by Juan Manuel Sáenz
People usually says that if you can drive in the wild streets of Bogotá, you could drive anywhere in the world, I would add to this phrase "especially if you are on a bicycle." In this city of 7 million inhabitants in the middle of Colombia, with more than 55,000 taxis (of which only 30,000 are legally registered), more that 18,000 buses of different kinds, and more than a million private cars roaming the streets, when you are a bike commuter you have to deal with the same risks that bike commuters of the world do, but augmented by the life threatening maneuvers of local drivers.
Bogotá's drivers have a culture of disrespect to traffic laws that causes more than 56,000 accidents per year, killing about 900 people among pedestrians, drivers, passengers and cyclists--every year.
Despite these numbers, there is a great cycling culture in the city. Twenty-five years ago, the city administration started a car free program called "Ciclovia" that today moves more than a million people every Sunday. Some main streets of the city are closed to cars from 7:00 am to 2:00 pm, and cyclists, skaters, joggers and people with their kids or walking their dogs take the streets for themselves. It's astonishing to see the difference between traffic jams and gridlocks of weekdays, and amusing find small traffic jams of bicycles on the same streets on the Sunday's Ciclovia. It's something worth seeing to believe it, and is one of the big attractions of the city.
Located in the Andean mountains at 2,600 meters of altitude, most of the surface of Bogota is flat, which helps cycling--you don't have to climb a lot, and also if you go at a normal pace you won't sweat as the average temperature is 14ºC / 57ºF. Rain is normal during the year but with some specially wet months and some other very dry months, and you could also find very high and very low temperatures on a single day. Cycling in Bogota doesn't have a lot of real obstacles because of the environmental conditions; the only difficulties are in the minds of people who think that bicycles are just for kids and professional competition cyclists and not for mobilizing themselves around the city
Bogotá is one of the most polluted cities of the continent, in big part because of the chaotic transportation system that only in recent years is starting to change. With the introduction of an enormous mass transportation system called "Transmilenio" and the construction of almost 200 kilometers of bike paths, the most recent city administrations have tried to dissuade citizens from using their own cars and to promote commuting by bus or bicycle and car pools.
Bogota has organized 3 successful Car Free Days that took place on a weekday, creating a great example for the world. On these days sound and pollution levels have gone remarkably down and accidents and fatalities were almost zero. After the first CFD the mayor called for a referendum in which the people decided to formalize CFD for the second Thursday of every February.
Long term change is starting to happen in the city. This year there was an 107% increase in the usage of bike paths. The carnival feeling of the first two experiences was changed, and people lived this day as a normal day without their cars. The 2002 CFD was promoted as a very productive day for the city--the only ones irritated by it were those whose business are related to cars, such as car washes, gas stations, car parts and accessories retailers, etc. The rest of business ran normally or without many variations.
The driving culture and road rage of Bogotá has demanded that bike paths cannot be constructed sharing the streets with automobiles, otherwise cyclists would be in great danger. For this reason most bike paths are completely separated from cars, on sidewalks or street divisions. This is considered as an advantage for cyclists as we can go faster and safer, but still we have to fight for our place on the streets without bike paths with drivers who look at cyclists as a second class citizens
The number of bike commuters is constantly increasing along with Transmilenio users. For cyclists there is a real problem that we are facing that prevents people from using their bicycle. At this moment we have a good network of bike paths so we have the possibility to get from one place to another in a safer way, but the number of bike parking facilities is very low, as is acceptance of bicycles in buildings and normal private parking lots.
The city administration has created a broad "Bike Paths Master Plan" but we can't see the results in our daily life as education of drivers, cyclists and pedestrians is very poor. So, we live in conflict one against the other, some drivers thinking that cyclists can't use the streets anymore because of the bike paths, some pedestrians prefering to walk on bike paths than on the sidewalks, and some cyclist not respecting traffic rules and riding in a dangerous way.
The city administration has a lot of work to do in order to change this situation. It looks like they have the desire to do it, but things are moving very slowly now. Some Non Governmental cycling related Organizations have been created in Bogota, and cyclists are organizing themselves in order to follow execution of cycling projects, and making proposals to improve the conditions offered to cyclists in the city.
That's the cycling environment of Bogota. There are a lot of factors that are favorable for cycling and some others that are against it, but the majority of people believe that it is possible to continue building a city where both cars and bicycles fit in, and one that is friendly to everyone.
Juan Manuel Sáenz is the founder and director of BICIBOGOTA, a community of cyclists of Bogotá since 2001.