "The Profile of the urban transport user in the Metropolitan area. Rio de Janeiro .1994."

(5) 35 billion U$, in the 1960-94 period, in the Rio Metropolitan area.

(6) See poll in (2)

(7) See poll in (2)

(8) Center for Reasearch and Standardization in civil and traffic engineering (CROW). (1994) Sign for the Bike: design manual for a cycle-friendly infrastructure. The Neederlands.

(9) The estimate average cost for a bicycle lane or track without pavement reforming using the existing asphalt, with separation elements and signs, is U$20 000, per km. For a specially built bi-directional red concrete bicycle track, 3 m wide, with signposts and 5 m re-urbanizing perimeter, U$ 140 000, per km. Diluted in an larger re-urbanizing project this costs fall dramatically and are limited to specific cycle pavement signaling strips, signposts and bike parking racks.


References

CROW - Centre for Research and Standardization in Civil and Traffic Engineering (1994) Sign up for the Bike: design manual for a cycle- friendly infrastructure. The Netherlands..

ENGWCHT, David. (1992)Towards in Ecocity. Calming the traffic. Envirobook. Sidney,
Austrália..

IPLANRIO (1994)"The Profile of the urban transport user in the Metropolitan area. Rio de Janeiro."

SIRKIS, ALFREDO(1999). Ecologia Urbana e Poder Local. Fundação Ondazul. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

SIRKIS, ALFREDO(1996) Verde Carioca. Ed. Record. Rio de Janeiro. Brazil..

THE DUTCH CYCLISTS' FEDERATION (1984). Grassroots and community participation in the Bicycle Master Plan. Neederlands.

(1999)