Bogotá's Bicycle Cemetery

Thousands of bicycles rust away. (Photo: ADN)

Thousands of bicycles, confisticated by police because of involvement in accidents or for some traffic offense, are piled up rusting away in the patios of Alamo. Most have been there for more than five years.

And they keep arriving - at the rate of three to five per day.

Why don't the owners retrieve them? There's lots of red tape, ADN reports. Perhaps they lack proof of ownership? Also, patios charges for the bikes's storage - almost 5,000 pesos for the first day, and then decreasing to only 100 pesos a day after a month passes. Eventually, the charges can be more than the value of a cheap bike. The bikes involved in accidents are held as potential legal evidence - altho it's difficult to see their court value, especially after suffering for months or years in the wind, rain and son.

In any case, it's a real tragedy.

Why not issue some decree to sell or give away the bikes after some waiting period, while they're still usable?

It's also worth asking why all those cars and buses which routinely break traffic and environmental laws never seem to get confisticated by the authorities.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

New Public Bikes, Fewer Public Cyclists

Bogotá's new public bikes wait for riders.

An adjustment for one of the new bikes. 

With a bit of fanfare, Bogotá introduced new-style public bikes for its lending program on Ave. Septima. The new bikes -  which can only be used on the pedestrianized stretch of Ave. Septima between Plaza Bolívar and 24th - look solid and simple, with mud guards and baskets (and even a few tandems). They're not as sophisticated or expensive as the mountain bikes they used previously - but also less attractive to thieves - and perfectly adequate for flat downtown Bogotá. And, according to El Tiempo, the bikes are equipped with GPS tracking devices.

Weaving thru crowds blocking
La Septima's bike lane. 

But city officials also changed the registry system. Before, you just walked up and displayed your cedula and they snapped your picture. Impressively, the service has had little trouble with crime. Now, users must first register with the Institute of Recreation and Sports (IDRD), fill out a form and provide references. Predictably, use of the bikes has plummeted - from 300 per day to just 80, one worker told me.

"Many people come to downtown sporadically," he said. "They don't want to take the trouble."

The benefits of bicycling.

The new registry system might be useful when the service is expanded to other spots in the city. But for La Septima, the walk-up system worked fine, so why not continue? They could use both systems together.

Bogotá's public bike program is expanding with frustrating slowness - but in a way that's healthy. If they had instead started out with an ambitious but impractical program which had collapsed in fraud and scandal, it might have buried prospects for public bikes for a long time, as well as scarring cycling in general.

An employee told me they now have 300 bikes and plan to add new lending points in central and north Bogotá.

El Tiempo reports that during its first year the program were used 45,000 times.

The program is still free, and I wonder about its sustainability, especially after Mayor Petro leaves office (which might possibly happen soon, since they're trying to recall him).

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

La Civlovia Naranja

Today the Dutch Embassy, perhaps the planet's most cycling nation per-capita, held its annual bike ride, called La Ciclovia Naranja, for which participants put on old timey clothes and dusted off their classic bicycles.

Here they are participating in the Recrovia aerobics in the Parque Nacional. Inconveniently, a half  hour later, the sky let loose with a downpour.

By Mike Ceaser of Bogotá Bike Tours

Juicing by Bike

If juice-making contributes significantly to global warming, this group, calling itself La Kasita, has the solution. They'd connected a bicycle to a blender beside the Parque Nacional along La Ciclovia. After about a minute of pedaling, the lulo, maracuya, strawberries or other fruit were converted into juice.

Then, however, a Ciclovia guardiana appeared and told the juicemakers that they couldn't make juices along La Ciclovia without a permit. So they had to close up and go away.


But how clean is human-generated energy? I suppose that depends on whether you're a carnivore or a vegetarian.

Pour it on!

Pedal power. 

'I'm sorry, but this isn't permitted without a license.'

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogota Bike Tours

A Cycle Lane Success

Mayor Gustavo Petro's pedestrianization of Ave. Septima during the day and his creation of a bicycle lane have notably increased the number of cyclists on the stretch of Ave. Septima from Plaza Bolivar north to Calle 25, where the street reopens to cars.

And, that's not only because the city is lending bikes to use on this stretch.

Besides the increased number of bicyclists, pedaling here's now definitely safer, more pleasant and less polluted.

I've also noticed a large proportion of female cyclists on the pedestrianized Ave. Septima. Generally in Bogotá almost all commuter cyclists are male.

But Petro is now under seige, by a campaign to revoke his mandate. If Petro goes, then the car-free Septima, which many retailers oppose, will likely end, too.

Four cyclists, one of them carrying his daughter home from school,
use the bike lane on the pedestrianized stretch of Ave. Septima. 

Less than ideal. Ice cream vendors find the bike lane useful.

However, after passing 25th St., the bike lane just ends and cyclists share the road with cars, trucks and buses again....

A bike chained to a pole. The whole car-free 24-block stretch lacks a single bike parking rack.

From 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. this stretch of Ave. Septima opens to motorized traffic,
but the bike lane remains. 

This garbage truck found the bike lane a convenient place to stop,
forcing a delivery cyclist onto the sidewalk.

No cycle lane here! Farther north on La Septima a cyclist battles his way amongst cars and buses.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

How to Make a Bicycle 'Ecological'

I spotted this 'ecological bicycle,' otherwise known as an electric motorcycle, the other day on the campus of the National University in Bogotá. The ownders of real bicycles parked nearby, of course, feel no need to make ecological claims.

All of which has me tempted to grab my own bicycle, add a battery, an electric motor and about 100 pounds to it, so that I can label it 'ecological.'

By Mike Ceaser of Bogotá Bike Tours