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

A Novel Concept: Bicycle Parking

Parking a bike. By 6 p.m. about 500 bikes had arrived, and there was room for lots more.

3,000 pesos, please.

For the first time in memory, the city arranged bicycle parking at a major event - the annual, free Rock al Parque concert happening this weekend in Simon Bolivar Park. So, why is this not routine?

They created parking and bicyclists came. When I visited around 6 p.m. Sunday afternoon some 500 bikes had arrived, and more kept rolling in. Cyclists paid a 3,000 pesos fee (about U.S. $1.50) and received a numbered receipt. The cyclist got a paper slip carrying the same number. The bikes were locked with a cable - but owners also had to affix their own locks. No lock, no bike parking, the attendants told me. 

The system's complex, but perhaps practical. A few lost bikes and the whole system would likely be trashed.

Why didn't the city provide such parking - which encourages cycling and clean transit - as well as making the

city money - years ago? For that matter, why doesn't the city really require bike parking at important destinations, such as supermarkets and public offices and more than a few TransMilenio stations? (Rather, there seems to exist a paranoia about bikes. The other day, I locked my bike on a sidewalk beside a private university in La Candelaria. When I returned some 20 minutes later, several security guards were waiting, up in arms. What's the meaning of this? they asked. After all, my bike might be carrying a bomb. I pointed out that the cars I often see parked beside the school could contain much, much larger bombs.)

So, it's a good thing...but it could be better. In the first place, the fee of 3,000 pesos seems excessive, especially when the city wants to promote cycling. The adjoining car parking lot charges flat fees of 7,500 pesos for cars and 5,000 for motorcycles (it doesn't accept bikes). Considering the tiny space a bicycle occupies, besides cycling's benefits, makes the bike fee seem disproportionate.

Room for thousands more bikes.

The 3,000 pesos is about the cost of two bus rides. If the city wants to shift Bogotanos to clean, healthy transport, it should give people an economic incentive to pedal. But thanks to Bogotá's neoliberal mindset - even with an ex-guerrilla in command - even programs benefiting health and the environment are supposed to generate profits (even while cars often receive free parking and subsidized fuels).

For that matter, why doesn't the park's car parking lot have a bike rack - as required by law?

And more bikes kept on arriving.

'Come to Rock al Parque by bike.'

I was also surprised by the highly processed, plastic-wrapped cakes that were given to cyclists. Why not give out instead apples or bananas or something else that's healthy?

The park's adjoining car parking lot doesn't accept bikes. 

'Don't bring your bike into the parking lot.'

The car parking lot's normal daily fee for cars is 1,000 pesos per hour. In comparison, the charge for bikes seems relatively high.

This avenue connecting the park to 26th Street badly needs a bike lane.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bogotá's Bicycle Parking Paradox

  

A bicycle (mine) rests on the grass beside the Centro Memoria's car parking lot. 

Bogotá's has laws and policies requiring bicycle parking, in order to promote sustainable transit. But when the new Centro Memoria, a human rights documentation center, opened recently, it included two car parking lots and none for bicycles.

But right across the street  the small and relatively new Parque del Renacimiento has a half dozen bike racks with capacity for perhaps 100 bicycles - but rarely contain more than one or two bikes.

It fits a pattern of incontistancy in Bogotá's parking, which suggests several things to me: That bicycle parking isn't designed by cyclists, and that corruption might be involved. Are huge bike racks built more to give someone's uncle a contract than to actually service cyclists?

The new Centro Memoria also has an underground parking lot for cars, but no parking for bicycles.

Across the street in the Parque del Renacimiento, multiple bike parking racks sit empty.

A lonely bicycle in the Parque del Renacimiento racks.

In contrast, the city recently installed several simple and practical bike parking racks in the Parque Nacional. 

Newly-installed bike parking in El Parque Nacional in Bogotá.

The city also installed practical bike racks in the still-unopened Museo Nacional TransMilenio station. It's the only TM station I've seen with this sort of small, practical bike parking.

Several TransMilenio stations have these big, expensive bike parking structures (this one sat empty for years after completion until demonstrators staged a protest in front of it). They're nice, but 90% of stations have no bike parking at all - even tho Mayor Enrique Peñalosa, who designed the system, is a cyclist.

Build it and bikes will come: A few years ago some of us lobbied the Central Cemetery to install bike racks. They did, and today the racks get used, at least on Sundays, when La Ciclovia goes by on neighboring 26th St.

On the other hand, Ave. Septima, which is closed to car traffic during the days, has no bicycle parking. Here, someone chained their bike to a tree.

'The Bicycle as an Alternative' to Bogotá's Traffic Jams

'The Bicycle as Alternative' to Bogotá's Traffic Jams'

Today's El Tiempo editorialized in favor of promoting bicycling as a transport alternative, by building more bike parking lots and bike lanes. Bicycling is a "healthy and free-moving form of transport, whose use doesn't produce congestion and if friendly to the environment."

