Being no stranger to abuse, our Mayor is accustomed to being called names, in fact this seems to strengthen his resolve in behaving like a leftist caudillo of yester-year but, rather than commanding an elegant cavalry of sabre-wielding loyalists, his flaccid charge better resembles a forlorn hope of uncharismatic would-be demagogues weighed down beneath an avalanche of paper clips and red tape. You can choose to call him beleaguered or inept and unleash the censoriously abusive vitriol so readily employed by the contracted online trolls in the pages of the national press, but, I think we can all sigh some relief and be thankful that Mayor Gustavo Petro and his team will soon vacate Bogotá’s Palacio Lievano.
Perhaps this mournful jeremiad isn’t entirely fair. Mayor Petro is the first mayor to recognize that there is more to Bogotá than the visible city extending north from his offices as far as Cedritos. But, in his near-sighted drive to mobilize “the people” he has floundered. Just take the Día sin carro for example where bicycles are routinely feted as the solution to all of the city’s woes. In principle I am certain that most citizens do not oppose such a measure by which to theoretically improve Bogotá’s air quality, oblige people to take public transport and use bicycles. I am the first to acknowledge that we need to rid the city of the excessive numbers of private vehicles and that a diversification of options, an improvement in security and routes to Bogotá’s existing public transportation systems are more than urgently required.
But the task of extracting Bogotanos from their cars – which we can agree have outlived and outgrown their use in the city – is impossibly herculean. Bogotá’s next mayor is going to have to unravel the last 40 years of the capital’s urbanization. Late to flourish, Bogotá’s growth is inextricably linked to wealthy capitalinos commuting to work on weekdays and then out to the family finca at weekends. It’s a sign of wealth and status that is not easily undone.
Mayor Petro has attempted to tackle the issue, albeit in his own petulant manner, and let’s get this out of the way right now, Bogotá’s no car day is no longer about an environmental improvement to the city. It is little better than an opportunity for a languishing Mayor to raise eyebrows and stubbornly attempt to coerce the long-suffering public into his blue buses in a Castro-esque “History Will Absolve Me” last gasp fleche. And now since Mayor Petro has again made the authoritarian declaration that we will once more be subjected to another Día sin carro in September, we will have to listen to the continual bleating from middle class university students about the benefits of the bicycle and how fast they can make it to their ceramics class on two wheels.
And before I am tarred as being a conservative oligarch, I want to clarify that Mayor Petro has not turned Bogotá into Caracas and that I harbour a feeling of deep contempt for those in their armoured cars driven by aggressive escoltas. It’s the same feeling I have for the Monarchy, there are those Windsors who should remain in positions of importance in their world, but can we start to trim off some of the deadwood cousins, nephews and nieces? Likewise with the armoured cars and their darkened windows, flattening pedestrians at zebra crossings around the Zona T, I am sure that a good number of these passengers no longer require this special attention. Correct me, of course if I am wrong.
And so back to bicycles, to watch the critical mass of Generation Y cyclists occupy the Avenida Séptima of an evening in their middle class love affair on two wheels is a beautiful sight to behold. They have the right idea being keenly bonded in a solidarity and desire to improve Bogotá for all and rebalance public space, leading by querulous example in a zero carbon streak on the Día sin carro. But, what is the result? Dare I whisper it that bicycles are not a solution either?
Initial reports suggest that air pollution can be reduced considerably on a car free day and this must be commended. Yes, people are forced onto public transport, however, what they experience, as their faces are jammed up against the sweaty windows, is usually so unpleasant that they will never do so again. The Transmilenio is so overcrowded on any given day that it is a disaster in the making and precious few actually understand how the SITP service even works.
So, once again the bicycle is presented as the only viable option and one suspects that the analysts in the Alcaldia are aware of this. But Bogotá’s internationally lauded bike routes are now redundant and no one wants to address this. Cyclists should have their own paths – not ones shared with pedestrians – but ones which take from private vehicles and in turn, pedestrians should enjoy broader, level pavements. In this way, we can prevent cyclists from dominating pedestrianized areas and cars from dominating the roads. The Alcaldia has fallen short on so many things, but there is an unspo- ken truth to any city, and that is that walkers must be king, not cyclists, nor buses, nor private vehicles. Bogotá’s middle class love affair with the bicycle is deserving of praise but without coordinated efforts initiated to benefit pedestrians and those on public transport, it is all in vain.
