Velo-city 2018 article series featuring mini interviews on plenary speakers continue with Viviana Tobón, plenary speaker for the plenary: Intermodality!

Ms. Tobón is a lawyer of the Universidad Externado de Colombia, expert on Civil and State Liability of the same University and land transport specialist of Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. She has been academic coordinator and research professor at Universidad Externado de Colombia’s Transport Law Studies Centre, adviser and consultant lawyer of public transportation conversion programs in several cities of the country. She has been executive director of Mobility and Transport Sector Chamber of the National Association of Colombian Entrepreneurs, and has served as advisor of the president of Colombia Republic’s Senate Sixth Committee on sustainable mobility, public transportation and traffic security issues. Currently she is a professor of transport law post-graduate program at Universidad Externado de Colombia for urban sustainable mobility’s and public transportation system’s subjects, and she serves as mobility’s vice-director of Aburrá Valley Metropolitan Area, which is the promoter and executor organization of active mobility policies and strategies for Medellin and its Metropolitan Area.

A quick chat with Viviana Tobón:

• What does Access to Life mean to you?

Accessibility means life itself, there is no way to enjoy life if you are not able to live and get connected with the place you live in. Access means access to life, access to health, access to education, access to fun!

• What cycling lessons are you bringing to Rio?

After years of being an urban cyclist and an urban transportation expert, I have now the opportunity to work for a metropolitan agency that runs the integrated transportation system and makes bike policies happen, by transforming the approach to infrastructure projects (from car centered to complete street vision) and building and running our own bike share scheme.

• What are you looking forward to the most at Velo-city 2018?

I think Velo-City 2018 is a very important escenario to share with citizens, cyclist and leaders from all over the world what we all have been working to transformate mobility of our cities and the impacts that we have made on the social conditions of our people, in that journey.

• What do you think is the added value of a global interdisciplinary approach to cycling?

Urban cycling is the better way to start a transformation of a city, because of bike-lanes and bike share schemes, now we can talk about complete streets, slowing down traffic and citis for people. In that perspective, having this academic and interdisciplinary approach to cycling becomes powerful for the fight we are struggling in our cities.  

• What will you visit by bike in Rio?​​

I have been an urban cyclist for two decades (since I was 18) and I have always feel that the best way to know and live a city is cycling it. I am sure Rio is not going to let me down.

The Intermodality Plenary is scheduled for Day 3 of Velo-city 2018; Tuesday 14^th June 2018 at 09.00-10.00.

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