Not Ready for the Rain

Amphibious vehicles? A taxi and a motorcycle make their way
thru the deep waters of the Santa Fe neighborhood.

Bicyclists do better in the water,
thanks to their taller, skinnier wheels.

You'd think that's the city the engineers who designed Bogotá's streets had in mind when they included these huge depressions at major intersections, creating lakes during every heavy rain.

Except that it does rain in Bogotá, and I don't suppose that anybody wanted streets to turn into lagoons. Instead, one suspects that an unethical contractor ripped off the city and citizens by using inadquate fill under the roads.

Who's gonna sue those contractors? The same city which approved their lousy work?

Not likely.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

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

Bogotá Needs a Congestion Fee!

An every-day traffic jam in Bogotá.

'Three to a car.' A Petro-era plan to require
car-pooling was never enforced.

This week, transit experts are meeting in Bogotá at Corferias to discuss solutions for the horrendous traffic congestion in Bogotá and other big cities.

Noisy, polluting traffic in La Candelaria:
Making cycling, walking and
generally living unpleasant.

Bogotá has been consistently ranked as one of the traffic jammed cities in Latin America and in fact the world. And, unless authorities take strong action, the situation will only get worse and worse as thousands more cars and motorcycles are packed into its roads.


What's the solution?

Pico y Placa has manifestly failed, and may even have made congestion and pollution worse by incentivizing the purchase of second cars.

The city's weak promotions for car pooling have accomplished almost nothing.

A sign announing London's
congestion charge zone.
(Wikipedia)

And the city's efforts to promote bicycling have been worthwhile, but their potential is limited. Colombia is not Holland. Only a small minority will ever be willing to ride bikes, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, the social and commercial pressures to drive, combined with big subsidies for cars, will continue crowding more vehicles onto our streets.

We can't build out way out of this nightmare.

The only solution is a London-style congestion charge.

London's congestion fee
increased cycling (blue).
(Wikipedia)

The charge discourages driving.

The charge finances mass transit.

London's congestion
fee reduced driving (red).
(Wikipedia)

By reducing noise, congestion and pollution, the fee makes cycling and walking much more pleasant.

It's the only solution.





By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Dead Jaguar's Lesson

The leaking well killed thousands of animals,
but not this jaguar - at least directly.

During the recent oil well leak in Santander, a photo went viral of animals killed by the spill, including a jaguar. The image illustrated the  spill's deadly impacts.

It turned out, however, that the jaguar had not been killed by the oil spill, but rather hit by a motor vehicle.

The miss-marketing of the jaguar's death should not detract from the scale of the environmental damage from the oil spill, which killed thousands of animals, most of them fish, but also birds, amphibians and others.

But in a broader sense, oil did kill the jaguar.

Actually, thousands of animals were killed.

After all, the vehicle which hit it was almost certainly oil-powered. And the road the jaguar was crossing was likely paved with oil products and built to carry oil-powered vehicles. At the same time, the deforestation caused in part by oil drilling has driven wild animals out of their traditional habitats and into conflicts with people - and their vehicles.

And if the oil is not spilled and gets burned as planned, it will pump pollutants into the atmosphere which will harm the health of humans and jaguars,

When will Colombia escape from its oil addiction?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Marching Against Lizama

'The Lizama Petroleum Disaster'. Lizama is the name of the well which poured out oil last month.

Young people marched down Carrera Septima this afternoon protesting the oil well which spilled oil for most of March in Santander Department. 

'As a Colombian I demand the resignations of those
responsible for the ecocide: The Minister of the Environment and
 the director of the ANLA.' And what about the
Ecopetrol executives' resignations?

(The ANLA issues licenses for companies which want to
carry out projects generating environmental impacts.)

According to Controlaría reports, the state oil company had left many abandoned wells unsealed and had not properly updated its contingency plans. I'd be willing to bet that out there in the swamps and jungles a lot of oil wells are leaking away with nobody around to notice.

Interestingly, in Bogotá the oil well scandal over the oil well leak happened to coincide with rare attention to the chronic problem of air pollution as authorities announced a 'yellow alert' about pollution levels in late March. The alert generated a number of news articles and editorials, and one academic even informed us that the pollution comes from diesel vehicles. 

