The Poisonous Pleasure of Bogotá Bicycling!

Here it comes!

 Early this morning, I was pedaling north on Carrera Septima's bike lane, when I passed this SITP bus (sold to us as the solution to the city's pollution problem). Unfortunately for the suffering cyclist behind me, he or she didn't get past in time

Poor cyclist!

When the city announced a 'yellow alert' a few weeks ago warning of high air pollution levels,  envirobnmenal authorities promised to crack down and said that they had temporarily shut down highly polluting factories and fined thousands of 'rolling chimneys.' If that's true, then why we see these vehicles every day belching CO2 and smog into our eyes and lungs.

And here, a smog-belching schoolbus at a bike lane crossing.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Controlling the Motorized Bicycles?

A bicycle with a motor is a motorcycle.

A bici-motor crossing a
pedestrian plaza.

The other day, El Tiempo published this damning editorial denouncing the so-called 'bici-motos,' or bicycles with small gasoline motors mounted on them, which in plain terms are just small motorcycles.

El Tiempo points out that the "dangerous, illegal and polluting bicimotos" roar along the bike lanes in
"flagrant violation" of the laws banning them and exposing cyclists to dangers from these high-velocity vehicles.

The editorialist, who might not be a cyclist, doesn't mention how unpleasant cycling is when one is stuck behind one of these noisy, fume-spewing vehicles.

A bici-motorist (left) passing a line of bicyclists in a Bogotá bike lane.

"There is no justification for exposing cyclists to such dangers," the editorial concludes.

The problem with these vehicles is sympomatic of several Colombian infirmities: lack of law enforcement, apathy toward pollution and an absurd degree of legalism. The bici-motos enjoy  legal immunity thanks either to authorities' apathy or to the legal fantasy that motors smaller than a certain number of cubic centimeters are not really motors at all - even tho they're often noisier and more polluting than automobiles.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Does the Motor Make the Bike?

Can you tell which one is the bicycle?

Colombia, the nation of magical realism may be the only place where a motorized, three-wheeled vehicle apparently qualifies as a 'bicycle'.

What's the difference? A motorized bicycle waits on
the sidewalk, while a regular motorcycle passes on the street. 

At least, that's the way it appeared the other day on Carrera Septima's bike lane, which this loud, polluting monstrosity was sharing with cyclists, as police watched apathetically.

For the record, the motorized bicitaxis, which I understand are illegal wherever they are, are, tragically, replacing the traditional pedal-powered bicitaxis. The vehicles' two-stroke engines pump out more pollution than do most cars.

However, it's no big deal. After all, the equally loud and polluting bicimotores have long been invading our bike lanes, in the face of police and other authorities' total apathy.

In the case of the bicitaxi, I chased after it, but it roared down Carrera Septima, charging thru red lights along the pedestrian-only avenue. Do you think anybody cared?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

More Bikes, Fewer Cars - For One Day

A momentary bicycle-jam on Carrera Septima as these cyclists wait for a light to change.

Air pollution dropped 21%, and the city was lots quieter and more peaceful during Bogotá's 2015 Car-Free Day. And, even compared to previous years, my unscientific impression is that this year many more cyclists turned out. 

But will they pedal again another day?

Lots of pedalers turned out today - but how many of them will pedal tomorrow?

Not all the streets are as cycle-friendly as la Septima. This guy's maneuvering between buses on Carrera 10.

Don't ride behind me. Nearby, a bus belches smoke. It's Car-Free Day, not pollution-free day, silly.

Back on the friendly Carrera Septima. 

This usually congested street in downtown was so clear that these guys could ride against traffic.

The IDRD's public lending bikes reappeared today. But will they tomorrow?

A moto-bici illegally uses an exclusive TransMilenio bus lane. 

This year for the first time no-car day was also no-motorcycle day. But, insanely, the prohibition did not extend to the moto-bicis, bicycles equipped with gasoline engines, which make lots of noise and pollute more than do many cars.

But today's El Tiempo also carried this disastrous new item: New car sales as ahead of last year's record new car sales.

Blog by Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Sad Face of Bogotá Cycling

A father-daughter outing - with anti-toxic face masks.

This cycling father and daughter pair struck me as tremendously sad, outfitted as they were with their anti-pollution face masks for a Saturday afternoon outing in central Bogotá. They looked more appropriate for a visit to a toxic dump or the scene of an industrial disaster. 

But, come to think of it, Bogotá may be the scene of a chronic and perpetual industrial disaster. 

Buses belching smoke near the intersection where I saw the masked father and daughter. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Cyclist Suffers Toxic Attack!

A bicyclist gets smoke bombed by a bus on 26th Street. 

The other day, these bicyclists were pedaling along 26th St. when this bus belched this toxic cloud over one of them.

And some people ask why more Bogotanos don't ride bikes.

Other people ask why authorities don't sanction polluters. But why ask absurd questions?

Blog by Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

What's Mayor Petro Done for Bicycling?

A cyclist on a new bike lane on Ave. Septima

A few mayors ago, Bogotá was widely seen as a trailblazer for bicyclists. It's since lost that image. When Gustavo Petro became mayor at the start of 2012 he really talked the talk about promoting cycling. Two years later, however, as Petro fights to stay in office, his record is disappointing.

