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The Bogota Thread
In the Brooklyn bridge thread Bogota, Colombia was brought up as a shining example of bike friendliness. I mentioned that I would be moving there soon and a few people (dylandom and acavengo) chimed in with stories of the time they spent there. Bogota sounds awesome and I want to know more about cycling there. Rather than jack the BB thread I figured I would just start a new one. Anybody else been there/ride a bike there ever?
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well it's about time we acknowledge the great cycling country of colombia. as my mother said, "i didn't know it was such a drug king country until i came here". well i actually fell in love with bikes there. we used old bikes that were way to big for us and we would ride down the dirt road to the "river". no oceans unless u live in the coasts but there sure are a lot of rivers". it's great. i know in cali there is a velo where i would go and check out these crazy colombians tear it up. and they aren't like americans who wear helmets, these guys would be shirtless, sometimes shoeless, and possibly caring a baby on the top tube. i kidd you not. it's like any other third world country. old dusty cars make way for old dusty bikes. u are going to have such a great time. As for fear of people being killed or kidnapped. Crazy. How could they tell. There are a lot of european colombians with blonde hair and blue eyes. Plus ur poor, as long as ur not wearing nikes, ur fine. It's like new york city, don't go walking in the streets alone at night. if u bring ur bike, u can out cycle them. but please let me know how your getting to teach english there. sounds great. colombians love american. i don't know why. and hello did u forget the colombian women. in the latin community, colombians, cubans and p. ricans are the hottest. I am so jealous of u right now.
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Yeah, I am white with blue eyes but like you said so are lots of Colombians. I've been living in Chicago for the last four years so I am not too worried about the city. It seems like Colombia is pretty safe if you stick to cities and try to stay out of FARC territory. Man I am super excited and I know what you mean about the colombian women. My ex-girlfriend is from Bogota and lives there now. She is the one who convinced me to move there by telling me how great it is. I hear that Bogota has a velodrome too but I haven't been able to find much info on the internet. I hear Bogota is pretty hilly and I am worried about riding a fixed gear there. Also the altitude is going to take some getting used to I think. These badasses seem to handle it pretty well though:http://www.latimes.com/travel/destin...coll=la-travel
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Enrique Penalosa is the mayor who made the TransMileno and other awesome sustainable transport projects happen. His term ran out, and he is now a visiting scholar at NYU. He does guest lectures, and has done free consulting work for other cities who want to implement similar things (Pune, India for example). Google his name. He does cool stuff not just in cycling, but in pedestrian infrastructure and mass transit.
All around stand-up chappie. |
My dad grew up in Colombia. He tells me stories of riding 18km up a dirt mountain road on his single speed road bike. back then deraillers were for the pro's.
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bonelesschicken, Bogotá is indeed *very* hilly. In certain parts it would be an understatement to call it hilly b/c you'll be going up some big mountains. I don't know much about the bike scene there now, but I am sure you'll find it when you get there. From your previous comments it is hard to tell if you have ever been there, but if you haven't I think you will find that it is not third world like people often think all of South America is.
As for the altitude, you are definitely going to feel it, but with time you will get used to it. I remember how at the beginning of summers I would get winded doing normal activities like going up a few flight of stairs, but by the end of the summer I was good to go and by the time I got back to Miami (talk about a contrast in altitudes) I was in great shape. dylandom, having grown up in Miami I can't say I agree with you on the Cuban women. And how can you leave out the Venezuelans, I think they have some of the hottest women. |
Originally Posted by genericbikedude
Enrique Penalosa is the mayor who made the TransMileno and other awesome sustainable transport projects happen. His term ran out, and he is now a visiting scholar at NYU. He does guest lectures, and has done free consulting work for other cities who want to implement similar things (Pune, India for example). Google his name. He does cool stuff not just in cycling, but in pedestrian infrastructure and mass transit.
All around stand-up chappie. |
Originally Posted by acavengo
From your previous comments it is hard to tell if you have ever been there, but if you haven't I think you will find that it is not third world like people often think all of South America is.
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Originally Posted by shishi
+1, this guy did some crazy sh*t, as far as how fast he changed Bogota's transportation infrastructure (cars, bus, peds, walking, running, cycling) RBT has finally been introduced here in NYC and the plan is sitting on my desk, I have not read it yet, but this would be the first big change in NYC...
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Originally Posted by genericbikedude
can you "leak" this NYC RBT plan? sounds like it would need some pretty radical changes -- good radical changes -- to make such a thing viable, at least in manhattan.
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Oh gosh how I miss Colombia.... I did 2 pro kite flying tours there in 94 and 96. Medillin, Bogota, Tunja, Villa De Lava. (yeah, I used to fly kites by the verrazano). The metro in Medillin just opened and the Simon Bulivar park in Bogota was still under construction. 40,000 people came out to watch and cheer on one day. The people are wonderful, friendly and hospitable, the mayors of each town and city came to greet us, families wanted us to meet their daughters, we ate the local food, aqua diente was passed, people mobbed us for pictures and autographs, we were the "rock stars" of the week. The blonde hair blue eye population was rare, the upper crust, in Medelin, I remember 2 pro cyclist that fit that discription, they were at the sports dorm where we were staying... one would turn out to be Botarro. He said that his dream is to rep colombia in the TDF, he said that he will slay them in the mountains.