They're completely correct, of course - but the ambitious editorial and Bogotá's still-enduring reputation as a cycling-friendly city make the reality all the more sad. Certainly, Mayor Peñalosa did make Bogotá a pioneer - but the city's lagged since then, and its few recent efforts have been half-hearted.

A cyclist enters a public bike parking facility near La Candelaria.

The ground floor of the two-story parking building. 

A few years ago, this bike parking building opened near the Las Aguas TransMilenio station - altho only after years of delay. The building is also unnecessarily expensive and its design could be much better - but it seems to be a success. Today a guard told me that they get about 200 users a day, who park their bikes free of charge. If a significant proportion of those people are using their bikes because of the convenient and free parking, then I bet it's a good deal for the city in reduced pollution, congestion and improved health, not to mention for the cyclists themselves.

But only a few TransMilenio stations offer bicycle parking. Simple bike racks, located near security guards, at all TransMilenio stations would give a big boost to cycling. Why the city hasn't done this is beyond my comprehension. 

But this just-finished TransMilenio station on 26th St. and Carrera Decima - located right above a Cicloruta - appears to lack bike parking. 

A free bike lending program on the closed portion of Seventh Ave. 

Cyclists pedaling on a portion of Ave. Septima closed to cars while the bridge over 26th Street is replaced. 

Unfortunately, Septima looks to be reopened soon, meaning that cyclists will once again suffer, like this guy on the nearby 19th St. 

This homeless man found a home - in one of Bogotá's Ciclorutas, or bike lanes.

Unfortunately, recent mayors have done little to expand or even maintain Bogotá's once-vaunted bike lane network. This guy, one of many who camp or park cars in the bike lane behind the Central Cemetery, is indicative of the importance which officialdom gives to cyclists' needs.

A bus belches smoke today on Ave. 19. 

Can't help leaving out this photo I tood this afternoon. Why would anybody subject themself to toxic chemical attack?

By Mike Ceaser of Bogotá Bike Tours

Updates

Councilman Ferreira, his assistant Sandra, and Andrés Felipe debate. 

A hearing not about La Ciclovia.

This Wednesday, City Councilman Carlos Orlando Ferreira had scheduled a public hearing on the future of La Ciclovia de la Septima. (The councilman apparently did not know that city officials had promised the cycling community that the Ciclovia would not fall victim to planned Transmilenio construction on Seventh Ave.)

As it turned out, I heard only one speaker even mention La Ciclovia, altho it did become very clear that nobody plans a bike lane for Seventh Ave. Almost all the speakers at the hearing talked only about whether or not a Transmilenio line should be built on La Septima, and if so, whether full-scale TM or Mayor Moreno's 'TM light idea.'

But I did talk to folks about bicycling issues, and got updates on several cycling subjects:

- Ferreira's much-ballyhooed public bikes program apparently has not advanced - but he says he hasn't abandoned it, either. Ferreira now plans to launch a pilot project in June. But he had no more details, such as in which neighborhood it would function, or how many bikes it would involve. Which suggests to me that it won't happen. And, as I've written before, to make public bikes succesful, Bogotá needs to solve problems such as the chaotic traffic and pollution so that people are willing to get on bicycles.

A Bogotá Cicloruta, near downtown.

- Mayor Moreno's promise to build 20 kilometers of new Ciclorutas hasn't happened. Andrés Felipe Vergara, a member of the city's Bicyclists' Consultant Group (Mesa de la Bicicleta) and leader of the Wednesday night bike rides, said the city recently built about a kilometer of new bike lane in north Bogotá, around 125th St. - but that this Cicloruta is poorly designed and impractical to use.

Andrés sketches a disjointed Cicloruta.

- Andrés also pointed out a fundamental problem with the city's Ciclorutas - they were built and are (supposed to be) maintained by about four different public agencies - the city's Transit agency, the Urban Development Institute (IDU), the water district, and maybe even more. Each agency has built some stretches of Ciclorutas, but there's little coordination between them, so the network is disjointed and unconnected. Also, many are poorly maintained, and with such a variety of agencies, it's hard pinning responsibilities.

- Andrés also gave me a sad news item. The Mesa de la Bicicleta, a sort of citizens' consultancy group on cycling issues, has ceased to meet. Andrés said this is because nobody listened to their proposals. The Moreno administration has never seemed interested in cycling issues.

The Las Aguas bicycle parking facility. 

- Finally, the bicycle parking building at the Las Aguas TM station is operating, and is being used, altho demand has not been overwhelming. Today, I counted about a dozen bikes hanging inside (it has some 140 spaces) - which at least means a dozen cyclists' lives facilitated - and perhaps a few more bikes on the road. The facility opened after sitting empty for years, and only after cyclists held a mock funeral in protest.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Funeral for Bicycle Week

Requiem for a Parking Lot That Never Was

(Photos by Carlos Felipe Pardo)

(Photos by Carlos Felipe Pardo)

Bogotá's Bicycle Week (schedule here) kicked off on Monday with a downer - a funeral. But maybe the episode should be better called a stillbirth.

