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Bicycles are an important a part of the Colombian id — ubiquitous, cheaper and, in some city communities, typically a quicker strategy to get round.
No Colombian metropolis embodies using on two wheels greater than the capital, Bogotá, the place the metropolitan space of almost 11 million inhabitants has no subway system and among the world’s worst visitors jams.
The town has over 1.1 million bicycles, in response to officers, and information almost 900,000 bicycle journeys per day. On Sundays and holidays, greater than 80 miles of main streets are shut down, a convention that commonly attracts two million folks at a time.
“It’s the D.N.A. of this metropolis,” mentioned Bogotá’s mayor, Carlos Fernando Galán.
However quite a few robberies and assaults of cyclists this yr have left many riders in Bogotá on edge. A current information report estimated {that a} bicycle was stolen within the capital each 42 minutes and small gangs of thieves have focused cyclists.
“The insecurity for cyclists is at a most excessive,” mentioned Yim Ángel, a founding father of the Bicycle Collective, an advocacy group. “Cyclists contribute to the atmosphere, to transportation, to well being, to sports activities, to recreation. However on this second, we don’t have a assure of safety to maneuver round freely in Bogotá. We’re scared.”
Bicyclists, from on a regular basis commuters to die-hard riders, and advocacy teams have demanded that the town do extra to make the town safer for them, and Mr. Galán, who took workplace in January, mentioned officers have been already exploring quite a lot of steps.
Whereas police information reveals that bike thefts have dropped in recent times, an increase in some forms of violent crimes in Bogotá final yr, like robberies, sexual assaults and carjackings, has fueled rising issues that the sprawling metropolis is changing into much less protected, together with for cyclists.
Including to the uneasiness has been a string of violent crimes, together with the killing of a businessman and a number of armed robberies, in additional prosperous and often quieter elements of the town.
Mr. Galan, in an interview, mentioned he anxious that elevated worry was inflicting folks to desert extra environmentally pleasant methods to maneuver round Bogotá.
“There are a lot of individuals who can do journeys of 4, 5, six blocks from dwelling to work or to go purchase one thing, however right this moment they’re doing it by automotive, but may very well be doing it by bicycle or on foot,” he mentioned. “That’s why, for us, safety is a elementary precedence.”
David Santiago Cortés Peña, 23, who runs a bicycle store in Bogotá and rode on an expert biking staff final yr, set out just lately on a roughly 30-mile coaching trip to a city outdoors the town.
Round 5:30 a.m., en path to assembly mates on the base of the mountain close to the place he lives, Mr. Cortés mentioned a person jumped out from behind a tree at nighttime. He tried to maneuver across the man, however he mentioned the person fired at him, a bullet grazing his eyebrow and forcing him off his bike.
As he lay bleeding on the bottom, Mr. Cortés mentioned, he noticed the person racing off together with his bicycle, which price him $3,500. To pay for it, he had taken out a mortgage, bought some belongings and obtained assist from his older brother.
“It was an effort by the entire household throughout a whole yr to pay it off,” he mentioned.
He had insurance coverage for his bicycle, however it had lapsed in December and he had not renewed the coverage. He had additionally determined it was getting too costly to pay for one thing that many superior riders within the metropolis use — a bike escort.
As of late, Mr. Cortés is utilizing a borrowed bike, and mentioned he would trip solely in daytime and would rent an escort.
“I’ll find yourself with out financial savings,’’ he mentioned, “however it’s higher for security.”
Luis Fernando Guarin, 37, was not on a coaching trip when he fell sufferer. He was doing what many in Bogotá use their bicycles for: commuting to and from work. He mentioned a nine-mile journey every manner that may take two hours by public bus takes half that point pedaling on two wheels.
“It additionally de-stresses me,” mentioned Mr. Guarin, who works for a telecommunications firm.
He was using dwelling on a current Friday night time on a bicycle path alongside a serious street when, he mentioned, he was accosted by 4 males who jumped out from behind some bushes making an attempt to rob him. When he resisted, Mr. Guarin mentioned, he was stabbed twice within the stomach earlier than his attackers made off together with his bike.
He tried to file a police report on-line from his cellphone whereas on the hospital and at dwelling, however he mentioned the web site to enter such reviews was not working. He additionally by no means made it to a police station to do it in particular person. Even when he had logged a report, Mr. Guarin mentioned, he had little religion that his bike can be recovered.
The town operates a bicycle register designed to make it simpler to determine stolen bikes and return them to their house owners. Up to now, 400,000 bikes have been registered, in response to Mr. Galán, the mayor, who wish to see that quantity rise considerably.
Of the 1,100 bikes stolen within the metropolis within the first two months of this yr, solely about 15 % have been recovered, he mentioned. Specialists mentioned many thefts may very well be thwarted if cyclists locked their bikes or used stronger locks once they weren’t using.
Mr. Ángel, who helped type the bicycle advocacy group a number of years in the past after the deadly taking pictures of a bike owner in Bogotá, mentioned his group had postponed two current protest rallies after holding discussions with officers about bettering bicycle security.
The group has pushed 10 suggestions, a few of which mirror what the town is contemplating putting in within the coming months.
Mr. Galán rattled off a listing of doable steps: specializing in the 5 neighborhoods the place the vast majority of bike robberies happen; growing police presence on essential roads; putting in extra avenue cameras and lights; making it simpler to file police reviews; and growing the punishment for robberies as a stronger deterrence.
Andrea María Navarrete, who was the town’s biking supervisor from 2021 to 2023, mentioned making biking safer would additionally to assist deal with a big gender disparity amongst cyclists and encourage extra ladies to bike.
“If ladies don’t understand threat within the infrastructure, which means everybody will get pleasure from it,” she mentioned.
Mr. Galán promised to construct on the town’s mobility achievements to develop into “the bicycle capital of the world.”
“I do know many individuals will criticize that saying, ‘With a lot insecurity, how will you say that?’” he added. “It’s true: We’ve got safety issues that we’re making an attempt to resolve. And we now have to maintain increasing the bike paths and bike lanes so folks can transfer round. This metropolis has a really particular connection to the bicycle.”
Simón Posada contributed reporting.
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