An Anti-Cyclists Intersection

Cyclists riding east along the Calle 24 bike lane cross Carrera 19. 

Despite boasting one of the city's very few protected, on-road bike lanes, along Calle 24 the car's have all the rights, and cyclists none. At the crossing with Carrera 19, at any time, the stoplights are either giving eastbound drivers on Calle 24 the green light to turn left across the bike lane, or are green for northbound drivers on Calle 19.

But cars turning left from Calle 24 onto Carrera 19 cut them off.

Last year, I sent the city's transit department a complaint about this, and they replied with a six-stage scheme for reworking the intersection. I replied that all they really needed to do was alter the timing of the stoplights. Since then, naturally, they've done nothing at all.

The anti-bicycle intersection.

Help!

This is the worst anti-cyclist intersection I know of, but not the only one. A bit west on 26th St. in front of the Inpec headquarters, the lights gives cyclists and pedestrians only about 5 seconds to cross with all three lights green. Those who don't manage to dash across must stop and wait, stop and wait, crossing in three stages as the various lights turn green.

And, as soon as the vehicles stop turning left, the traffic along Carrera 19 begins crossing.

Where do we cyclists go from here?

Blog by Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Ciclovia We Don't Need

A scene on the Ave. Septima Ciclovia today. 

 Some say that Bogotá's Sunday/holiday Ciclovia is the city's 'beach', with its more than 100 kms of car-free streets. But today it seemed that most bogotanos were at Colombia's real beaches (or at home sleeping off last night's partying). La Ciclovia, which often hosts between one and two million bicyclists, walkers, joggers and skaters, instead looked rather barren.

Does it really make sense to mobilize and pay the small army of police and Ciclovia monitors - who undoubtely would rather be with their families or still in bed -  for the few who venture out on Christmas or New Year's Day? Couldn't the money do more for cycling spent a different way?

This is particularly true on a day when motorized traffic is extremely light, anyway, making closing roads to cars almost pointless.

More police than cyclists on this stretch.

A lonely stretch of La Ciclovia today.

The Recrovia, free public aerobics, did get a turn-out.

Ave. Caracas this afternoon, almost bare of car and bus traffic. Why close down roads?

By Mike Ceaser of Bogota Bike Tours

Flashmob for Mobility - but Tomorrow?

Today, a group of students of the Universidad Jorge Tadeo, an important Bogotá private university, held a 'flashmob' today. For the students, communication students, this event was one of their semester projects.

We started out by donning cardboard car costumes in a neighboring parking lot, and then rolling out onto the street, where we formed a caravan and moved down the street honking on little plastic horns. Predictably, we caused a traffic jam behind us, and the drivers immediately began leaning on their horns. After all, losing three minutes of television time is much more important than witnessing a dozen college students parading down the street wearing colored cardboard cars and blowing on blaring plastic horns. But, there's a principle involved here: nothing ever has a right to get in the way of cars, except for other cars.

We deposited the cardboard cars on the Tadeo's concrete plaza and mounted our bikes and road in circles, demonstrating that cars cause traffic jams and how much faster and more agile bicycles are.

Afterwards, I asked several of the students how they commuted to university: 'by bus, they said. Too far to bicycle.'

To its credit (and in obedience to the law) Tadeo U. has bicycle parking, consisting of a small rack in a sprawling auto parking lot a block away from the campus where thousands of students study. (I have been told that in order to use the bike rack, you have to sign up before the semester starts.) Today, there was only one bike parked there, and I'd be willing to bet that it belongs to a local security guard or the parking lot employee.

The flashmob students whom I'd accompanied pedaled their bikes across the parking lot and loaded them into a car for the trip home.

Everybody put on your car costumes!

After motoring up the street and causing a traffic jam, the car costumes com off. 

After abandoning the cars....

With trees on our backs, we rode around the campus.

Afterwards, the students pedaled into the university's car parking lot. Note the lonely bike rack. The students loaded the bikes into a car for the drive home.

On nearby 19th Ave. the traffic made its own traffic jam, without students' help.

By Mike Ceaser of Bogotá Bike Tours