Petro has built some bike lanes, created a very limited bike lending program in the city center and paid for pro-bike propaganda. But cycling conditions in most of the city haven't improved. And, in legal terms, cycling has been ignored.

Painters lay down a bike lane on Ave. Septima.

In two years Petro has built only 14 kms of bike lanes. That's more than his predecessor Samuel Moreno, but only 10% of what Petro promised he'd build during his four-year term. (Image: El Espectador)

Free bike for loan on Ave. Septima - but only for use on Ave. Septima. A real public bicycle program is still just a promise.

Mayor Petro won cyclists' gratitude by closing part of Ave. Septima to car traffic during the day and adding a bike lane to the street.

Posters promoting cycling cover poles along Ave. Caracas.

A bici-carril, an innovative bike lane for Bogotá, near the Universidad Nacional. Neighbors objected to the lane taking space away from cars, and even pulled out the dividers at one point.

A cyclist fights with traffic on Ave. Caracas.

But cyclists still fight for a bit of space amidst chaotic, polluting traffic.

Motorcycles continue proliferating. Can you spot the lonely bicyclist in this picture?

And bicycles with motors, called ciclomotores, have proliferated as well. This one is on Ave. Septima's bike lane, even tho that's supposed to be only for real bicycles.

Meanwhile, the city's thousands of bicitaxis remain technically illegal and subject to police harrasment and confiscation.  

And air pollution? City authorities still haven't noticed it.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogota Bike Tours.

TransMilenio Attacks a Cyclist

A cyclist descending Ave. Jimenez (also known as the Eje Ambiental, the Environmental Axis), on a collision course with a TransMilenio bus's exhaust.

The suffering cyclist after a toxic bath, courtesy of TransMilenio.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bogotá's Masked Cyclists

"I don't want to eat dust," explained this woman, a foreigner, in Teusaquillo. 

Sadly, many cyclists in Bogotá feel obliged to wear masks to try to protect themselves from air pollution. It's terribly unfair that we cyclists suffer because others - including environmental authorities - ignore the law!

How'd you like to be cycling near this smog-belching TransMilenio bus, which I spotted on the 'Eje Ambiental,' (the so-called 'Environmental Axis.')

To this masked cyclist, whom I met on Calle 26, near the Universidad Nacional, I noted that laws do exist here limiting vehicle emissions. But the guy wasn't hopeful. "But here the laws are ignored," he observed.

A good place to ride?

Wouldn't you hate to be caught riding behind this smog-belching bus? (I was there.)

These guys, who were just gassed by a TransMilenio bus, forgot to wear their masks today. 

Even on the car-free section of Ave. Septima, this woman masks herself.

 By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Is a Bicycle With a Motor Still a Bicycle?

Motorized bicycles, called ciclomotores, for sale in central Bogotá.

They're noisy, highly polluting, fast and dangerous - just about everything a bicycle is not. So, can they be called bicycles?

Take a bike, add a motor, and you get a motorbike.

The proliferation of bicycles equipped with 50-cc motors, called ciclomotores, is causing controversy here, and for good reason. These light motorbikes cause lots of pollution, since their loud and dirty two-stroke engines have no emission controls. They're also faster and heavier than normal bikes. And they're just plain unpleasant to be around, especially when you're stuck behind one choking on its fumes.

But their users insist on calling them bicycles, and taking advantage of the privileges of using a bicycle, such as riding in bike lanes, in the National University, and sometimes even on La Ciclovia.

Today, as salesman told me that these ciclomotores start at 850,000 pesos (about $500), or that he could equip my own bike with a motor for 550,000 pesos. They can do 40 kilometers per hour and cover 90 kms on their half-gallon gas tank. There were selling "quite well," he said happily, and gave me his card.

A motorized bicycle on the campus of the National University,
where this guy wouldn't have been able to enter on a
regular motorcycle.

Perhaps these vehicles can play a role in the city, at least for people who can't pedal a bike for some reason. But they should be equipped with basic emissions and noise controls. And, most of all, they should be with other motorized vehicles, since that's what they are.

These things violate all of bicycling's positives: they're dirty, noisy and generally unpleasant and don't do their riders' health any good, since I've almost never seen anybody pedal one. But, they're much cheaper than regular motorcycles and battery-powered bicycles.

A proud motorized bicycle rider.
He zoomed away with a trail of fumes.

City officials say that these things fall into a legal vaccuum, since the laws covering motorcycles are written to apply to vehicles with machines larger than 50 ccs. That's why they can't be legally excluded from bike lanes, sidewalks, or La Ciclovia, which is supposed to be all about health and exercise. Fortunately, however, I have seen the Ciclovia's 'guardianes' applying good sense by telling these motorized monsters to either shut off their motors or leave La Ciclovia. Naturally, adverse as they are to pedaling, they leave La Ciclovia.

Ironically, Bogotá has recently tried to phase out two-stroke engines, which are highly polluting. Unfortunately, the city backed off of this policy in the face of protests by motorcyclists, and now these ciclomotores are making the problem worse.

Do I look like a bicyclist?

Safety's another issue. Imagine pedaling along in a bike lane, feeling protected from vehicle traffic, only to have a motorized bicycle roar past you at 40 kmh and leave you gasping its fumes?

Adding insult to injury, I'm worried that these monsters will discourage riders of real bikes, by making life in Bogotá's bike lanes dangerous and unpleasant.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

'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