Bogota’s a pretty good city for cycling, as big cities go.
Ciclovia
The best thing it has going on is called Ciclovia, which happens when several of the major streets throughout the city are closed on Sundays and holidays from 7:00 AM till 2:00 PM and it’s cyclists (mostly), roller bladers, and walkers only. All kinds of people show up, whole families sometimes, people running, walking, blading. There’s a separate post on Ciclovia.
Ciclorutas
Ciclorutas are bike lanes. There is a series of them throughout the city, and they do a fairly good (though not excellent) job of connecting to one another.
Unlike in the US, these lanes aren’t in the streets, but instead are on the sidewalks.
This is both good and bad. The good is that, as a cyclist, your competition is with pedestrians rather than automobiles. The bad is that, lots of times, there are THOUSANDS of pedestrians, so the competition is fierce. You might have to be prepared to shout people out of your way 10 or more times per block. Some streets with bike lanes, like Calle 100, are so loaded with people trying to catch buses and make their way down the sidewalk that the cyclist might as well walk. I’ve fought my way down Calle 100 in the afternoon with a whistle and lots of shouting, but if possible, I just avoid it.
Occasionally there will be a street with a nice wide median, and the bike lanes are in the medians–these are the best. But more often, the bike lanes will simply be in the middle of the sidewalk. The lanes are blacktop in the middle of concrete or brick sidewalks, and are very clearly marked. This doesn’t keep pedestrians from using them, however, so you have to be really alert the entire time you are on a city sidewalk.
Also unusual, if a street has a bike lane, it’s on one side of the sidewalk in both directions. So, on the Once (Carrera 11), for example, you use the bike lane on the west side of the street, whether you are headed north or south.
If you need to go somewhere that the cicloruta won’t take you, you are on your own to compete with the traffic, just like in the US. The difference is that in Bogota the roads NEVER have shoulders, never have a few inches to spare in any of the lanes, and are in bad shape almost always. So, it’s not easy. Thousands of people do it, however.
Who Rides a Bike in this City???
I like to ride to work when I can, and it takes me 1.5 hours to ride from my apartment in Rosales to my school in the north of the city. It’s 12 miles one-way, but I go a back route to be able to keep on ciclorutas for the most part and to avoid the heaviest traffic. The morning ride is fairly pleasant, though I would never call it peaceful. Even at 6:00AM, there are a lot of people out. At one point, I have to cut through a hole in a fence in order to walk across a field to the dirt road where my school is located.
In the afternoon, coming home, it’s more of a challenge, but I also don’t usually have a deadline to meet. So, I take time and try to relax, sometimes stopping to check out what’s happening in certain neighborhoods.
The incredible thing is that there are MANY, MANY cyclists in this city, even though it’s really a challenge to be one. I think they fall into three groups:
- about 10% of them are very serious cyclists who have the great bikes and all the gear, and are out to train whenever possible, so if that means riding hard on the Autopista and dodging buses to get to work, that’s what they do.
- another 20% are folks like me, who know what they are doing and are out for exercise and maybe to get to work, but aren’t cycling maniacs. I have a decent bike, and some good equipment, so I consider myself moderately serious, but not fanatic. We ride when we can, but if circumstances make it too difficult, we give it up without too much problem.
- probably 70% of the people out there are ones who have to use their bikes for transportation, because they don’t have cars and maybe can’t really afford the bus, either. These come in all shapes and sizes, and their bikes are usually whatever they can afford, so might not be in great shape. These guys probably don’t wear helmets and don’t pay such great attention to conditions, so are the ones most likely to lose a battle with a car or bus.
Bicicycle Shops in Bogota
Like with most businesses in this city, you can find bike shops all over, but there is also a district where you will find them lined up end to end, and you can wander from one to the other to compare products and prices. The bicycle district is basically just south of the neighborhood known as Siete de Agosto (7th of August), roughly around Calle 68 and between Carreras 24 and 30. There’s another bike district nearby at about Calle 63 with Carrera 24. These districts are fairly near El Campin, which is the huge soccer stadium.
Like with everything in Botota (and the rest of Colombia and the rest of Latin America), prices in the bike shops are negotiable. You can get a good bike for a decent price, if you are willing to buy a national (Colombian) brand. You also choose your frame and then choose all the components, and add up the price as you go. There’s just about always a 10% or more discount for paying cash, since somebody will get to pocket all or part of the money. Imports are available, but expensive and hard to find.
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