It's almost makes one wonder whether Colombia should kick its dependence on a fuel which damages the environment and human health from the moment it's sucked out of the ground to when it is burned and released into the atmosphere. Perhaps Colombia could no longer make fossil fuel exports the foundation of its economy, and stop subsidizing driving. But real changes are too much to ask, of course. And the real problem is not how they extract oil, but whether they do so at all.

Still, the industry can rest comfortably: the moment will pass, and the public's attention will move on to something more important, such as gasoline prices, football games and beauty pageants.

Unfortunately, despite Colombian leaders' expressions of concern about climate change, the nation continues to make fossil fuel exportation the 'locomotive' of its economy and celebrates cars sales as an unqualified good. The only prominent voice calling for change - leftist presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, who wants to change oil for avocadoes - is completely unrealistic and would generate huge opposition from citizens and industry.

'The land belongs to the campesino; Not to the multinational.'

A bit strangely, many of the protests denounced fracking - even tho the leaking well did not employ fracking. But fracking makes a good all-purpose demon.

Environmental authorities were criticized for slowness in responding to the spill. So far, no heads have rolled. But it sure seems as tho people in power should pay for the failure to put into place environmental safeguards, which is the TRUE scandal here.

'No to cruelty, no to fracking and yes to renewable energy.'  

'The Lizama Petroleum Disaster'. Lizama is the name of the well which poured out oil.

'Popular sovereignety on environmental issues.' 

 More and more municipalities are holding local referendums, and voting overwhelmingly against permitting oil exploration and mining. The votes are controversial, with some national politicians declaring that they have no legal weight.

'No to fracking.' But the leaking well had nothing to do with fracking.

The often uninformed and emotional opposition to fracking (like the opposition to nuclear power genetically modified organisms) threatens to make conventional oil extraction appear environmentally sound.

'Don't take out our life. No fracking in Colombia.'

 By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Beautiful - and Fantastical - Future Bogotá

A hiking trail through Bogotá's Eastern Hills.

Last year, the Museo de Bogotá (located on Carrera 4 and Calle 10, in La Candelaria) put on this exhibit about Bogotá's fantastical future - clearly a vision of the administration of current Mayor Enrique Peñalosa. And it's a nice visition, with a fully developed multi-modal transit system (subway, expanded TransMilenio, cable cars to hillside neighborhoods, and bike lanes), green corridors, high-density neighborhoods and other wonders.

Inside the Museo de Bogotá.

It's a beautiful vision for a city with lots of problems with chaotic development, lack of green space, danger for cyclists and walkers, terrible traffic jams and pollution, and on and on. Naturally, the vision fits technocrat Peñalosa's ideas about low-cost bus rapid transit and the democratizing effects of pleasant public spaces.

'The capital of the bicycle.'

What could possibly go wrong? Unfortunately, human nature. Will the city actually fund such projects, or will the money be stolen by corrupt functionaries or designated for projects which are more populist but have dubious urban impacts, such as highways or sports stadiums. And, while Bogotá debates such projects thru succeeding mayors, with varying priorities, the city will continue growing, legally and illegally, individual residents paying little attention to the mayors' visions. Meanwhile, the number of cars will continue exploding, gridlocking the city's avenues, poisoning its air and increasing pressure to pave over even more land.

A clean, green, sustainable city? A nice fantasy, tragically.

Walking on a map of Bogotá.

Checking out a city map.

A historical map of Bogotá.

Environmental corridors.

The city's 'environmental corridors.'

'Revoke Peñalosa'

Inside the Museo de Bogotá.

Map of the first line of Bogotá's subway.

A bicyclist pedals past the Museo de Bogotá.

Transmicable.

The network of TransMilenio routes.

Transmilenio.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Tell Me Something I Don't Know

El Tiempo ran this interview today pointing out - and who would have thought of it? - that diesel smoke is poisoning our air, and poisoning us.

The interviewee, Universidad de los Andes Prof. Eduardo Behrentz, is undoubtedly a really smart guy. But do we really need him to inform us that diesel is what's killing us? If Bogotá's citizens and authorities can't figure that out for themselves, then God save them!

A TransMilenio bus (pride of the city!) belches its way up Jimenez Ave. (which is also called the 'environmental axis).

Another bus belches its way along Calle 19.

Okay, okay. Now that we've finally figured out where Bogotá's air pollution comes from, can the city finally start doing something about it, such as removing these 'rolling smokestacks' from the road?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours