Copacabana is a district located in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro and it offers today the opportunity of using a widespread network of bike lanes. It all began in the early 90's with the construction of the Orla bicycle lanes. In the middle of the decade, the connections with the surrounding neighborhoods of Botafogo and Ipanema were created and in 2008 the 30 km/h zones were introduced in 33 streets, all secondary streets of the neighborhood. In the same year, the first public bike stations of the Southern Hemisphere were installed, they were only 6.

Currently, in addition to 30 km/h zones with vertical and horizontal signaling, there are bike boxes at all intersections with the main roads (six of them have cycle paths or tracks) and among those one of the most important is the connection between Orla and Botafogo. There are even more than 100 Inverted U-racks bike parking spaces scattered around the neighborhood, 18 public bicycle stations and 10 bicycle shops to meet the needs of cyclists. In addition to this, there is a metro-bike integration that includes the availability of bicycle racks in some stations and paths almost 100% flat.

Certainly the density of houses, businesses and services encourage more cycling trips. This makes it a remarkable neighborhood with regard to cycle logistics. A research conducted in 2011 showed that in Copacabana more than 11.000 deliveries are made by bike every day, this data, together with the number of cycling trips, make Copacabana a district of bicycles.

History of cycling in Copacabana

In recent years, the history of the neighborhood and cycling initiatives were the result of several actions which aimed at granting visibility to those who have always cycled in the region. In particular, bike counting has been a fundamental tool for highlighting the extremely high number of cycling trips in the neighborhood. This allowed to ascertaining the cycling traffic and gradually demonstrating the importance of investing in intermodality as a solution for mobility.

Text: Zé Lobo – Transporte Ativo

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