Harris Community Action Study Suggests Ciclovía Could Bring Economic, Health, Social Benefits to Chicago

Siobhan McDonough, Noah Berman, and Eliana Fram contributed to this piece.

A Harris Community Action team, in coordination with the Chicago non-profit Equiticity, found evidence that implementing an open streets program similar to Bogota’s ciclovía  could effectively encourage social integration, build healthy habits, and boost local businesses.

Harris Community Action (HCA) is a student-run organization at the Harris School that connects policy students to community-based organizations, campaigns, and non-profits located on Chicago’s South and West Sides. HCA members work in teams to complete a 10-week project designed to address key strategic problems identified by each organization. This group collaborated with Equiticity, a racial equity movement focused on increasing mobility, racial justice, and racial equity in Chicago and the US more generally. Equiticity will use the team’s detailed case study to advocate for the creation of an open streets program, here used interchangeably with ciclovía , which would represent an important first step towards increasing mobility and racial justice in Chicago.

Chicago’s transportation system, which is heavily concentrated in wealthier and whiter areas on the north side of the city (see figures of bike lanes and public transit), reflects the social and economic inequality of the city by ignoring the needs of the poor and people of color. To reduce this disparity, Chicago should turn to a successful program implemented first in Bogota, Colombia in 1974: the ciclovía. Every weekend and holiday, the main avenues in the city are closed to motorized traffic to provide recreational space for biking, walking, jogging, roller-blading, exercise classes, and small vendors. The program was part of a larger plan to shift public space away from motorized traffic, reduce environmental pollution, increase free recreational opportunities, and improve the efficiency of the transportation system. Bogota’s ciclovía  has been successful; in 2020, an average of 1,400,000 people participated per event, and, according to the World Health Organization, versions of the ciclovía have spread to at least 92 cities in 20 countries on 3 continents.

Ciclovía-style open streets programs boost small businesses, improve health outcomes, and encourage social integration. A 2009 study in Toronto showed that encouraging bicycling is good for business, individuals who biked or walked to the program reported spending more money than those who drove. The program has also proven cost-effective in research by Professor Felipe Montes at Universidad de los Andes. His study found ciclovía programs in Bogotá, Medellín, Guadalajara, and San Francisco were cost-beneficial because participation in the program lowered annual medical costs due to chronic disease. The ciclovía has also been shown to increase equitable access to physical activity. A 2009 intercept survey by Andrea Torres and his team at the Institute of Public Health studied 1,000 people in Bogotá and found that about 60% of participants met their physical activity recommendation through recreational use of ciclovía resources like fitness classes. The survey also looked at 1,000 cicloruta (bike path) users, of whom 70% met their physical activity recommendation through transportation. Notably, participants who met their physical activity recommendation were mostly of lower and middle socioeconomic status. The study concluded that expanding transportation access through open streets and other means is associated with more diverse groups of people meeting recommended levels of physical activities — an important goal in Chicago, where health inequalities abound.

Lastly, intentionally designed open streets can build social cohesion and capital by encouraging people of different socioeconomic backgrounds to interact in a safe and fun environment. If placed strategically, open streets introduce residents of lower income areas to different neighborhoods, literally moving youth to new areas so they physically see opportunities in a new light. In this tangible way, open streets let residents see themselves, their city, and their neighbors anew, and can be the first step in rebuilding fractured relationships between the three.

A 2009 survey-study from Bogota found promising evidence of improved social cohesion due to the ciclovía. After interviewing ciclovía participants, researchers found that even in a city with low perceptions of safety, 61.4% of participants got along with other participants, and 62.4% were willing to help one another. 73.2% said they would help others with a flat tire. Most importantly, the study found that 51% of participants came from low socio-economic neighborhoods, evidence that the program was reaching the participants least likely to have alternative modes of recreation and in the most need of building social capital and cohesion. Finally, the researchers found those who used bike lanes as their mode of transportation actually had higher perceptions of crime and lack of safety than the ciclovía  participants, indicating that the open streets themselves, rather than the act of biking, were the primary cause of increased social cohesion.

A December 2020 study interviewed over 3,000 participants of open streets between 2015 and 2019 in Colombia, Mexico, and Chile and found similarly encouraging results. However, the researchers note the importance of strategically placed and organized programs. Across the three countries, 65.5% of bikers felt safe during the program, compared to a baseline of only 16% in Bogota and 24% in Chile. Reducing perceptions of crime and danger can be a key preliminary step in actually reducing crime and violence itself, a key concern for cities like Chicago. However, evidence that bikers were more likely to visit a neighborhood of a different socioeconomic status differed by location — some programs were clearly laid out to encourage this kind of travel, while others were placed exclusively in richer neighborhoods and failed to encourage people of different socioeconomic statuses to interact with one another. As Chicago’s richer neighborhoods already have good public transit infrastructure, a Chicago open streets program would need to ensure that bike routes cut through different neighborhoods. Given the timing of this study, the authors noted ciclovía -style programs can be used as “a potential emergency resource that can be quickly adaptable according to citizens needs and hopefully […] become permanent after the post-pandemic period”.

The benefits of ciclovía-style programs outweigh the cost: they are safe, effective, and fiscally sound means to encourage fitness and social cohesion during and post-pandemic. But such programs must be adapted to each city’s unique needs. Chicago and Bogota share many common characteristics and struggles, including socio-economic divides, smog, congestion, car-dominated transportation structures, unequal distribution of mobility and transportation, and struggles with violence and drugs. However, it is important to consider the historical differences between the two cities in order to design a program that fits Chicago’s unique needs. Special consideration must be taken regarding: residents’ relationship with police, cost, existing infrastructure, and political willingness. A successful program must be built from the ground up, taking continuous input from the local residents it is supposed to serve. Utilizing a group of unarmed individuals (paid or volunteer) who can perform basic first aid, fix a broken bike tire, or give directions, instead of relying on armed police officers to patrol will also be important. To reduce cost, the program set-up and take-down could be done by local high schoolers looking for volunteer time, and should leverage existing infrastructure like bike paths along Lake Michigan. Finally, while the Bogota program had significant government backing as part of a larger transportation plan, in Chicago it will likely take more time for local advocates to persuade government officials. However, the past year of quarantine has proven the value of open space and the practicality of closing streets, even in a busy city like Chicago. We hope a ciclovía-style program benefitting all Chicago residents will become a reality.