In 2006, if my memory serves, Bogotá built four 'Meeting points' at Transmilenio stations, each including public bathrooms, vendors' kiosks and a bicycle parking facility. The reason for the name seems lost to history, but the goal was admirable: to generate more activity around the stations, provide badly-needed public bathrooms and encourage clean transport to TM stations. The bicycle parking buildings are large and sophisticated, despite some basic engineering faults (like constructing the walls out of wooden slats, which let rain in, and installing a sophisticated and expensive elevator, that is sure to fail after a few months).

Incomprehensibly, however, four years later the expensive parking facility by Las Aguas station, near La Candelaria, has never opened. That tragic fact was commemorated with the funeral held by members of Bogotá's Mesa de la Bicicleta, a city advisory group on cycling issues.

Each time I've spoken to the parking lot's security guards they've assured me that the facility would open in six months or at the beginning of the next year, which has never happened. The latest explanation is that they're waiting for expansion work to finish on the adjoining TM line. That makes no sense, since the TM line has never halted operations.

The most consistent explanation I've heard about why the parking facility's never opened is that the city wants someone to agree to operate it - something only Bill Gates might do, since it's unlikely to make a profit. That demonstrates a
 
fundamental misconception about bicycle parking facilities. Naturally, they don't generate profits themselves. But they benefit the city by encouraging cycling and therefore reducing the much greater costs in noise, pollution, congestion, infrastructure demands and other huge costs and quality of life impacts created by cars.

In addition to the funeral, this year's Bicycle Week also includes conferences, group rides and other events.

Bicycle Week 2010 comes, unfortunately, at a difficult time for cycling in Bogotá, when City Hall appears to give cycling little importance, the city's Ciclorutas are falling apart and congestion, pollution and traffic chaos make biking this city a real challenge.

This blog written by Mike Ceaser of Bogota Bike Tours

Pedestrianization, Parking

The Free ADN newspaper, of all places, has published several articles relevant to cycling.

Eleventh St., from Carrera 2 down past the Plaza Bolivar, to Carrera 10 (in La Candelaria), is to become a 'pedestrian corridor,' with restricted vehicular access.

Pedestrianization of the center will do lots of good for Bogotá. Taxis and other motor vehicles often race thru here, ignoring stop signs. With all the kids around as well as persons under the influence in this neighborhood, it's amazing that more pedestrians don't get hit. The great majority of people in La Candelaria are students and tourists, who move mostly by foot. And most neighborhood residents don't own cars. So, it's not right (is it anywhere?) that the car-using minority tyrannizes the self-propelled majority.

But I have one concern: on some other pedestrianized streets in the center, bicyclists are required to get off and walk - even tho I've never seen or heard of a bicycle-pedestrian accident in this area. What are the plans for 11th St.?

'No hay dinero para el deporte' - No money for sports! 

Until recently, a sports tax was included on phone bills to pay for things such as physical activities for kids and seniors, as well as the Sunday/holiday Ciclovia. A judge recently suspended the tax, however. ADN reports that the city expected this tax to generate about $150 million in 2013, which will be lost unless the judge's decision gets reversed.

The Ciclovia, for one, has already been cut back. Will this mean they'll hack off more sections?

(On the other hand, with ETB providing such lousy and expensive phone service, it's not surprising that nobody wants to pay for it.)

Bike Parking lots Inaugurated 

They've opened a bike parking facility in the Recaurte Transmillenio Station for 162 bikes. That's a good thing. There are also already much larger bike parking lots at some major TM stations, with a total capacity for 1,640 bikes.

The lots have been criticized, however, as under-used. On average, they receive only about 480 bikes per day.

In my opinion, the city committed a fundamental, conceptual mistake by building a few huge and expensive bike parking lots, instead of doing something simple and cheap like placing bike racks at every station. As a result, most TM stations have no bike parking, while these few huge parking lots sit mostly empty. But monumental structures appear oh so much more impressive.

Meanwhile, unfortunately and absurdly, four 'Meeting points,' at TM stations, built years ago, and with capacity for hundreds of bikes, have never opened. That's because the city wants someone to take them on as a concession and run them for a profit - economically unrealistic right now.

Bike parking should be a free, subsidized service, since cycling contributes so much to cities' and individuals' health.

While writing this, I've found two facebook forums on bike parking in Bogota:

Free parking for bicycles in Bogotá.

For the right to park bicycles in Bogotá.

This blog written by Mike Ceaser, of Bogota Bike Tours and Rentals

Victory at the Cemetery!

Well, it took months and lots of phone calls and nagging, but they finally installed a simple bike rack in the Central Cemetery. Hopefully, the other cemeteries will follow - as the law requires. 

The squeaky wheel gets the grease!

Another observation: Good for the Consorcio Renacer, which manages the cemeteries, for having the common sense to install a simple, inexpensive, unpretentious bike rack. In contrast, the City of Bogotá has built four expensive and sophisticated bike parking facilities - which have sat unused for years. http://mikesbogotabikeblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-to-not-park-bicycles.html

Unfortunately, the 'Bikes prohibited' sign is still there on the cemetery's front gate:

This blog pedaled to you by Mike Ceaser of Bogota Bike Tours