Bogotá Public Bikes Back in Park

Public bicycles in Santiago, Chile: Not coming to Bogotá anytime soon.

Bogotá's public bikes, promised so many times, are back in park once again.

The administration of Mayor Enrique Peñalosa, who is known as a bicycle advocate, looked to be in the process of issuing a contract to the Chilean firm which operates the public bicycle system in Chile's capital - until it wasn't.

Santiago's public bicycle system, Bikesantiago, has reportedly generated many complaints about the service's quality and costs. But complaints are inevitable, and Bikesantiago is in fact expanding quickly, suggesting that something is going right. But Bogotá officials concluded that the company didn't fulfill its minimum requirements for a public bicycles contract and canned the deal. (Nevertheless, Bikesantiago is being purchased by a Brazilian company, which presumably will make an offer to operate a Bogotá public bicycles system.) (A Chinese company, Mobike, has also started a dockless public bicycle system in Santiago.)

There's a fundamental problem is Bogotá's multiple and futile attempts at creating a public bike system: the city's refusal to susbsidize the system.

City Councilwoman Maria Fernanda Rojas, of the Alianza Verde Party, expressed it well: "The city's idea of not injecting public money in this project is an error," she said.

She pointed out that Santiago's system, which did not recieve public money, is troubled, while that of Medellin, Colombia, which does operate on public funds, has succeeded.

In fact, all over the world, public bicycle systems either receive public subsidies or have deep-pocketed private sponsors, often banks. In Bogotá, no such private company has stepped forward.

And Bogotá does subsidize other - and highly polluting - transport modes, including huge subsidies in cheap gasoline and free parking for private cars.

Peñalosa's predecesor, Mayor Gustavo Petro, issued a contract for a public bike system which was economically unrealistic and apparently corrupt. It went nowhere.

Bogotá needs to see public bicycles not as a business, but as a benefit for the city, in cleaner air, less traffic congestion and better transport and health for residents.

Meanwhile, this month Cali, Colombia started a modest system with 100 bicycles for university students to get to the express bus stations. That's not much, but it's more than Bogotá has.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Subsidize the Bicycles!

Would a public bikes program get pedestrians like these on Carrera 7 pedaling?

For the hundredth time, Bogotá is planning a public bicycle system.

In Lyon, France, public bikes wait for riders.

The last one, bidded out by Mayor Petro to a consortium consisting of a Colombian man with a history of corruption problems, and a Chinese company - neither of which had experience with bicycles - died a quiet and deserved death.

That plan also absurdly required the bicycle scheme to pay profits to the city. Around the world, even in cities much wealthier and with much more tourism than Bogotá, such bicycle systems either receive public subsidies or have deep-pocketed corporate sponsors.

Paris, France, public bicycles.

Now, Bogotá Mayor Peñalosa plans to try again. And this time the bikes will not be required to pay the city - but neither are they to receive public monies.

Motor vehicles burn subsidized fuel and often get free parking - which all of us pay for. And all of us pay the costs' of vehicle pollution's health and environmental impacts.

Bicyclists, on the other hand, don't pollute, occupy little space and benefit people's health. But in Bogotá, bicycles don't receive those subsidies.

Lodz, Poland's public bicycles.

Around the world, public bikes are seen as a benefit because they reduce pollution and traffic congestion and improve citizens' health. So, why does Bogotá see bikes as a business and expect them to pay for themselves?

Unfortunately, in a city like Bogotá with lots of poverty and relatively few tourists and deep-pocketed tourists, a public bicycle system is unlikely to survive on its own economics.

When will Bogotá, with its ambitions of being a cycling mecca, put its money where its mouth is?

Public bicycles in Zongshan, China.

by Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Fatal Flaw in Bogotá's Public Bikes Plan

Capital Bikeshare bikes in Washington, D.C., which receive public subsidies. (Photo: Wikipedia)

Finally, after years of dithering, trial runs, suspensions and false starts, Bogotá last week accepted a proposal for a public bicycles service - and it portends disaster.

The winner is a Colombo-Chinese consortium with no experience in bicycles, one of whose owners has a history marked by corruption and incompetence.

EcoBici bikes, in Mexico City, which receive
public subsidies. (Photo: Wikipedia)

How did we come to this? Several reputable organizations and companies with real experience in the bike business expressed interest in administering Bogotá's public bikes, but they pulled out because they couldn't see how to make it work financially. In contrast, winning consortium BiciBogotá not only says it can make a profit providing public bikes for Bogotá, but even promises to pay the city a 35% slice of its profits.

To a lot of us, including several of the losing contenders, that sounds completely unrealistic.

A representative of Next Bike, a German company which had expressed interest in Bogotá's public bikes system but decided it was economically inviable, told La Otra Cara website in 2014 that "they're going to supply Bogotá with U.S. $15.00 bicycles which will be destroyed after a few months' use."

Barclays Bikes in London, which are sponsored by the bank.
(Photo: Wikipedia)

There's no apparent reason why reputable companies, with track records administering public bike programs in other cities, should not be interested in Bogotá. After all, it's a big, flat city with a growing economy and a reputation for cycling. And, while Bogotá has lots of crime and poverty, so do Medellin, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Santiago, Chile and Mexico City, where public bike programs function.

