More Motorcycles, More Problems

A crowd of motorcyclists roar along an avenue in central Bogotá.

El Tiempo: 'Motorcycles take more
and more passengers from buses.'

Bogotá is becoming inundated with motorcycles. For their riders, they provide an alternative to having to wait for buses or idle in traffic jams. But for cities they create problems including crime,  traffic chaos and a weakened mass transit system.

Perhaps surprisingly, motorcycles also pollute - a lot, particularly those motorcycles with small two-stroke engines which burn oil and often leave behind a stream of white smoke dense with particulate

A motorcycle belches out white smoke.

matter. Bogotá officials have repeatedly declared they would restrict the two-stroke motorcycles, but instead they are proliferating. (Today, even many 'bicycles' are equipped with dirty, noisy engines - altho they still behave like, and claim to be, bicycles.)

Motorcyclists are also linked to crime. I myself was once mugged by a group of young men on motorcycles. And official concern was so much that several months ago Bogotá banned male motorcyclists from carrying other males as passengers.

A motorcycle club rally in La Candelaria. Most Bogotá motorycles are smaller, newer and more practical.

But perhaps motorcycles' most worrying impact for urban liveability is the way that they drain

Motorcycles lined up in a Bogotá neighborhood
dedicated to repairing motorcycles and selling
morotcycle parts.

passengers from mass transit. If mass transit ridership drops far enough - and that's already happening in Bogotá - it will make mass transit economically inviable, reducing its availability and pushing even more people to cars and motorcycles and worsening Bogotá's terrible traffic.

Motorcycles are involved in a dosproportionate number of accidents and injuries.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

End of the Free Motorcyle Ride (for men)

Thousands of motorcyclists protesting the planned law prohibiting male passen.gers
clogged streets in central Bogotá the other day

In most places, the sight of a motorcycle carrying a passenger is probably a bit charming, and demonstrates at least a sort of fuel efficiency.

In Colombia, however, this sort of ride sharing has a brutal history. In the heyday of the narcos,
professional assassins used motorcycles' back seats as work platforms. Today, those sort of killings are much less common. But police say that motorcycle passengers, called parrilleros, commit a huge portion of muggings and other street crimes.

Motorcyclists carry passengers of uncertain gender
in central Bogotá.

The solution? Bogotá plans to prohibit the carrying of passengers on motorcycles with engines larger than 125 cubic centimeters in a huge part of the central city. Not all passengers will be banner, however: Only male ones.

Last night, thousands of motorcyclists jammed Bogotá streets in protest. However, the same rule has been implemented in other Colombian cities with successful results, according to police.

In a politically correct nation such as the U.S., such a rule would likely get tossed out for gender discrimination, or be challenged by same-sex couples who'd complain protest that only heterosexual men could carry their partners with them.

Will the new measure make traffic jams worse?

However, the measure reflects a reality: The overwhelming majority of violent crimes are committed by males. Until women become more ambitious criminally, it's fine to discriminate in their favor.

But this all begs the question of how police will enforce this rule, particularly on cold days when motorcycle riders are bundled up and apparently genderless. Will male passengers take to wearing spiked heels and wigs with long, blond hair flowing out from under their helmets?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Tire Mountain Grows in Bogotá

Dozens, or hundreds, of discarded tires piled on a Caracas Ave. median in central Bogotá.

This mountain of used tires magically appeared, reportedly this morning, on the median strip of Caracas Ave. by Calle 17. Where they came from is a mystery, even tho they look like motorcycle tires, and a block away is one of the city's motorcycle districts, where tires are sold and changed. But that's no reason to think there's any connection.

Still, the tires are there, and will undoubtedly remain while more arrive, until someone sets fire to them, or our tax money pays for them to be hauled to a probably unregulated dump, where they'll breed mosquitoes until they eventually catch fire. In the 'best case', they'll end up in the city's Doña Juana landfill, which is almost full, despite Mayor Petro's ineffective 'Zero Garbage' program.

As we all can see, Bogotá's sidewalks, parks and streetcorners are becoming inundated with discarded car and motorcycle tires, while city officials look on passively, and fantasize that recycling programs are functioning.

What Bogotá needs to do is charge the tire industry for the disposal of its products. Each tire purchase would include a deposit, part of which would be returned when the tire is correctly disposed of. The rest of the deposit would pay for some recycling process, such as shredding the tires and incorporating the material into asphalt.

But will the supposedly environmentalist and sustainability-minded Mayor Petro put into action such a policy? Don't count on it, especially in an election year.

Scenes from the neighboring motorcycle district. Is it possible that the tires are coming from here?

Sleep tight, you motorcycles, in those comfortable pijamas.

Across Ave. Caracas, yet another tire pile, altho these look like car tires.

Near motorcycle alley, more tires pile up on a sidewalk.

According to El Tiempo, some 2.5 million used tires are generated annually by the city of Bogotá, of which 750,000 are discarded illegally.

As a public service, I've come up with some ideas about how to use those 2.5 million waste tires:

As footrests.

As bumpers.

For urban gardening.

To mark holes in streets and sidewalks, where covers have been stolen, so that people don't fall in.

As sidewalk sculptures.

As taller sidewalk sculptures.

As advertising, to sell more tires, which will end up on sidewalks.

To protect fire hydrants.

Great, now only 1,999,978 more tires to find uses for (not counting the ones discarded today).

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Motorcycle Miasma

A crowd of motorcycles waits for a light to change on Ave. Caracas.

We all know that motorcycles are often noisy and a hazard, and are proliferating on Bogotá's streets and avenues. But, according to a report the other day in El Tiempo, motorcycles are also a major source of air pollution.

Motorcycle alley. Bogotá has several streets packed
with motorcycle sales and repair shops.

Motorcycles pass between cars waiting in a traffic jam.

According to one calculation, motorcycles dump about 84 tons of pollution into Bogotá's air annually. That's a little more than 10% of the pollution from trucks and buses. However, the motorcycles are particularly hard to control. Bogotá, if it ever takes the trouble, could take the smog-belching trucks and buses off of the street or at least enforce emissions laws against them. But how could they ever rein in tens of thousands of private motorcycles?

Motorcycle exhaust isn't usually very visible, but contains dangerous microparticles. Particularly dirty are the cheap two-cycle engines, because they burn oil and have no filters. Two-cycle engines have in fact been banned in many cities - but in Bogotá they're increasingly common. Lately, shops are selling motor-equipped bicycles, called bici-motos. It's quite an impressive feat to make a bicycle more polluting than a car.

A motorized bike rider on Ave. Septima. 

In 2009 Bogotá passed a decree restricting the use of vehicles with two-cycle engines. But the decree was annulled in 2012 amidst charges that it discriminated against the lower-income owners of the cheap motorcycles. Is anybody concerned about discrimination against breathers, whether rich or poor?

It's obvious why motorcycles are popular and increasingly so: They're inexpensive, fast and avoid traffic jams. Motorcycles may have a legitimate role in the city, but they should have to obey pollution and other laws.


By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Motorcycle Street

Motorcycle stickers. 

A helmet rack.

Calle 15 and Carrera 14 is Bogotá's central motorcycle district, where shops selling parts, clothing, stickers and gears line the streets and motorcycles stand parked side by side block after block. The neighborhood, called La Favorita, was wealthy a century ago, and still has some grand houses. The motorcycle economy apparently grew up here because several messenger companies, which employ motorcyclists, have their offices here.

Olga Lucia has vended on the street and been the
caretaker of a neighboring rooming house. 

Olga Lucia, who was renting cellphones and selling candies and cigarettes on the sidewalk amidst the motorcycle businesses. She's lived in the La Favorita for 24 years, caretaking a rooming house and seen it change from an economy of trucking to motorcycles and delivery businesses. She said the city has plans to remove the motorcycle businesses and turn the neighborhood into into housing and public parks - a nice dream, if it happens.

Meanwhile, La Favorita is a low-estrato neighborhood with crime problem after dark. After all, it's only two blocks south of the Santa Fe red light district. Olga told me 'If you act like a fool, you'll be a victim," using a very Colombian expression 'Papaya servida, papaya llevada.'


Motorcycles have proliferated in Bogotá and across Colombia in recent years. I suppose that for the city they cause less congestion and pollution than do cars. But motorcycles cause lots of accidents and make a heck of a lot of noise.

And gloves. 

Anybody want some motorcycle parts. 

The Church of the Los Apasionistas has room for several hundred worshippers, but Olga Lucia told me that perhaps 30 people attend Sunday mass. 

A century ago, the neighborhood was wealthy, and still has some grand houses. 

Can you parallel park a motorcyle?

Motorcycle doodads for sale on a streetcorner. 

The historic San Jorge Theatre, a historic monument, has been abandoned for more than a decade.  

A local restaurant.

Time go get up! Police wake up a homeless person sleeping on a sidewalk. 

Good morning. 

A virgin in a window. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours