Costa Rican Art Museum turns 30
The exhibit “30 years The Collection: communicate+generate” opens at 7 p.m., tel: 2 222-7155.

Fusión Funk San José in concert
10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro, http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Luisga & Los Ajenos live
Singer-songwriter, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, Escazú.

Films: ‘El General López Contreras' and ‘El Che de los Gays'
Free screenings at Videoteca del Sur, 7 p.m., Sala Calle 15 Theater, Av. 2, Ca. 13/15, San José. Info: 2234-1092.

Play: ‘Aquí las noches se hacen largas'
Today through Sat., 7 p.m., Mexico Institute, Ca. 41, Av. 10. Info: 2283-2333, ext. 204. Free admission.

How to conduct
International conducting seminar and band festival, with concerts, workshops, and faculty from Costa Rica as well as Brazil, Switzerland, Norway and the United States, through Sun. E-mail: dgbandas@ice.co.cr. Tel.: 2283-5654.

By Leslie Friday
Tico Times Staff | lfriday@ticotimes.net

Five new bike routes are part of the solution the Costa Rican government is proposing to help Ticos “change the culture” of transportation and curb fuel consumption locally, according to one official.

Public Works and Transportation Minister Karla González unveiled the bike route plan and discussed future train lines in and around the San José metropolitan area during a press conference yesterday.

“What we wanted to do was give a response to the country that we are using all our resources to support the effort Costa Ricans are making with vehicle restrictions,” González said.

The latest plans come as part two of the government's efforts to reduce national fuel consumption (see separate story) in the face of rising prices at the pump, including new San José driving restrictions and a bill to eliminate the tax on diesel and shift it to regular and super.

González was pleased with the results of the decree: “It seems to me that it has been successful.”

The proposed bike routes will fit naturally with what González called Costa Rica's “bicycle culture.”

“We hope (the bike route plan) will have an important impact … in changing the Costa Rican mentality so that the bicycle can really be an alternative” for vehicle transportation, the minister said.

After conducting an initial inventory, the government estimated that 167 km of national roads could benefit from bike routes in five areas: a 43-km stretch from Guácimo to Guápiles, a length of Route 32 within Limón, Esparza center, the road from Liberia to Cañas, and a portion of the new highway 27 de abril in Guanacaste.

González estimated the project would cost $100,000 per kilometer, or about $16.7 million all told.

International partners at the Mesoamerican Summit held in Mexico at the end of June already promised to donate $1 million to the project, the minister said. The Costa Rican government is hoping to receive a matching donation from the International Motoring Federation and the World Bank.

From design to construction, the bike routes could be ready within six months, González said.

The high price of oil appears to be having an impact on consumption in Costa Rica.

Last month, Ticos burned 1,403,323 barrels of oil, 5 percent less than the 1,477,526 barrels they consumed in June 2007, according to a National Oil Refinery (RECOPE) press release issued yesterday.

Most of the decrease was in diesel fuel, whose consumption declined by 12.5 percent, from 592,071 barrels in June 2007 to 518,289 barrels last month.

Demand for regular gasoline fell by 4.6 percent, while consumption of super rose 9.8 percent. Officials said the increased demand for super is the result of more purchases of new automobiles.

In total, consumption of the two types of gasoline rose slightly, by about 0.22 percent, RECOPE reported.

Liquefied petroleum gas consumption dropped 5.9 percent, and the consumption of asphalt dropped 37 percent last month as compared to the June 2007.

The lower demand in Costa Rica is part of a worldwide trend. Even the United States, the largest oil consumer, has reduced its demand in recent months.

-The Tico Times

Costa Rica environmentalists and academics yesterday lambasted the government for what they called continued “double talk” on matters of promoting green practices.

Some 25 organizations in a group statement said they are trying to “call national and international attention to the contradiction that exists in discourse by the Costa Rican authorities and the lack of national policy to mitigate the effects of environmental degradation.

“This deterioration is worsening despite the laudable discourse of President Oscar Arias' government in favor of nature and the environment,” the statement said.

Costa Rica has won global praise for conservation initiatives such as the Peace with Nature program and setting a goal to make the country carbon neutral by 2021.

Environmentalists, however, are arguing that there are serious threats to Costa Rica's peace with nature, namely tourism and building on land in the country's prized reserves and shores, near Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean and the Osa Peninsula in the southern Pacific.

The groups also cited dozens of plans for new marinas along the Pacific and Caribbean coasts, some of which could pose a threat to nearby coral reefs, according to the communiqué.

Shark-finning is still a problem, the statement said, as the country has been slow to enforce prohibition particularly at private ports.

-EFE