Tough Times for the Cycling Federation

Nairo Quintana, champion and cycling federation critic.

Lack of support for cyclists, poor preparation for competitions, measly prize money and opaque finances.

The 89-year-old Colombian Federation of Cycling is passing through troubled times, if you believe its critics.

The most prominent of those critics is Nairo Quintana, winner of the tours of Spain and Italy.

The league “doesn't send all the athletes (that it could to races), doesn't provide financial support, doesn't publicize its accounts and doesn't provide support," to riders, Quintana said.

Recently, in fact, the Vuelta a Tolima was canceled because the federation had not

BMX champion Mariana Pajón defends the federation.

obtained the necessary permits. And, in another race, riders had to pedal through mud and evade potholes. 

In additional, critics call the federation's anti-doping efforts weak. Two months ago, Coldeportes' anti-doping laboratory was shut down because it did not meet international standards.

Many also called the planned prize money for women in the canceled Tolima tour inadequate: Only 70,000 pesos, or about US $25, for stage winners and 600,000 pesos, or $210, for the tour winner.

Paradoxically, the federation charges cyclists 680,000 pesos for racing licenses, reportedly one of the highest rates in the world, and wealthy corporate sponsors.

Quintana had also opposed the election in January of Jorge Ovidio González, a veteran cycling official, as federation president. Some alleged that González bought votes with favors and are attempting to annul the election.

But Colombian BMX champion Mariana Pajón, winner of two Olympic gold medals, criticized Quintana in an audio message which she sent to her father but was leaked to the media.

"It makes me sad, because a person such as Nairo should be careful of what he says," she said, and suggested that Quintana was bitter because his candidate for federation president was defeated. Pajón's father is a federation official.

Pajón acknowledged that there were problems, but said that the federation could not support all racers.

Federation president González also said that Quintana was misinformed about subjects such as racers' health insurance.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Importance of Pruning

Can you see the lane below those branches?

 The bike lane on Calle 39 created last year was a useful addition for Bogotá cyclists, asi it connects the 11th-Street bike lane (and the Parque Nacional) to Teusaquillo and the Parkway. (That it is one of the few bike lanes which take space from cars instead of pedestrians is another positive.)

Since then, however, the lane has been neglected. On its first segment, to Caracas Avenue, the median strip's trees have extended their branches across the lane, and into cyclilsts' faces - a situation which would never be tolerated in a lane for cars.

This bicyclist didn't even use the new lane.

Now it's safe to return to the lane.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Milas' Mobile Bicycle Workshop

The Mila brothers don't limit themselves to two-wheeled vehicles.

Still hard at work after dark.

Last year, Jason Mila, 29, was one more young Colombian without employment. A resident of the poor Dorado hillside neighborhood, his poor public school school education didn't qualify him for much.

But Jason owned a street vendors' cart, and knew how to repair bikes. Today, he and his brothers, all of whom have experience with bicycles, including working for Bogotá Bike Tours, are operating a successful mobile bike repair cart along the pedestrianized stretch of Carrera Septima.

Bicycle rush hour on Carrera Septima.

Theirs is a long workday - often stretching from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. to catch the rush hours - but it makes them part of Bogotá's expanding bicycle economy, which has seen a proliferation of such temporary, mobile workshops in recent years. And they also do house calls. (Call them at 321-995-9261.)

Repair stands such as Jason's occupy a legal grey area. Despite the valuable service they perform for clean transit, and the employment they generate for low-skilled people, the stands generally lack business licenses and occupy public space. Fortunately, the police don't appear to be cracking down on them. Jason believes he knows why - his clients include bicycle-riding cops.

Update: But recently city rule-enforcers have been hassling the brothers, forcing them to be truly mobile, as they scurry from spot to spot.

'You guys gotta move!' City employees with Bogota Mejor, (Better Bogotá) tell the brothers that they have to remove themselves from Carrera Septima. Repairing bikes is an obvious threat to social wellbeing.

The Milas' sign, pointing to their workshop, now located off of Carrera Septima. The Better Bogotá people have saved the avenue from the threat of bicycle repairs!

Not only tools in this cart.

A bike repair stand beside the Universidad Pedagogica...

...and another in the Centro Internacional.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Bicycle Promotion Law

Cyclists in a bike lane in north Bogotá.

A law approved by Parliament this week promotes bicycle use - but only half-heartedly.

The instructs mass transit agencies to provide bike parking, but doesn't appear to specify exactly how much parking, or what sort of conditions. Bogotá's TransMilenio has some impressive, massive bike parking lots on end-line stations - but the great majority of stations have no bike parking at all. Will this actually be enforced, or will transit agencies just plop a cheap bike rack in a back lot somewhere?

The law also requires government agencies - but not private companies - to provide bike parking equal to 10% of their car parking. That's not a lot, and it only covers public agencies. So, it's a step forward, but only a small one.

The law includes some interesting incentives. Those who travel to the public bus systems by bike for

Biking down Carrera Septima.

30 days get one free bus ride. That's not much, but it's something. And public workers who commute by bike are to get a paid afternoon off for every 30 bike commutes.

Transit systems are also supposed to try to make arrangements for riders to travel with their bicycles, as well as equip vehicles with bike racks. Will transit systems cooperate with this? How many cyclists would risk mounting their bike on the back of a bus, within reach of thieves at every stoplight?

A parked vehicle blocks a bike lane.
Enforcing traffic laws might help.

The new bike law is a step forward, at least as a public signal that the nation does support two-wheeled transit. But it also falls way short - primarily in its failure to include private companies in its policies. I suppose that the parliamentarians didn't want to make enemies.

