For Cyclists in Bogotá, Growing Fear of Crime
Cycling is popular in Bogotá, but concerns over robberies are increasing. On the Alto de Patios, a popular hill climb.
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Bicycles are part of the Colombian identity. And no Colombian city embodies riding on two wheels more than the capital, Bogotá, where the metropolitan area of nearly 11 million inhabitants has no subway system and some of the world’s worst traffic jams.
The city has over 1.1 million bicycles, according to officials. On Sundays and holidays, some 130 kilometers of major streets are shut down, regularly drawing two million people.
But a number of robberies and assaults of cyclists have left many riders on edge. A recent news report estimated that a bicycle was stolen in the capital every 42 minutes and small gangs targeted cyclists.
“The insecurity for cyclists is at a maximum high,” said Yim Ángel, a founder of the Bicycle Collective, an advocacy group. “Cyclists contribute to the environment, to transportation, to health, to sports, to recreation. But in this moment, we don’t have a guarantee of security to move around freely in Bogotá.”
Bicyclists have demanded that more is done to make the city safer, and Carlos Fernando Galán, who took office as mayor in January, said officials were exploring ways to do that.
While data show that bike thefts have dropped in recent years, a rise in some violent crimes last year has fueled concerns that the city is becoming less safe, including for cyclists.
David Santiago Cortés Peña, 23, who runs a bicycle shop and rode on a professional cycling team last year, set out recently on a 50-kilometer training ride. Around 5:30 a.m., en route to meeting friends, Mr. Cortés said a man jumped out from behind a tree and fired at him, a bullet grazing his eyebrow. As he lay on the ground, Mr. Cortés said, he saw the man racing off with his bicycle, which cost him $3,500. He had insurance, but it had lapsed. He had also decided it was getting too expensive to pay for something that many advanced riders in the city use — a motorcycle escort.
These days, Mr. Cortés is using a borrowed bike, and said he would ride only in daytime and would hire an escort.
Luis Fernando Guarin, 37, was commuting when he fell victim. He said a 14-kilometer trip each way that would take two hours by public bus takes half that time on two wheels.
He was riding home from his job at a telecommunications company on a recent Friday night on a bicycle path when four men tried to rob him. When he resisted, he was stabbed twice in the abdomen and his attackers took his bike.
Mr. Galán went over steps to ease the problem: focusing on five neighborhoods where the majority of bike robberies occur; increasing police presence on main roads; installing more street cameras and lights; making it easier to file police reports; and increasing the punishment for robberies.
“It’s true: We have security problems that we’re trying to resolve,” Mr. Galán said. “And we have to keep expanding the bike paths and bike lanes so people can move around. This city has a very special connection to the bicycle.”