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Event Summary: "Public Policies for Healthy Cities in Latin America: The Environment and Public Transportation" Ricardo Montezuma spoke on how cities that want to promote physical health of their citizens, should not focus on the health sector only, but choose for an integrated approach. As various cities have shown, transportation issues - reducing car use, promoting public transportation, bikes and walking through a variety of policies, including promotion of animated quality public space - may be related to physical activity. Studies in Bogota show that people walk around 20 minutes when they use public transportation. Montezuma explained how the Brazilian city of Curitiba advanced on this over a period of 25 years, without finding any followers in Latin America, until the mid nineties. Although some cities copied components of the Curitiba model -e.g. the bus system -, none was able to promote the same integrated city strategy as Curitiba showcased. This, until the mid 1990s, when in particular Bogota committed to integrated reform, in part inspired by Curitiba. More recently, Bogota itself has been inspiring a series of cities to promote integrated transportation solutions, taking into account issues such as traffic accidents, environmental issues, safety and congestion. Good strategies do not prevent, however, perverse effects. "Motocicletas" have rapidly increased their presence as a handy solution in cities where anti-car policies are being introduced, while adminsitrations hoped for increased bicycle use. Bicycle paths in Bogota have been under-utilized, partly due to lack of facilities to safely store bicycles, as well as distance. Interestingly, campaign debates in cities likeBogota are now focusing on these urban issues, and citizens have started to refer to a whole lexicon of concepts and words that looked frivolous only a couple of years ago: public space, sidewalks, bicycle paths, crosswalks, pedestrian's rights, traffic safety campaigns, public transportation and increased parking fees. Montezuma explained that higher density of cities like Bogota, in particular in high income areas, compared to US cities provides comparative advantages for these kind of issues, and for promoting public transportation and alternative transportation solutions in general. Other crucial factors for the introduction of these kind of integrated strategies in Curitiba and Bogota, says Montezuma, seem to be (i) city administrations with expert technological know how, (ii) long term city administration commitment to these objectives, (iii) a certain economic prosperity to finance interventions as new public transportation systems and (iv) transparency. - written by G. Martin