SEATTLE, Washington — Between 2011 and 2015, the total number of daily bike trips made in Bogotá, Colombia, rose from 421,000 to 635,000. This figure continues to grow every day with the increasing popularity of bikes in Bogotá. For that reason, Bogotá city officials work constantly to expand the city’s bike pathways. As city officials expand these pathways, called Ciclorutas, they improve the city’s economy and help lift citizens from poverty.
Bogotá’s Impressive Bike Infrastructure
Many label Bogotá as the world capital of bikes. This label likely stems from the fact that the city had expanded its bike paths by 500 kilometers in the last 20 years. Bogotá now holds around 550 kilometers of bike paths and continues to expand them daily. For example, it opened another 72 kilometers in March 2020 to reduce congestion and human contact during the COVID-19 pandemic
City officials estimate that with its expanding bike infrastructure, bikes in Bogotá will occupy 10% of the daily means of transportation in the city by the end of 2020. This means that the daily number of daily bike trips in Bogotá will expand to one million.
Bogotá’s Necessity for More Bike Paths Increases
Despite the extensiveness of the Cicloruta system in Bogotá, recent data shows that even a 581-kilometer-long system still does not meet the ever-growing demand of Bogotá’s inhabitants. Experts estimated that the Cicloruta system currently only meets the demand numbers of 2015. It needs to expand even further to cater to the hundreds of thousands of daily bike trips made by bikers in Bogotá.
Recent data also shows that Bogotá officials could eliminate an estimated 4.1 million short to medium distance car trips by building additional bike paths throughout the city. To do so would not only facilitate the creation of more sustainable routes of travel but would also help eliminate poverty in certain areas of Bogotá.
How Bikes in Bogotá Remedy Poverty
As of 2018, approximately 27% of Colombians lived in poverty. However, in the same year, the city of Bogotá had a poverty rate of just 12.4%, the lowest poverty rate out of Colombia’s three largest cities. In part, Bogotá achieved this relatively low poverty rate thanks to its Cicloruta system. The following reasons portray how bikes in Bogotá and Ciclorutas have helped to spur the city’s economy and downsize poverty.
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Expansion creates jobs: The expansion of Ciclorutas throughout the city created employment opportunities at every turn. From jobs in the data sector involving research on bike statistics to jobs involving the construction of Ciclorutas, bikes in Bogotá constantly create jobs that can help lift residents out of poverty.
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Bikes in Bogotá carry consumers: In 1999, the mayor of Bogotá, Enrique Peñalosa, affirmed that “a citizen on a $30 bicycle is equally as important as one in a $30,000 car.” This is because both contribute to consumer expenditure. Increased bike access makes it possible for citizens to get to work. On bikes, they are bound to travel through areas filled with shops and food and are more likely to spend money there. Thus, bike path expansion leads to increased consumer spending and the input of money into the community, which helps reduce poverty.
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Bikes in Bogotá carry workers: Increased bike access means greater employment opportunities for those who could not afford to purchase a car. This means that citizens who could not travel across the city to work could take jobs further from where they live if they have a bike.
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Bikes in Bogotá save money: Bikes remain significantly cheaper than cars and cost much less to maintain. Thus, with the creation of bike paths, low-income residents who need to travel to work do not have to put themselves further into poverty by spending a crippling amount of money on a car. Instead, they can save themselves more disposable income by purchasing a bike.
City Connectivity
Truly, the Cicloruta system of bikes in Bogotá offers immense connectivity to the city. Often, bike paths tend to not cross through areas of the city inhabited by residents of low socioeconomic status. This lack of bike paths in low-income areas of Bogotá can be detrimental to the economies of such areas. It reduces economic foot traffic.
Nevertheless, there still exists a high demand for bike paths in these areas. Throughout Bogotá, increasing the number of bike paths in any area has led to increased bike traffic. Thus, by constructing bike paths in lower-income areas of the city with a high demand for bike routes, city officials can create more economic traffic through these areas.
Cycling: The Future of Colombian Travel
As their use increases, bikes in Bogotá and Ciclorutas bike paths continue to confer enormous benefits to the city. Bikes and Ciclorutas provide greater access to all areas of the city and link Bogotá residents to each other both economically and socially. Furthermore, they help alleviate poverty by spurring economic activity, creating jobs and saving low-income consumers from having to purchase cars. Overall, Bogotá’s system of Ciclorutas provides a sustainable model of travel and economic expansion that could potentially be adopted by other cities to help alleviate issues of urban poverty.
– Nolan McMahon
Photo: Wikimedia Commons