The law also has a huge failure. Apparently (I've read only news reports about it), the law doesn't bother to define a bicycle as a 'motorless vehicle powered by its rider.' Doing that would finally ban those polluting, dangerous motorized bikes from bike lanes, sidewalks and La Ciclovia.

Still a bicycle? A noisy, polluting bike-with-a-motor.

Steps Forward, Steps Back

In the year or so since my camera broke and I got too busy to blog, Bogotá has moved forward on some bike issues - and backward on others.

They've added bike lanes - some of which are actually useful and well-used.

A new bike lane in Teusaquillo actually demands respect for cyclists.

But here's what traffic does to the lane. (Spot the cyclist trying to cross Avenida Caracas.)

And which transit genius decided that nobody would ever want to enter the lane from the west?

And here's a lane along Calle 11 in north Bogotá. It's satisfying pedaling past cars stuck in traffic.

But I just wish they'd keep the motorized bikes out of the lanes...

More to the south, the lane still runs on the sidewalk. Here's a rare sight: a bicycle traffic jam.

And, finally after years satisfying what's a personal issue of mine, after years of delay and mulitple complaints from cyclists, the city's transit geniuses finally decided that cyclistas had the right to safely cross this street behind the Central Cemetery. Until they retimed the lights, giving cyclists and pedestrians time to cross. They even added a signal for cyclists.

Green means go for cyclists.

But that doesn't stop cars from parking in the bike lanes.

Previously, as soon as the cars driving north across the bike lane stopped, other cars immediately starting turning left across the lane. That left no time between car traffic for bikes or pedestrians to cross, generating constant conflicts between cyclists and motorists. 

But the news isn't so great for public bikes. 

A few months ago, then-new Mayor Enrique Peñalosa - who campaigned for mayor on a bike - terminate the IDRD's bike lending programs on Carrera 7, in the Universidad Nacional and Parque El Virrey. Apparently, the program cost too much. 

The program was, irrationaly, limited. You coul not pick up a bike in one part of the city and drop it off in another, for example. But it was Bogotá's only public bikes lending program. 

That was then: Public bikes on Carrera Septima.

Where are they now? Rusting away somewhere.

And the city's much-vaunted general public bikes program, which Mayor Petro issued the contract for last year?

Not a single bike has hit a street. That's not surprising, since neither the Colombian nor the Chinese companies which one the contract had experience with bicycles, the Colombian partner had been involved in two corruption scandals, and the contract's business model was totally unrealistic. (The contractee was supposed to pay the city, whereas just about everywhere else, public bikes lending schemes lose money and are either subsidized by their cities or receive lots of advertising income.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogota Bike Tours

Laws for Biking?

It has an engine, burns fuel, belches smoke and goes vroom. So is it a bicycle or a motorcycle? 

Colombian lawmakers are considering pro-cycling laws right now - but unfortunately they likely won't get much priority - and lots of opposition.

A bici-motor in a downtown bike lane.

One would prohibit bicycles equipped with motors from bike lanes. It might just seem like common sense that a bicycle with a motor is, by definition, a motorcycle. However, because the motors' have less than 50 cc of displacement, the city's motor vehicle laws don't cover them, That's despite their being very noisy and often generating more pollution than a car, since their two-stroke engines burn oil.

One complication with banning the motorized bikes from bike lanes is distinguishing them from electric bikes, which are also motor-powered, but don't pollute or make much noise and go much slower than gasoline-powered motor-bikes. The electric bikes aren't a problem, the gasoline-powered ones are.

In any case, if this legislation nears becoming law, you can expect the motor-bikes' makers and users to scream that barring them from bike lanes violates their human rights. But that's not all. Even when they're on the street, they should be equipped with anti-pollution devices and their riders should be licensed.

A second law, in Congress, is intended to promote cycling - actually has some good things: It would provide some financial incentives, albeit small ones, for frequent cyclists, and would also give extra time off for public employees who commute by bike.

Unfortunately, the benefits are slight compared to the huge subsidies given to motor vehicles, such as free parking and subsidized fuel - not to mention the non-stop onslaught of pro-car propaganda.

The law's most important benefit might be a change of mentality legitimizing bike commuting in a climate where many workplaces provide no place for bike parking, much less showers or a changing room.

Businesses will undoubtedly oppose this legislation, as more costs and government regulation. This despite the fact that more bike commuters means healthier employees, and each worker who switches from driving to cycling can mean big savings in less parking.

By Mike Ceaser of Bogota Bike Tours

Petro's Polemic Bike Lanes

Cars wait beside an empty bike lane on Calle 39, in Teusaquillo.

Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro is using the last months of his term to add bike lanes to some of the city's avenues - and earning ire for it. Neighbors and motorists have complained and even organized protests against proposed lanes.

But isn't there a logical flaw here? Drivers complain because they feel that bike lanes steal space from them, slowing them down and increasing congestion.

Cars stuck in a traffic jam beside a bike lane on Calle 24. None of these people could have used a bicycle instead?

But don't these lanes, rather, offer an escape route from the inevitable and worsening traffic jams? The number of private cars in Bogotá is booming, and a first subway line - which won't solve traffic congestion, anyway - is more than a decade away. City leaders are afraid of the only realistic solution, a congestion charge. So, the bike lanes are commuters only real escape hatch from traffic jams.

Instead of complaining about traffic jams, drivers should start taking advantage of them. And they should remember that each of those annoying cyclists is potentially one fewer driver slowing them down.

A cyclist waits for a light to change in a bike lane along the Parkway in Teusaquillo.

A group of cyclists in the new bike lane on Calle 39.

And here's a street, Ave. Caracas, which could use a bike lane.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours