The Shortsighted National Bicycle Congress

It's time for the National Congress of Bicycles, when everybody working in the industry - or at least the manufacturers and retailers - get together to - market more bicicletas!

The bicycle industry appears to carry real economic weight in Bogota - go down Jimenez Ave. and you'll find the city's 'bicycle row' - many blocks crowded mostly with bike shops, and many businesses, including some big ones such as beer companies, use bikes or tricycles to do deliveries. Yet, bikes aren't very visible in advertising. Open the paper or turn on the TV, and it's all about cars, cars, cars (and tobacco and liquor).

However, the biggest failing of the industry, it seems to me, is the lack of notable efforts to promote a cycling culture. Related to this, I suspect, is Colombia's unequal distribution of wealth - a lot of people (over 40 %) are poor, and a small proportion are very, very rich. And Colombians are very class conscious!

Many low-income people ride bikes to work, or for work, just because it saves them money. But the bicycle industry takes them for granted. These people HAVE TO buy bikes. And, anyway, they use cheap or used bikes, which generate small profit margins, if any at all. Rather, it's the rich who buy the pricey, high-margin Treks, Cannondales and aluminum frame bikes. This is the expanding market and the one retailers chase after.

But these cyclists don't ride their bikes to work: Don't be silly! That makes you look like a poor person! These folks drive their cars to work and then load the bikes onto them on weekends for a pedal around the countryside.

So, what we really need here are more cars to load those bikes onto.

Call the bike industry's focus on selling short-term thinking. Perhaps someday Bogota could be like Portland, San Francisco or Amsterdam, with reams of yuppies pedaling to work on their Dahons. But that's a long way off. So, why bother to work toward it?

Looking at the Bicycle Congress's agenda, I see talks by economists, a bicycle race announcer, an expert in customer relations. I see nothing about transit or commuting - which is natural, if these bikes are never intended to touch an urban road.

Bamboo Bikes Come to Colombia!

The new wave in bike manufacture is one of the oldest building materials known to humanity - bamboo! 

Bike builders say that bamboo has great flexibility and strength characteristics, which mean bamboo can turn into all sorts of bikes, including even high-preformance racers. Now it turns out that someone in Medellin is building bicicletas de bambu. It'll be nice if someone finally starts building hi-performance bikes in Colombia, particularly if they're made from an environmentally-friendly material.

It'll be even better, however, if someone starts making practical cargo and basic transport bikes out of bamboo. It's being done in Africa. Why not here?

This blog written by Mike Ceaser, of Bogota Bike Tours

Steal my Bike!

The other day at Bogota Bike Tours we negligently left a bike outside, leaning against the wall. Predictably, someone came by and grabbed it and took off.

I rode around on my bike searching for the guy, but no luck. Where might a bike thief head? I rode down Jimenez Ave., which is one of Bogotá's 'bike shop rows.' Many stores there sell fancy new bikes - and a few sell nice used bikes at unreasonably low prices. Everybody knows that most of these bikes are stolen. (When I had first moved to Bogotá, I innocently went to one of these shops and bought a cheap bike. But when I took the bike to a nearby workshop to have it tuned up, the folks there informed me that it was most likely stolen. So I looked at the owner's card they'd given me and discoverd that the name on it was a (probably nonexistent) shop in Medellin. I took the bike back, and, by threatening them with troubles with the cops, got my money back. Then I bought a new bike, which got stolen soon after.)

So, I headed down to the stolen bike strip, where, lo and behold, one of the shopowners was standing in his doorway holding my bike, which he'd just purchased.

"This is my bike," I said, putting my hand on the handlebar.

"Well, I just bought it." He wasn't sympathetic.

"It was just stolen from me," I said, angry.

"If you want it, then pay me what I paid for it. 50,000 pesos (about $27.00)."

"You give it back to me," I insisted, "or you'll have trouble with the police. You shouldn't buy things which are stolen."

"Just take it," he relented with disgust.

A funny story, but also a pathetic one.  I read that in San Francisco, California, the police plan to do a sting operation, which will involve placing tracking devices in bikes to be used as lures. When those bikes get stolen, the cops will track them to find out who's fencing the stolen bikes.

Here in Bogotá we don't need a sting op with expensive tracking devices. I and lots of other people know exactly who is dealing in stolen bikes. Why don't the cops do anything?

The State of Bogotá's Ciclorutas

Bogotá has what is called the largest network of bicycle routes on the continent. But it's no secret that many of them are in lousy shape, as El Tiempo newspaper reports.
http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/bogota/alarma-por-estado-de-ciclorrutas_7753741-1

But, at least Bogotá does have a network of bike ways, even though a good number of them are barely usable, due to disrepair or because they're blocked by pedestrians and delivery vehicles.

Once again, more than repair potholes, Bogotá needs to make fundamental changes, such as taking away street space from cars and giving it to bikes. And reducing pollution and traffic chaos. And teaching motorists to respect other, non-motorized vehicles.

This blog written by Mike Ceaser, of Bogota Bike Tours

License to Drive = License to Kill?

Ten years ago, Fabián Rolando Méndez ran over and killed a cyclist.

