'The Bicycle as an Alternative' to Bogotá's Traffic Jams

'The Bicycle as Alternative' to Bogotá's Traffic Jams'

Today's El Tiempo editorialized in favor of promoting bicycling as a transport alternative, by building more bike parking lots and bike lanes. Bicycling is a "healthy and free-moving form of transport, whose use doesn't produce congestion and if friendly to the environment."

They're completely correct, of course - but the ambitious editorial and Bogotá's still-enduring reputation as a cycling-friendly city make the reality all the more sad. Certainly, Mayor Peñalosa did make Bogotá a pioneer - but the city's lagged since then, and its few recent efforts have been half-hearted.

A cyclist enters a public bike parking facility near La Candelaria.

The ground floor of the two-story parking building. 

A few years ago, this bike parking building opened near the Las Aguas TransMilenio station - altho only after years of delay. The building is also unnecessarily expensive and its design could be much better - but it seems to be a success. Today a guard told me that they get about 200 users a day, who park their bikes free of charge. If a significant proportion of those people are using their bikes because of the convenient and free parking, then I bet it's a good deal for the city in reduced pollution, congestion and improved health, not to mention for the cyclists themselves.

But only a few TransMilenio stations offer bicycle parking. Simple bike racks, located near security guards, at all TransMilenio stations would give a big boost to cycling. Why the city hasn't done this is beyond my comprehension. 

But this just-finished TransMilenio station on 26th St. and Carrera Decima - located right above a Cicloruta - appears to lack bike parking. 

A free bike lending program on the closed portion of Seventh Ave. 

Cyclists pedaling on a portion of Ave. Septima closed to cars while the bridge over 26th Street is replaced. 

Unfortunately, Septima looks to be reopened soon, meaning that cyclists will once again suffer, like this guy on the nearby 19th St. 

This homeless man found a home - in one of Bogotá's Ciclorutas, or bike lanes.

Unfortunately, recent mayors have done little to expand or even maintain Bogotá's once-vaunted bike lane network. This guy, one of many who camp or park cars in the bike lane behind the Central Cemetery, is indicative of the importance which officialdom gives to cyclists' needs.

A bus belches smoke today on Ave. 19. 

Can't help leaving out this photo I tood this afternoon. Why would anybody subject themself to toxic chemical attack?

By Mike Ceaser of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Bicycle Not Built for Three

'Share Your Car' - if only they would. 

During a bike tour today, we met these three young people in the Santa Fe neighborhood. Bogotá's  government has started a well-meaning by pointless campaign to get people to share their cars - something which will happen only if they create real incentives or fines to spur people to change their driving habits. But these three did the city's campaign one better, by sharing their bike. In a city with low rates of car ownership and high rates of poverty, this sort of bike sharing is a common sight. I often see parents pedaling home with schoolchildren perched on the bike's bar or on the back - and sometimes even both places.

Making a special delivery near Palo Quemao Market.

On a bicycle built for three. 

'Move Yourself - Enjoy the Open Air.'

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Can You Steer After One Beer?

Congress is considering commendable but long-overdue legislation to crack down on drunk drivers, which kills and injures many people every year in Colombia - and frequently go unpunished. And alcohol unquestionably kills and injures many cyclists - Mio newspaper reports that 15 cyclists have died so far this year because of drunk riding, and 43 were injured while pedaling under the influence. Undoubtedly, those numbers are only a fraction of the real toll, and that many more bicyclists have been killed and injured by drunk drivers. (Tragically, drunk drivers often get off with light punishments or none at all, even when they kill people, because of corruption or a general belief that drunkenness is all in good fun, and that whatever one does while drunk is forgiveable.) 

What strikes me as unwise and unrealistic about this law, particularly for cyclists, is the very low threshold to be legally inebriated, which the newspaper says can be violated by drinking only a single beer or a beer and a half. Whether that's a reasonable limit for car drivers, I can't say. But it sure seems low for cyclists, which move much slower than cars and pose much less danger for pedestrians and others. Getting caught could mean a fine of 850,000 pesos, or close to $500.000 - a lot of money for cyclists, who generally are poor or lower middle class. 

In any case, the legislation will have a tough time passing: A congresswoman who advocates for victims of drunk driving recently charged that many of her colleagues don't want to crack down on drunk driving because they do it themselves.   

Cyclists risk their lives in Bogotá's chaotic traffic even when they're not drunk. 

by Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Bicycle's (Tiny) Corner

Restoring a classic bike. (Photo: El Tiempo)

In what seems like a commendable move, El Tiempo, Colombia's biggest newspaper, has added a regular Saturday page called 'The Bicycle Corner,' about urban cycling. Past weeks' stories have been about a women's cycling club, folding bikes and the new bike lane on Calle 26; This week's is about a group of classic bike fans.

