Just a Bike Rack....

I must have passed by this spot hundreds of times since the Museo Nacional TransMilenio station was completed without realizing the transcendent nature of what I was seeing.

Several TransMilenio stations have huge, sophisticated bike parking facilities. But most of the express bus stations have no bike parking at all, despite it being a standard feature of transit facilities all over the world. Is this just shortsightedness and ignorance? An exaggerated fear of someone hiding a bomb on a bike? Concern about taking responsibility for parked bikes?

Whatever the mistaken reason, the lack of racks reduced the system's usefulness for   cyclists, and certainly meant lost passengers.

This particular bike rack, I suspect, was not created specifically to serve the bus station, but for the pedestrian region surrounding it. But the rack nevertheless serves the bus station, showing that no-frills bike racks and buses are compatible.

By Mike Ceaser of Bogotá Bike Tours