Scooters were the transportation of choice, the kids had bmx bikes and a length of rope to tie to and be towed by buses. glad to hear that bikes are more popular, polution was a big problem (esp at those altitudes). Not sure how things are now, but shorts were not acceptable attire, even in August. What will you be doing in Colombia, and how long will you be there? |
btw: as rockstars in the mist of all those lovely Colombia women.... and beer and aqua diente, WOW!!!!!
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popncow, I think you mean aguardiente. A few other misspellings, but since that one is an alcohol I felt it important enough to correct. Good stuff.
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From a report that I'm using for work:
BRT=Bus Rapit Transit NMT=Non-motorized Transport TDM=Traffic Demand Management Estimated Greenhouse Gas Emission Impacts of Bogota's BRT, TDM, and NMT Measures The City of Bogota implemented all three of the measures that will be discussed below: BRT, TDM, and NMT improvements. At the time for which data was available, Bogota had only opened two lines of a planned 22 corridor BRT system. It had also build 200km of a planned 300km of bike lanes. They also expanded numerous sidewalks, added 1100 new parks, shaded promenades, and a 17 kilometer pedestrian zone, the longest in the world. They also imple mented a number of TDM measures. Cars with license plates ending with one of four numbers are not allowed to operate within Bogota during the morning and evening peak, restricting access to 38% of the private vehicle fleet. Parking fees were increased by 100%, gasoline taxes were increased 20%, and bollards preventing people from parking illegally on the sidewalk were constructed. All these measures were promoted by a full car free day, car free Sundays, and other promotional efforts. The effect of these measures on modal split over a 4 year period has already been impressive. The percentage of trips made by private cars and taxis dropped from 19.7% to 17.5%. Public transit passenger trips rose from 67% to 68% of total trips. Bike trips increased from 0.5% of trips to 4% of trips, a remarkable increase in four years. In 2001, the combined BRT, TDM, and NMT measures resulted in a reduction of CO2 emissions by 318 metric tons per day from 1997 levels in absolute terms. Roughly 90% of this resulted in the modal shift from private car and taxi to bus and bicycle, and 10% from efficiency gains within the public transit system. If the CO2 emission benefit is measured against the JICA - projected modal split for 2001, the benefits of the combined measures per day is 694 metric tons of CO2. The projected benefits per day of the change in modal split will rise to 5688 metric tons per day by 2015 if the projected impacts of the current plans are realized. (Compiled by Oscar Edmundo Diaz) |
rodney ur pics are coming up as ?. please i must see these.acavengo, i would have mentioned ven. women, but i just can't spell it properly and i have never, never met one. can u believe that. and i grew up on nyc. i met a really hot peruvian woman once.
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Originally Posted by acavengo
popncow, I think you mean aguardiente. A few other misspellings, but since that one is an alcohol I felt it important enough to correct. Good stuff.
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Originally Posted by genericbikedude
can you "leak" this NYC RBT plan? sounds like it would need some pretty radical changes -- good radical changes -- to make such a thing viable, at least in manhattan.
http://www.mta.info/mta/planning/brt/projectupdate.htm Seems like a half ass approach to me, but the fact that MTA and state/city DOT is doing it is great. |
damn, i need to go. i went to nicaragua last year, but this sounds even more fun. all of the colombians i've met (and i have met plenty in my travels) have been awesome. their spanish is the easiest to understand. they all rave about bogota.
i've heard cartagena is great too, but go there soon - the cruise ships just started visiting this year, and it will be overrun within a few years. |
Originally Posted by ZachS
i've heard cartagena is great too...
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Originally Posted by shishi
Here is some info: http://www.mta.info/mta/planning/brt/index.html
http://www.mta.info/mta/planning/brt/projectupdate.htm Seems like a half ass approach to me, but the fact that MTA and state/city DOT is doing it is great. There is a similar scheme in Philly however with "Bus-only" lanes on chestnut street. THe scheme is completely ignored, and full of cars. Any NYC BRT project would need to be heavily enforced (a potential source of revenue..?) to work. |
Seems like the one route (1st/2nd ave 125th street) would give some relief to those that are going to wait forever for the 2nd avenue subway. Seems that they refuse to give the buses their own lane throughout the entire route, which just makes no sense cause there isn't anything rapid about traffic. Most BRTs are seperated from car traffic by median or other physical structure, or the laws are strictly enforced. What I think is frustrating is that they can develop these lanes, along with Bike lanes, that would be sperate from traffic. To achieve this that would mean taking two lanes away from say one of the avenues. Radical thougth, huh?
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I've never been, but one of the agents here in the office went on a religious mission there. He lived in what would be considered absolute poverty conditions by U.S. standards. He has some pretty wild stories about what everyday life consists of. In the photos that I saw it looks beautifull though
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Originally Posted by shishi
Radical thougth, huh?
I write reports about BRT and bike lane projects in developing countries. Its amazing what they can do in really really poor countries that they can't do in NYC. Sometimes I think that we're just evil. |
Yeah, it it nutz...NYC has these huge streets that could be really great for everyone.
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