Can you see 'The Bicycle's Corner'
amidst all those car ads?

So, good for El Tiempo for dedicating a bit of its real estate to sustainable transport. Still, it looks like a lonely business, and I'm afraid that the label of 'corner' is all too appropriate, considering the overwhelming amount of car culture and propaganda in the paper. Today's paper, for example, includes a 16-page section called 'Vehicles,' mostly about cars, trucks and motorcycles. And that's beside all the car advertisements which fill the paper every day.

'Women on Bikes' (Photo: El Tiempo)

By Mike Ceaser of Bogota Bike Tours

Goodbye to Bogotá's Best 'Bike Lane'

Cyclists ride in the TransMilenio lanes on 26th St., with a TM station on one side and Bogotá's Eastern Hills behind. 

A poster made by the Institute of
Recreation and Sports (the IDRD),
reminding cyclists not to ride in the
TransMilenio lanes as of June 30. 

For the past year or so, thanks to delays in putting the new TransMilenio line on 26th St. into operation, the unused lanes have been a de-facto bike lane - Bogotá's widest, straightest and most uncluttered bike lane, in fact.

But with the planned (partial) opening of the new TM line tomorrow - only about two years late - this will end. The avenue will have a bike lane designed to be a bike lane. It's a good lane, but of course it is narrower, and also shifts from the sidewalk to the center of the avenue. 

A crowd inaugurating a new TransMilenio station.

A pair of cyclists stopped in the new bike lane, or Cicloruta, in the center of 26th St. along this stretch.

By Mike Ceaser of Bogota Bike Tours

Pedicabers Protest For Their Right To Pedal

Colorful pedicabs lined up in front of the Palacio de Justicia on Plaza Bolivar. 

The other day, Plaza Bolivar's look changed more radically than it has since the zorreros protested, as hundreds of pedicab drivers occupied the square demanding their right to work. 

Two pedicab drivers. 

In fact, thousands of pedicabs, called bicitaxis, operate throughout Bogotá, carrying passengers on short trips, often less than a mile, between TransMilenio stations and nearby destinations. The pedicabs are a cheap, efficient, non-polluting transport mode which cause little congestion - in particular, because they often combine passengers who arrive separately, something normal taxis can't do. 

Dozens of pedicabs and their drivers in front of Congress. 

Ideal, right? Except that the pedicabs are technically illegal. Their drivers complain that police sometimes harass them and even confisticate their vehicles.

The only explanation I've been able to get for this perverse situation is the political pressure from conventional taxi drivers, who see the pedicabs as a threat. Perhaps they are, altho only in a very minor, limited way. But city leaders need to defy the taxistas lobby and do what's best for the city by legalizing and supporting the pedicabs. In addition to issues of transit and serving the public, the pedicab drivers are poor men with very limited skills and education. If they lose their way of life, many families will likely go hungry. 

Pedaling across the plaza. 

Transit officials on two wheels look over the protest march, which also included many other organizations. 

A late arrival pedals up. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogota Bike Tours

More Bike Lanes for Bogotá?

Studying a map of proposed bicycle lanes in the IDU this morning. 

A cyclist steers around pedestrians on a
sidewalk bike lane in central Bogotá.

The administration of Mayor Gustavo Petro, who recently said that pedestrians should have top transit priority, followed by cyclists, then public transit and then finally private cars, has proposals to build close to 200 kms of new bicycle lanes. At a meeting this morning in the Urban Development Institute (IDU), officials said they're studying some 185 kms of new bike lanes and evaluating whether they'd be on sidewalks, as many existing lanes are, or on streets, as the mayor has proposed.

Each design has problems: Many sidewalk lanes consist of little more than stripes painted on the pavement and cyclists have to dodge pedestrians, potholes and delivery vehicles. But if the lanes are in the street, cyclists will have to battle cars and motorcycles, which will certainly not respect cyclists' territory. And, it puts cyclists in the direct aim of exhaust pipes connected to motors burning dirty fuel and lacking pollution controls.

The sort sidewalk 'cicloruta,' or bike lane, which we don't need. 

What happens when bike lanes are in the street: This truck found this bike lane to be a good place to park. 

Two of the streets proposed for new bike lanes are Carrera Septima and Calle 19.

Ave. Septima might have room for a bike lane, particularly if the city builds a light rail line down its middle. 

But where would a bike lane fit on Calle 19?

And how many cyclists would dare to ride up the street behind smoke-spouting vehicles like these?



I made these two videos today, in a period of about twenty minutes - and they were only two of many smog belching vehicles I saw.

Priorities for cyclists? On 19th a cyclist waits for a long time for a chance to cross.

Finally, he grabs a chance to cross. 

Once across, he continues on the sidewalk. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours