Meaningful Cycling Actions in Bogota: a conversation with the Local Actions winner

Just a few months after the launch of Local Actions, our winners have already started making changes in their communities to promote and ensure road safety for all. This August, we had a conversation with one of our Local Actions winners, Laura Daniela Gómez, and some of her teammates to talk about the progress made around the implementation of her project. She is leading meaningful cycling actions with a gender approach in Bogota.

Dani was joined by Maryfely Rincón, Valeria Bernal, and Angie Ángel. Follow along the conversation below;

1. Briefly describe what is the project idea, and why did you select to work on this idea?

Angie: Through this project, we want to develop significant actions to raise awareness about the relevance of improving road safety conditions with a gender approach in Bogotá.

The city has a strong cycling culture; however, there are many challenges in ensuring the safety of bicycle users, especially among female cyclists. We’ve designed empowerment and awareness activities for cyclists. It includes workshops, symbolic actions such as art contests, and experiential activities to raise awareness of gender equality and empower all women and girls to ride bicycles safely.

2. Tell us about the main activities that you have implemented. 

Valeria: In late April, an on-site participatory mapping was carried out to identify risky and unsafe places for cyclists in terms of road safety and sexual harassment using a tool developed by the group of young cyclists from Bogotá “Métele Pedal”. The tour was carried out by bicycle and data is being shared with decision-makers to push for the intervention in specific locations.

In June, we had an open participatory workshop that was held online with cyclists and non-cyclists. At the workshop, we discussed data on the use of bicycles, specifically by women, in the region and the city. We also talked about different policies and best practices that promote safe cycling, especially among females. The key findings from the policy brief on gender equality and road safety drafted with the support of the Youth Coalition were also presented. 

In our project, two activities were proposed to raise awareness of the needs regarding safe riding for women and the importance of the gender approach in sustainable mobility: a photography/illustration contest and an experiential route.

The experiential route called "families that matter'' was a didactic activity to raise awareness of the experience of women during care trips. It was held in mid-June. The artistic contest, on the other hand, is currently ongoing. We expect to receive illustrations and photographs from young people of Bogota that show their vision of cycling with a gender approach. We’ve already met with some decision-makers to share findings from the mapping and identify possible solutions to the issues identified. Officials from the Mobility Secretariat attended and the Women Secretary itself, Diana Rodríguez,  participated too. 

Finally, a round table/forum will be held by the end of August with decision-makers and cyclists to share the findings obtained from the project, particularly from the Citizen Mapping and the local monitoring index. The index aims to allow the city to track the needs, experiences, and perceptions of the city's cyclists through a survey currently being disseminated. The data collected will be shared with the Bicycle Board members.

3. As young advocates, how do you connect with stakeholders? include examples from your project. 

Maryfely: Thanks to the work we have done on other Despacio projects, we have had the opportunity to meet technical teams and stakeholders from local entities such as the Mobility Secretariat or the Women's Secretariat. The alliances with cycling groups and the work with the bicycle board members have also allowed us to meet and connect with important stakeholders in the city.

Daniela: We have also taken advantage of the connections we did from the last local actions project since we worked with key stakeholders such as the Bicycle Board members of the city.Some proposals from the last local actions (such as the creation of a cycling index) are having progress through this project, so we are building trust and generating data that will be available for all the cyclists that want to use them to keep advocating

4. Have you encountered any challenges or obstacles? How did you overcome it? 

Maryfely: Sure! We've had obstacles that we've overcome. For example, we realized that for the workshops, it is important to schedule them at flexible times to allow majority to participate. Two workshop sessions were held to ensure more stakeholder participation.

Daniela: Also, the activities that involve on-site logistics always have some challenges. During the implementation of the experiential route with the Foundation “Mamacitas en Bici” (an activity designed to raise awareness on the relevance of care trips), we had delays to start the activity. Fortunately, the participants were patient and once we started, the number of participants continued to grow.

Valeria: I also remember when the experiential route was implemented with the "Mamacitas en Bici" Foundation, several people were not familiar with gender issues. So instead of asking them explicit questions with quantitative data, the methodology had to be changed so that it was more spoken and open.