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Ciclovía Recreativa de Bogotá

Also: Ciclovía · Ciclovía Bogotá

Every Sunday and public holiday Bogotá closes about 120 km of main roads to cars so people can walk, run, skate and cycle. Started by cycling activists in December 1974, made official by mayoral decree in 1976 and run by the city's recreation and sport institute (IDRD) since 1995, it has been copied by cities across the Americas.

Years
1974–now
Country
Colombia
Topic
Physical activity
Asks people to
Start
Strategy
Collective challengePolicy paired
Channel
Events
Audience
General public

Evidence

ProcessUnknown

Intercept survey of 1,000 Ciclovía participants (October 2009): 59.5% met leisure-time activity recommendations; participants reported higher perceived safety and social capital than bike-path users, and most were middle-SES and did not own cars (Torres et al. 2013). A review of 38 Ciclovías in 11 countries found the programmes promising but evidence on effectiveness limited (Sarmiento et al. 2010). No population-level evaluation of activity change found.

Sponsor (who paid)

  • Alcaldía de Bogotá / Instituto Distrital de Recreación y Deporte (IDRD) Foreign government, operator since 1995

Credits (who made it)

  • Jaime Ortiz Mariño Individual, 1974 source

Sources

  1. Torres A et al. The Ciclovia and Cicloruta programs: promising interventions to promote physical activity and social capital in Bogotá, Colombia. Am J Public Health 2013;103(2):e23-30 evaluation · 2013 · DOI 10.2105/AJPH.2012.301142 · PMID 23237179
  2. Sarmiento O et al. The Ciclovía-Recreativa: a mass-recreational program with public health potential. J Phys Act Health 2010;7 Suppl 2:S163-80 reference · 2010 · DOI 10.1123/jpah.7.s2.s163 · PMID 20702905
  3. Ciclovía (Wikipedia) reference

Research notes

A street-closure programme rather than a media campaign; included as a widely copied physical activity intervention. strategy tags are the nearest fit: policy-paired (mayoral decrees 566 and 567 of 1976) and collective-challenge (the whole city doing the activity at once each week); consider a new 'built-environment' or 'open-streets' value in docs/taxonomy.md. Weekly participation estimates conflict (about 1 million to 2 million); left out. Origins, decrees and IDRD from Wikipedia (fetched).

Record cases/bogota-ciclovia.json, updated 2026-10-23· Link to this campaign