With the support of EUROCLIMA+, the Costa Rican city will promote urban cycling by building cycling-infrastructure.

Curridabat, Costa Rica, October21,2020.- The canton of Curridabat presented the Cycling Infrastructure Network to be implemented under the framework of the EUROCLIMA+ programme. This will be consist of three types of cycle paths: RVC, RVN, and Travesía, which will cross the city's main roads, specifically those that connect with other municipalities. The proposal responds to user demand and was prepared on the basis of data collected, participatory workshops, and technical diagnoses carried out during the first half of 2020.

Some of the roads the cycle paths will cross in the canton of Curridabat are the Interamerican Highway, the road to Grandilllas and Calle las Rusias, which connect with the canton of Montes de Oca, the second municipality in the project "Promotion and development of urban cycling in Montes de Oca and Curridabat, Costa Rica". The pilot project is part of the Urban Mobility sector of EUROCLIMA+, financed by the European Union, implemented by the Centre for Environmental Law and Natural Resources (CEDARENA) with the support of the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) of Costa Rica.

"The project opens up an opportunity to offer more and better options, as well as mobility alternatives for the city and its inhabitants. We have an imminent responsibility to climate change and a country debt to urban planning that directly involves the context of mobility," said Ana Lucía González Castro, Vice Mayor of Montes de Oca.

The initiative aims to improve mobility and accessibility conditions for urban cyclists in both cantons. Although the municipalities share roads as the main mobility corridors, these are insufficient to consolidate accessible territories with sufficient connectivity for non-motorised transport. In this regard, the following Curridabat Cycling Infrastructure Network was proposed:

It is expected that in the coming months, construction will begin on interventions for the segregation of exclusive bicycle lanes, signposting, cycle routes, road pacification interventions, road safety elements, redistribution of lane widths, and more. The roads were selected on the basis of criteria such as:

• Higher frequency of use due to diversity in the profile of cyclists and potential routes used by private vehicle and public transport users.
• Areas with appropriate speeds according to the intervention proposal.
• Areas with greater connection between the cantons of Curridabat and Montes de Oca and between destinations.
• Areas with intermodal potential.
• High integration with the existing infrastructure.

During 2019, Curridabat carried out the Course on Urban Cycling, Road and Cycling Pacification with groups of cyclists from the districts of Tirrases, Granadilla and Curridabat Centre. With the development of pedagogical processes, design guidelines were generated based on the demands of these communities, which were selected for their greater use of bicycle transport to work in geographical locations with poor accessibility and deficient public transport services. Data on conditions were also gathered about the routes and journeys of the study populations.

For its part, Montes de Oca canton adjusted the initial methodology to better identify and prioritise interventions in its cycling infrastructure. Its demand survey will start with the secondary documents already in place and the proposal will be validated through interviews and other instruments.

A few months ago, this municipality declared the EUROCLIMA+ project to be in the "cantonal interest", which makes it transcend political administrations and gives it a special character that confers an independent priority to changes in the line of government.

"We envision a more sustainable Montes de Oca that is also safer and more reliable in terms of mobility, and this will mean that projects from now on will be managed in a way that will lead us to fulfil this premise," said the Deputy Mayor of the municipality.

Through these learning processes, the cantons will generate a guide document on the methodology and development of the process, as well as the use of technological tools that can be transferred to other latitudes. In this way, Curridabat and Montes de Oca will be model cities for non-motorised mobility in Costa Rica and will increase the project's potential for replication and adaptability to other contexts: "An initiative such as the one we are developing with EUROCLIMA+ will allow us to turn the cantons of Montes de Oca and Curridabat into model cities in the country", concluded Ana Lucía.

To learn more about the project "Promotion and development of urban cycling in Montes de Oca and Curridabat, Costa Rica", click on the following link.

About EUROCLIMA+

EUROCLIMA+ is a programme financed by the European Union to promote environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient development in 18 Latin American countries, particularly for the benefit of the most vulnerable populations. The Programme is implemented under the synergistic work of seven agencies: the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the French Development Agency (AFD), Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL), Expertise France (EF), International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policy (FIIAPP), the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), and UN Environment.

For more information:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

www.euroclimaplus.org