Streetsblog gushes over the bike-friendly nature of Bogotá , including this great bike parking facility (known as a “cicloparqueadero”):
This is an interesting case of the different approaches to transportation policy between the developed and underdeveloped world; unlike in car-saturated North America, where pro-bike policies are designed to reduce pollution or congestion, here they are justified by city officials as helpful in reducing the public transit load:
“For every 25 people who ride bikes to the terminal,” Gil said, “That is one less ‘feeder bus’ we need to run through the neighborhoods. You do the math and pretty quickly you see it makes financial sense to set aside some space and hire a security guard to help people to ride their bikes.”
I was in Colombia several years back; my most prominent bike-related memory was the visible change as we crossed the border. In oil-producing Venezuela, where gasoline costs less than water, mopeds and scooters were everywhere; in oil-poor Colombia, they were replaced by bicycles.
