A series of short documentaries about the quality of city-life in two cosmopolises, American Portland and Columbian Bogotá, brings a testimony

about the way the cities can look like when cars are not given the preference. With regard to the oncoming spring bike-ride in Prague, the projections are going to be interlaid with musically supplemented live videos from the bike-rides from our country as well as from abroad – from places where the citizens so far only endeavour to undertake similar changes as in Portland or Bogotá.

Portland, the capital of the state of Oregon on the western coast of the USA, has repeatedly been rated as the place with the best quality of living in America. The citizens agree: No longer could anyone be elected for any public office here, who would not include in their programme the development of cycling, building parks and improving the quality of public sites. The change of the paradigm came in the 80s when the city decided not to build a previously designed highway, and thus there was a great amount of money to be disposed of elsewhere…

Bogotá is a city fighting with the problems of a third-world metropolis. However, about twenty years ago a commitment was taken to invest the finances into the improvement of the conditions of pedestrians and cyclists, high-quality public areas, libraries, organisation of the citywide events and festivals, rather than into megalomaniac highway constructions. With poor financial resources, they succeeded to get ahead of many other cities in several ways, to set an example for the rest of the world and to give their citizens a reason to be proud of living there and not anywhere else.

The partner of the screening is the civic association Auto-Mat – initiative for sustainable transport. The discussion with organizators of Prague Critical Mass (urban bicycle riding) will follow the screening.