Bogotá's Bike Paths Network

Bogotá is the Colombian city with the most extensive and comprehensive network of bike paths. Bogotá’s bike paths network or Ciclorutas de Bogotá in Spanish, designed and built during the administration of Mayor Enrique Peñalosa, is also one of the most extensive in the world.


“A citizen on a $30 bicycle is equally important to one in a $30,000 car”,declares Enrique Penalosa, former mayor of Bogota.
When Mr. Penalosa became mayor in 1998, plans for a new $15 billion highway system were given to him. He discarded them and spent money on pedestrianised streets, buses and parks. And lots and lots and lots of cycle paths – 300 km worth – which people started to use.
Here are 3 steps they took that I think helped them build a bicycling culture:

1. Build Bicycle Paths:

A great bicycle path network makes it easy and safe for anyone to use, young or old. Cycle paths can come in all shapes and sizes – what kind is best? I guess it depends, but I like this useful guide from Enrique Penalosa, “A bicycle way that is not safe for an 8-year old is not a bicycle way”.

2. Build other Bicycling Infrastructure

It’s not just about kilometers and miles of cycle roads.  Who will use them? How will they be used? Can they be used?
A cycle path that goes from nowhere to nowhere probably won’t be used as much as a well connected, integrated system.
In Bogota, a special emphasis was put on connecting the cycle paths to their bus rapid transit system, Transmilenio. For example they installed free, convenient and secure cycle storage facilities near major bus terminals:
The design of the network was made taking into consideration the morphology and topography of the city. This is, from north to south the city has a flat topography and from east to west the city has varying degrees of inclination.
A mesh concept was applied for the theoretical plan of the network because it presented greater versatility and adaptation given that the road network was designed as a grid plan with streets going from south to north and from east to west.

3. Inspire – Make it Fun!

Ciclovia happens once a week in Bogota, every Sunday between 7am and 2pm. 120km of roads are shut to cars and opened up to cyclists, walkers and people to enjoy. It’s fun, with around 30% of locals, or 2 million people, taking part. Take a look at this short video from Streetfilms to if you want a flavour of people enjoying themselves on the streets of Bogota.