On April 10 of this year, driving his truck drunk, Mendéz crashed into a woman and three girls, injuring all of them, two of the girls severely.

Today, after two months in prison, Méndez, of the city of Bucaramanga, is back on the street. The lawyer representing the victims said: "Mr. Mendez didn't want to injure, or much less kill, these girls. It was an accident."

And Mendéz did apologize - so, we should feel sorry for him. After all, how many drivers have the bad luck to have four pedestrians and a cyclist get in their way in only a dead - especially when they are driving drunk, and so have limited control. The pedestrians should have known better. 

Sarcasm aside, a judge reduced Mendez's charges, so that he's now out of jail, even though at least two of his maimed victims are still in the hospital, having reconstructive surgery.

Ask yourself: If Mr. Mendez had been using a chainsaw, a gun, a hammer or a knife and gotten drunk and injured four people, after having killed one person the same way, would they have called it an accident? 

What about if Mendez had been a taxi driver or construction worker, instead of a member of a prominent family, and ex-director of the city's Sports and Recreation Institute?

What if Mendéz's victim had been driving an expensive truck himself?

But, when the weapon is a car or truck and the person wielding it is influential and the victims simple pedestrians or cyclists, then killing or maiming are evidently forgiveable mistakes in Colombia.

Méndez's crime moved local residents to march through Bucaramanga demanding justice for the injured woman and girls.  There's even a Facebook group demanding that Mendéz pay for what he did.

This blog written by Mike Ceaser, of Bogota Bike Tours 

Pedestrianization, Parking

The Free ADN newspaper, of all places, has published several articles relevant to cycling.

Eleventh St., from Carrera 2 down past the Plaza Bolivar, to Carrera 10 (in La Candelaria), is to become a 'pedestrian corridor,' with restricted vehicular access.

Pedestrianization of the center will do lots of good for Bogotá. Taxis and other motor vehicles often race thru here, ignoring stop signs. With all the kids around as well as persons under the influence in this neighborhood, it's amazing that more pedestrians don't get hit. The great majority of people in La Candelaria are students and tourists, who move mostly by foot. And most neighborhood residents don't own cars. So, it's not right (is it anywhere?) that the car-using minority tyrannizes the self-propelled majority.

But I have one concern: on some other pedestrianized streets in the center, bicyclists are required to get off and walk - even tho I've never seen or heard of a bicycle-pedestrian accident in this area. What are the plans for 11th St.?

'No hay dinero para el deporte' - No money for sports! 

Until recently, a sports tax was included on phone bills to pay for things such as physical activities for kids and seniors, as well as the Sunday/holiday Ciclovia. A judge recently suspended the tax, however. ADN reports that the city expected this tax to generate about $150 million in 2013, which will be lost unless the judge's decision gets reversed.

The Ciclovia, for one, has already been cut back. Will this mean they'll hack off more sections?

(On the other hand, with ETB providing such lousy and expensive phone service, it's not surprising that nobody wants to pay for it.)

Bike Parking lots Inaugurated 

They've opened a bike parking facility in the Recaurte Transmillenio Station for 162 bikes. That's a good thing. There are also already much larger bike parking lots at some major TM stations, with a total capacity for 1,640 bikes.

The lots have been criticized, however, as under-used. On average, they receive only about 480 bikes per day.

In my opinion, the city committed a fundamental, conceptual mistake by building a few huge and expensive bike parking lots, instead of doing something simple and cheap like placing bike racks at every station. As a result, most TM stations have no bike parking, while these few huge parking lots sit mostly empty. But monumental structures appear oh so much more impressive.

Meanwhile, unfortunately and absurdly, four 'Meeting points,' at TM stations, built years ago, and with capacity for hundreds of bikes, have never opened. That's because the city wants someone to take them on as a concession and run them for a profit - economically unrealistic right now.

Bike parking should be a free, subsidized service, since cycling contributes so much to cities' and individuals' health.

While writing this, I've found two facebook forums on bike parking in Bogota:

Free parking for bicycles in Bogotá.

For the right to park bicycles in Bogotá.

This blog written by Mike Ceaser, of Bogota Bike Tours and Rentals

And what about Bicitaxis?

How about a form of transportation which is clean, generates little congestion, and can even be a tourist attraction? 

Sounds ideal. But Bogotá's response is: Don't allow them!

Thousands of bicitaxis, or bike taxis, operate in Bogotá, carrying people for short distances, often near Transmilenio stations. Unfortunately, they're not recognized by the vehicle code, and are therefore illegal. Still, in many neighborhoods, the police have tolerated the bicitaxis and let them work. But a new version of the Transit Code would reportedly ban the bicitaxis completely.

As it is, the bicitaxi operators, who are generally poor people and often displaced victims of Colombia's violence, often get hassled by police and sometimes their vehicles are even impounded. The bicitaxi operators have protested many times, demanding that the vehicle code be amended to recognize their vehicles, but without luck. 

Unfortunately, pedal taxi operators don't have powerful allies, while their enemies, the regular taxi drivers, do. It's long been a general suspicion that the organizations of regular taxi drivers have blocked the bicitaxis' legalization.  

Perhaps some sane politician will choose public interest over politics and take a stand for these humble, hard-working people who are providing such a good service.