Bogotá's Wednesday Night Riders

Every other Wednesday night Bogotanos are treated to a novel spectacle in a city normally clogged with cars: hundreds of cyclists pedaling by, filling streets and - wonder of wonders - obliging the motorized traffic to stop for them!

It's the bi-weekly Wednesday night ride, or Ciclopaseo, which has become an institution in Bogotá cycling, at least on the city's north end.

The rides make for a fun, social time with other cyclists, even if Bogotá's urban scenery isn't so spectacular, especially at night. But the rides demonstrate that cycling has a place and a fun one, in this big and chaotic city.

The Ciclopaseo has been going on for six years, and have attracted as many as 600 people, altho the typical number is 300, says Andres, the organizer and leader. Most of the participants are university students, many from the private Los Andes University, but middle aged people and a few children show up too, as well as the occasional pet dog. While university is in session the ride happens every other Wednesday, and every Wednesday during school breaks.

Routes take in avenues, parks and wetlands, mostly of north Bogotá. But Andres doesn't fear leading the group thru rough areas, such as the narrow alleys of the poor Belén neighborhood during this week's ride, which started in central Bogotá in honor of Bogotá's annual Bicycle Week. Some of the participants rode Specialized and other high-end bikes which, under normal circumstances, would likely experience a sudden change of ownership in some of these rough neighborhoods. But there's strength in numbers during the Ciclopaseo. The ride normally starts in the far north, perhaps because most Andes University students live at that end of town. For those of us who live in the center, however, that makes participation difficult, since it means returning home near midnight.

As the Ciclopaseo has grown in numbers of participants, it has also in sophistication and assertiveness. Uniformed support people carrying walkie talkies stop traffic while the crowd of cyclists pedal past - undoubtedly annoying drivers, but also making the point that two-wheeled traffic deserves respect on the road in a city in which motorists take for granted that they have priority all the time in all situations. On the other hand, it seems to me that the Ciclopaseo could find a better way to handle flats, which seemed to happen every few blocks during this ride, obliging the whole group to stop and wait for the patch job. Perhaps one of the support people could lend their bike to the person who flatted, repair the flat and then catch up, to keep the group moving. However, a participant I talked to said that tonight's number of flat tires was exceptional - perhaps because south Bogotá's streets are tougher on tubes, especially the fixies' thin tires - even tho this group was small than usual (probably because of the rain).

My more substantive criticism of the rides is its failure to incorporate bicycle activism. It'd be a great opportunity to collect signatures, recruit activists, etc. for cycling causes. Why not use the ride to rally at some establishment that lacks bicycle parking? How about documenting the sad state of a cycle lane, or pointing out a dangerous intersection?

But, activists or not, the cyclists do make an impression. On the gritty Ave. Decima people asked what was going on and stood in doorways to marvel at this unusual phenomenon. With time, hopefully, mass cycling will become a common sight in Bogotá.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogota Bike Tours

Bogotá's Fifth Bicycle Week

Bogotá's fifth Bicycle Week kicked off today with events in the National Park, including contests for working bikes and weird bikes, bike races and other fun stuff.

As always, I wish that these events included promotion of practical and mundane biking, particularly bike commuting. Instead, there's the bicycle-as-toy and these forums. But we've had plenty of forums and speeches already.

A flying start for Bicycle Week.

A future cyclist learns to pedal. 

 Cycling advocate Green Man makes friends.

Jesus David Acero, bicycle point man at the IDU, says he hopes public bikes will be rolling by mid-2013.

Bike license plates for sale in a flea market say 'One Less Car', 'More Pedal, Less Motor' and others.

Weird bikes. 

By Bogota Bike Tours

Back When Bicycling Was Bad: Gabriel Garcia Marquez on Cycling

Bogotá's finest confiscate law-breaking bicyclesin 1955 (Photo: El Espectador)

Bogotá bicyclists, including yours truly, love to complain: about the chaotic, inconsiderate drivers who behave like bicycles don't exist; about the bicycle lanes in bad shape or useless; about the vehicles which belch plumes of smoke into our faces; and so on and so on.

But I felt better - or, at least, less bad - after reading a decades-old story by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez published recently in El Espectador about bicycles' travails and crimes in Bogotá.

The story, 'Cycling Fever in Bogotá,' was originally published in 1955, back when the future novelist was an up-and-coming newspaper reporter. (It was republished to honor the 30th anniversary of Marquez's Nobel Prize for Literature.)

Today, many cyclists complain about helmet laws. Back in Marquez's day, it seems, cyclists were required to have drivers' licenses and license plates. Consider this line - which I at first thot was satire - after Marquez describes 5-year-old children "throwing themselves amidst the automobiles on tricycles," Marquez goes on to observe that "Some of these bicycles don't have license plates, and the majority of their riders - including the children on tricycles - don't have drivers' licenses."

And get ready for another cycling offense: "In Oskar Park, in the Santa Fe neighborhood, a child without a driver's license rode a tricycle without a license plate down the middle of the street. The vehicle didn't belong to him - it had been rented by an agency for 30 cents for 15 minutes."

Even more shocking than unlicensed tricyclists, if that is possible, are the schoolchildren's neighborhood bicycle races, fed by the excitement of the annual Tour of Colombia. And, last but not least, many bicyclists violated the prohibition against cycling in the city center except by those with a special license.

In response to this criminal onslaught by unlicensed pedalers, including those terrible five-year-old tricyclists, the police spent a whole day doing nothing but punishing cyclists' irregularities, Márquez reports, and confiscated 300 bicycles.

That was then, this is now: Cyclists on Ave. Septima, where cars are prohibited from a 25-block section.

And that was only the beginning, writes Márquez. Municipal authorities planned new regulations to control the bicycle problem, in particular by enforcing the licensing laws.

For all that we complain, today at least city authorities have realized the bicycles are a solution, to be encouraged, rather than a problem (even if their actions don't always match their words). Even tho the bike lanes, called Ciclorutas, leave a lot to be desired, at least we have them. And, while bicycles were mostly banned from downtown in Marquez's time, today a chunk of Ave. Septima is pedestrianized during the day.

So, while we cyclists need to continue demanding our rights and improved conditions, it's also worthwhile reflecting on how far we've come.

And get ready for another cycling offense: "In Oskar Park, in the Santa Fe neighborhood, a child without a driver's license rode a tricycle without a license plate down the middle of the street. The vehicle didn't belong to him - it had been rented by an agency for 30 cents for 15 minutes."

Even more shocking than unlicensed tricyclists, if that is possible, are the schoolchildren's neighborhood bicycle races, fed by the excitement of the annual Tour of Colombia. And, last but not least, many bicyclists violated the prohibition against cycling in the city center except by those with a special license.

In response to this criminal onslaught by unlicensed pedalers, including those terrible five-year-old tricyclists, the police spent a whole day doing nothing but punishing cyclists' irregularities, Márquez reports, and confiscated 300 bicycles.

And that was only the beginning, writes Márquez. Municipal authorities planned new regulations to control the bicycle problem, in particular by enforcing the licensing laws.

For all that we complain, today at least city authorities have realized the bicycles are a solution, to be encouraged, rather than a problem (even if their actions don't always match their words). Even tho the bike lanes, called Ciclorutas, leave a lot to be desired, at least we have them. And, while bicycles were mostly banned from downtown in Marquez's time, today a chunk of Ave. Septima is pedestrianized during the day.

So, while we cyclists need to continue demanding our rights and improved conditions, it's also worthwhile reflecting on how far we've come.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours