Bicycles are an essential part of the Colombian identity – ubiquitous, cheaper and, in some urban communities, often a faster way to get around.
No Colombian city epitomizes riding on two wheels more than the capital Bogotá, where the metropolitan area of nearly 11 million people has no metro system and some of the worst traffic congestion in the world.
According to officials, the city has more than 1.1 million bicycles and registers almost 900,000 bicycle trips per day. More than 80 miles of major streets are closed on Sundays and public holidays, a tradition that regularly attracts two million people at a time.
“It is the DNA of this city,” said Bogota Mayor Carlos Fernando Galan.
But a number of robberies and assaults on cyclists this year have left many riders in Bogotá on edge. A recent news report estimates that a bicycle is stolen every 42 minutes in the capital and small-time gangs of thieves are targeting cyclists.
“The uncertainty for cyclists is at its maximum,” said Yim Ángel, founder of the Bicycle Collective, an advocacy group. “Cyclists contribute to the environment, to transport, to health, to sport and to recreation. But at the moment we have no guarantee that we can move freely in Bogotá. We are afraid.”
Cyclists, from everyday commuters to seasoned cyclists, and advocacy groups have demanded the city do more to make the city safer for them, and Mr. Galán, who took office in January, said officials were already exploring several steps.
While police data shows bicycle thefts have fallen in recent years, an increase in some forms of violent crime in Bogotá last year, such as robberies, assaults and carjackings, has fueled growing concerns that the sprawling city is becoming less safe, including for cyclists. .
Adding to the discomfort are a series of violent crimes, including the murder of a businessman and multiple armed robberies, in wealthier and generally quieter parts of the city.
Mr. Galan said in an interview that he worried that increased fear was causing people to abandon more environmentally friendly ways to get around Bogotá.
“There are a lot of people who can make trips four, five, six blocks from home to work or buy something, but today they do that by car, but they can also do it by bicycle or on foot,” said he. . “That is why safety is a fundamental priority for us.”
David Santiago Cortés Peña, 23, who runs a bicycle shop in Bogotá and was part of a professional cycling team last year, recently took a training ride of about 30 miles to an out-of-town town.
Around 5:30 a.m., on his way to meet friends at the foot of the mountain near where he lives, Mr. Cortés said a man jumped out from behind a tree in the dark. He tried to maneuver around the man, but he said the man shot at him, with a bullet grazing his eyebrow and forcing him off his bike.
As he lay bleeding on the ground, Mr. Cortés said, he saw the man run away with his bicycle, costing him $3,500. To pay for it, he took out a loan, sold some belongings and received help from his older brother.
“It was a whole family effort over a whole year to pay it off,” he said.
He had insurance for his bicycle, but it had expired in December and he had not renewed the policy. He had also decided that it was becoming too expensive to pay for something that many advanced riders in the city use: a motorcycle escort.
These days, Mr. Cortés uses a borrowed bicycle and said he would ride only during the day and hire an escort.
“It will leave me without savings,” he said, “but it is better for safety.”
Luis Fernando Guarin, 37, was not training when he was victimized. He did what many people in Bogotá use their bicycles for: commuting. He said a nine-mile round trip trip that would take two hours by public bus would take half the time if you were pedaling on two wheels.
“It also de-stresses me,” said Mr. Guarin, who works for a telecommunications company.
He was riding home on a recent Friday evening along a cycle path along a major road when, he says, he was approached by four men who jumped out from behind some bushes and tried to rob him. When he resisted, Mr Guarin said, he was stabbed twice in the abdomen before his attackers made off with his bicycle.
He tried to file a police report online from his cell phone at the hospital and at home, but he said the website for filing such reports did not work. He also never went to a police station to do this in person. Even if he had registered a report, Mr Guarin said, he had little confidence that his bike would be recovered.
The city runs a bicycle registry, intended to make it easier to identify stolen bicycles and return them to their owners. So far, 400,000 bicycles have been registered, according to Mr Galán, the mayor, who would like to see that number increase significantly.
Of the 1,100 bicycles stolen in the city in the first two months of this year, only about 15 percent have been recovered, he said. Experts say many thefts can be thwarted if cyclists lock their bikes or use stronger locks when they are not riding.
Mr. Ángel, who helped form the cycling advocacy group several years ago after the fatal shooting of a cyclist in Bogotá, said his organization had postponed two recent protest rallies after talks with officials about improving cycling safety.
The group made 10 recommendations, some of which reflect what the city is considering implementing in the coming months.
Mr. Galán rattled off a list of possible steps: focusing on the five neighborhoods where most bicycle robberies occur; increasing police presence on major roads; installing more street cameras and lighting; make it easier to file a tax return; and increasing penalties for robberies as a stronger deterrent.
Andrea María Navarrete, who served as the city’s cycling manager from 2021 to 2023, said making cycling safer would also help tackle major gender inequality among cyclists and encourage more women to cycle.
“If women don’t see any risks in infrastructure, it means everyone will benefit from it,” she said.
Mr Galán pledged to build on the city’s mobility achievements to become ‘the cycling capital of the world’.
“I know a lot of people will criticize the statement: ‘How can you say that with so much uncertainty?’” he added. “It’s true: we have security issues that we’re trying to solve. And we need to keep expanding bike lanes and bike lanes so people can get around. This city has a very special bond with cycling.”
Simon Posada reporting contributed.