Laws for Biking?

It has an engine, burns fuel, belches smoke and goes vroom. So is it a bicycle or a motorcycle? 

Colombian lawmakers are considering pro-cycling laws right now - but unfortunately they likely won't get much priority - and lots of opposition.

A bici-motor in a downtown bike lane.

One would prohibit bicycles equipped with motors from bike lanes. It might just seem like common sense that a bicycle with a motor is, by definition, a motorcycle. However, because the motors' have less than 50 cc of displacement, the city's motor vehicle laws don't cover them, That's despite their being very noisy and often generating more pollution than a car, since their two-stroke engines burn oil.

One complication with banning the motorized bikes from bike lanes is distinguishing them from electric bikes, which are also motor-powered, but don't pollute or make much noise and go much slower than gasoline-powered motor-bikes. The electric bikes aren't a problem, the gasoline-powered ones are.

In any case, if this legislation nears becoming law, you can expect the motor-bikes' makers and users to scream that barring them from bike lanes violates their human rights. But that's not all. Even when they're on the street, they should be equipped with anti-pollution devices and their riders should be licensed.

A second law, in Congress, is intended to promote cycling - actually has some good things: It would provide some financial incentives, albeit small ones, for frequent cyclists, and would also give extra time off for public employees who commute by bike.

Unfortunately, the benefits are slight compared to the huge subsidies given to motor vehicles, such as free parking and subsidized fuel - not to mention the non-stop onslaught of pro-car propaganda.

The law's most important benefit might be a change of mentality legitimizing bike commuting in a climate where many workplaces provide no place for bike parking, much less showers or a changing room.

Businesses will undoubtedly oppose this legislation, as more costs and government regulation. This despite the fact that more bike commuters means healthier employees, and each worker who switches from driving to cycling can mean big savings in less parking.

By Mike Ceaser of Bogota Bike Tours

The Parking Paradox

Here's a dramatic illustration of the huge difference in space occupied by parked bicycles and a single parked car - and not even a big car (parked illegally on a sidewalk).

It's perverse and destructive, then, that society invests so much in subsidizing car parking - but often doesn't let bikes park at all. A case in point were the recent stories in El Tiempo reporting that many apartment buildings don't allow residents to park their bicycles in their parking garages. Cars, including old ones, apparently give a building status, whereas a bicycle by definition hurts a building's image.

The building owners would do better by encouraging residents to trade their cars for bicycles, thus saving space, cleaning the air and improving residents' health. The same is true for all the businesses which scramble to offer free parking for drivers but shun cyclists.

Have those businesses thot about the huge costs of building and maintaining those parking garages? Has the city government reflected about how much better and more efficiently the city would function if it shifted its huge subsidies and other incentives for cars instead to more sustainable transit, like bicycles.

Blog by Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Arboreal Bicycle Parking

Secure bicycle parking can be hard to find in Bogotá. Many car parking lots refuse bicycles - despite the law requiring them to accept them. Or, try locking your bike to a pole on a sidewalk and you could be pounced on (as I've been) by police and security guards enraged at this violation of civil order. On the other hand, if you do manage to park your bike in public, don't be too surprised if it's a bit lighter on your return.

But this guy, whom we met during a bike tour, did manage to find secure bicycle parking - and on an upper story, no less. His treehouse is alongside the Iglesia Santa Ana in the Teusaquillo neighborhood.

See anything funny about those trees on the left?

No lock needed up here.

Taking the down elevator. 

Tree man

Here's the tree man, Glautier Nieves Estrada, on his bike. He's lived up there for seven years and appears happy with his lodgings, despite some hostility from neighbors. He makes his living by scavenging the trash for saleable recyclables, so he's doing his bit for the environment.

He comes from a peasant family from the Valle del Cauca region. They were driven out by paramilitaries, who this man said chopped their victims into pieces, and became more of Colombia's millions of people displaced by the country's armed conflict. He lost contact with all of his relatives, including his three daughters.

UPDATE In early January 2011 the man's house disappeared from his tree. I'd heard that some neighbors had complained about him, so perhaps they removed his things while he was gone. He's probably under a bridge, now.

Or, perhaps he reunited with his daughters. We can always hope.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

When a Bike Rack is Not a Rack for Bikes

When a Bike Rack is not a Rack for Bikes  

When it's near a police station. This thing sure looks like a bike rack, with those curved pipes alongside each other. And it's near a police station, which is great in a city with a crime problem like Bogotá. But it's beside a police station, and when we asked, even begged, to park my bike there for an hour they just said 'prohibido!'. Even when I offered to show my I.D. and explained that I had a meeting i the neighboring Universidad de los Andes. Why? because it's near a police station - and that's the law in Colombia. Why leave the rack near the police station at all, then? I asked. No answer. Maybe they're afraid that if they move the rack away it'll get stolen.

This blog is written by Mike Ceaser, of Bogota Bike Tours