Ignoring for a moment the palpable insecurity and the armed guards stationed at every shopfront, Bogota has something (behind the stunningly beautiful women) that London should adopt, according to one professor: a ban on motor vehicle traffic on Sundays.
Road traffic is banned in the Colombian capital on the Lord's day of rest, meaning the population get a decent workout as they take to their bikes and, er, legs. It's a law that, according to Prof. Martin Wiseman of the World Cancer Research Fund, is helping to make Bogotans healthier and in course reduce cancer rates.
Our pro-cycling Mayor is already introducing a raft of bike-based initiatives — cycle hire, a summer of cycling, and naked bikers being some of the more obvious — but a whole weekend day sans traffic might do wonders for cycle sales and the morale of bike thieves, not to mention our health. Yet minor restrictions on motorist freedoms tend to make some of our petrolheads cranky, and shopkeepers who already argue, not without justification, that their businesses suffer from the congestion charge, wouldn't be supportive. But it's an idea to mull over, and certainly a more constructive idea than the last time we went looking to South America for answers.