However, Bogotá's government, despite its leftist credentials, approached the deal with an intensely capitalist mentality. Rather than envisioning the bikes as a public service deserving subsidies because of its quality of life benefits thru better health, reduced pollution and less traffic congestion, the government wants the bikes to generate profits.

Perhaps such schemes can stand on their own economically in rich cities such as New York and
London, with huge tourist flows, where residents can shell out the dollars to pedal and where advertising space commands premium rates. But that's not Bogotá, Colombia.

Bogotá's public bikes: Subsidies, no, profits, yes.
(Photo: David Luna)

Even New York's Citi Bike program has struggled financially, the Washington Post reports, despite sponsorships from Citibank and MasterCard, while Washington D.C.'s Capital Bikeshare has receives clean air and anti-congestion grants.

From the Post story quoting Chris Hamilton, a regional transportation official:

"They can’t go into starting bikeshare thinking that it’s going to pay for itself. It should be treated like any other part of the transportation system: like the buses, the bikeways, the rail, the sidewalks."

If a city declines to view bikeshare this way, making the public investment that entails, Hamilton says, "I think you set it up to fail." 

This is particularly true because those vehicles which do congest the city, generate pollution and destroy our health do receive huge - if often invisible . subsidies thru free parking and the way we all suffer under their negative impacts.

Bogotá's public bikes story smacks of a mayor rushing to ink a contract before he's out the door. That might be because he wants to leave a legacy or possibly for other, less admirable motives. But, either way, it looks like a route to disaster.

Nevertheless, I'm going to cross my fingers, knock on wood, hold out hope and keep the faith that this just might succeed. If it doesn't, after all, it'll be a huge setback for bicycling in Bogotá.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Public Bikes for Bogotá II?

A cyclist squeezed by cars on Carrera 10.
How many non-cyclists will dare to pedal Bogotá's streets?

Bogotá's city government has, once again, promised to create a public bicycles system, this time before the end of next year.

Bogotá already made a trial run on two sites, which seemed to find real demand. But the trial was halted, while Medellin has launched its system and is expanding it.

A cyclis in the National University. A public bicycles
program here was ended after many bikes
were stolen and damaged. 

But, before setting up such a system, the city needs to look hard at issues such as crime, the wealther, how to charge and the city's cycling conditions. The only sustained shared bikes program tried in Bogotá was in the National University's campus. But even tho the campus is a closed area with guards at entrances and exits, the university ended the program after several years because many of the bikes were damaged or stolen. On campus, users simply picked up a bike to use and dropped it off at their destination.

One key difference with a municipal system, presumably, is that users will be identified and responsible for returning bikes in good condtion.

City employees lend bikes on Seventh Ave.
But the free program only covers a six-block stretch. 

Still, look at Bogotá's crime, chaotic streets and often-useless bike lanes, not to mention its hills and rain, and I have to wonder about this system's potential. A more mundane concern is the low rate of credit card/bank account use among Bogotanos, which will complicate charging systems.

If the system is tried and works, then great. It'll boost cycling, improve the city's chaotic transit, get people exercising and contribute to the city's image. Hopefully it'll also spur officialdom to improve conditions for all cyclists and drivers to give cyclists some respect. But if it fails, it'll be a black eye for cycling and mean more opposition to all cycling initiatives.

Somewhere on this sidewalk, probably underneath the cars, is a bike lane. 

A bike lane with a post in it. 

A homeless person found this bike lane to be a good camping spot. If he were blocking cars, the cops would move him. 

A bicyclist wears a facemask to protect himself from pollution.

A nice bike lane near the National Univesity. If they were only all like this one. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Public Bikes on Seventh Ave.

Attendants and bikes on Seventh Ave. 

Bogotá's long-promised public bicycles system appears no closer to reality. But, in what will hopefully spur officialdom to get it moving, City Hall and the IDRD have set up a low-tech, small-scale bike lending program on the pedestrianized stretch of Ave. Septima between 19th and 24th Sts.

The aluminum-frame bikes are lots nicer than needed
for five level blocks of Ave. Septima.

Right now, they've got 16 bikes, stationed in two spots, by 19th St. and 24th. But they have more bikes available and intend to expand, an attendant told me. The bikes are nice ones, with aluminum frames. And security isn't bullet-proof: attendants make sure users have a valid photo ID, and take a photograph of the person with ID and bike. Users are supposed to remain only on the five blocks of Seventh Ave. which are closed to cars while the bridge over 26th St. is replaced as part of the TransMilenio expansion project (The new bridge is supposed to be completed in 100 days.)

Encouragingly, an attendant told me they lent bikes 130 times today, which was happily rain-free. Yesterday was tougher, however, because of cold rain and protest marches.

"When the protests finally ended, the rains started," an attendant lamented.

Students, local employees and "even business men in suits and ties," used the bikes. Not a single one was stolen, altho I can't imagine it'd be very difficult for someone to present a fake ID and then dart down a side street into the Santa Fe neighborhood, where a stolen bike would be easy to hide.

This five-block project isn't very practical for transport, altho officials should consider expanding it to include spots near universities along the Eje Ambiental. But it demonstrates, once again, that real demand exists for public bicycles in Bogotá, and that this city of traffic jams may be missing an opportunity by not pursuing the idea, as Medellin is.

Users riding five blocks on loaned bikes. Each loan includes a helmet, but few got used. 

A bicycle stand. 

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