Ciclovía Recreativa is a program in which streets are closed off to automobiles so that people have a safe and inclusive space for recreation and for being physically active. The study aims were: (1) to compare participant’s spatial trajectories in four Ciclovía Recreativa programs in Latin America (Bogotá, Mexico City, Santiago de Cali, and Santiago de Chile) according to socioeconomic characteristics and urban segregation of these cities; and (2) to assess the relationship between participants’ physical activity (PA) levels and sociodemographic characteristics. We harmonized data of cross-sectional studies including 3282 adults collected between 2015 and 2019. We found the highest mobility for recreation in Bogotá, followed closely by Santiago de Cali. In these two cities, the maximum SES (socioeconomic status) percentile differences between the neighborhood of origin and the neighborhoods visited as part of the Ciclovía use were 33.58 (p-value < 0.001) and 30.38 (p-value < 0.001), respectively, indicating that in these two cities, participants were more likely to visit higher or lower SES neighborhoods than their average SES-of-neighborhood origin. By contrast, participants from Mexico City and Santiago de Chile were more likely to stay in geographic units similar to their average SES-of-origin, having lower overall mobility during leisure time: maximum SES percentile difference 1.55 (p-value < 0.001) and −0.91 (p-value 0.001), respectively. PA levels of participants did not differ by sex or SES. Our results suggest that Ciclovía can be a socially inclusive program in highly unequal and segregated urban environments, which provides a space for PA whilefacilitat physical proximity, exposure to new communities and environments, and interactions between different socioeconomic groups.

The urban planning ideas proposed by Jane Jacobs in the 1960s remain relevant to this day, promoting a perspective on the relationship between urban morphology and the community that takes into consideration the experiences of the people themselves in the planning of cities. With Jacobs’ ideas in mind, this article seeks to explore the urban territory of Santiago, Chile, and to assess the vitality of its neighborhoods with their diversity of morphological, architectural, and spatial characteristics. The results reveal a spatial reality that differs considerably from typical interpretations of this and other cities across Latin America, characterized by a strong radial center–periphery dynamic interspersed with sub-centers of high vitality, mainly in the form of rural towns and villages that, over time, became absorbed into the urban fabric of Santiago, along with social housing estates located on what used to be the urban periphery.

Latin American cities are known for their high levels of marginality, segregation and inequality. As such, these issues have been the subject of substantial discussions in academia, with the predominant approach being the study of residential segregation, or what we call “nighttime segregation”. Another dimension of urban sociability, related to labor, is what we call “daytime segregation”, which has been far less studied. This article makes an original methodological contribution to the measurement of non-residential or daytime segregation based on data from mobility surveys. It seeks to explain this segregation measurement according to the diversity and distribution of land uses, as well as other characteristics of the built stock, such as land price and built-up density. We measured daytime social mix in urban spaces, and we show how it highly relates to land use diversity in a Latin American megacity, such as Santiago, Chile. We found that land use diversity plays a key role in enhancing the daytime social diversity of urban spaces, contributing to generate a more heterogeneous city and social gatherings during working days. This research is not only a contribution to the understanding of sociability patterns in cities but is also a contribution to public policy and the work of urban planners, as it informs the development of more diverse and integrated cities, which is a key tool for strengthening democracy, the exchange of ideas, the economy and social welfare.