¡Viva
Ciclovía attracts participants of all skill levels, from leisurely riders
la Ciclovía!
Throngs of bicyclists take over the streets
of Bogotá for freewheeling Sunday rides
BY JIM BENNING
Miles of roadway are closed
to cars every Sunday in
Bogotá to give cyclists
and others a place to
congregate and cruise.
44 | WESTWAYS WINTER 2023
Y
ou could hear the sounds of cyclists
everywhere: The whir of tires against
pavement. The clanking of gears and
chains. The measured breathing of
countless Colombians working their way across
this sprawling capital more than 8,600 feet up in
the Andes Mountains.
My breathing? Not so measured.
I’d arrived in Bogotá a day earlier and was still
acclimating to the thin air as I joined hundreds of
others pedaling down El Dorado Avenue. I’d timed
my arrival in Colombia to ride in the city’s Ciclovía,
literally Cycle Way. Held every Sunday and on holi-
days, the event closes a whopping 80 miles of city
streets to automobiles from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. so that
cyclists, pedestrians, runners, and skaters can take
over the roads. But as I was discovering, Ciclovía
is more than just an opportunity for locals to get
some exercise.
Many cities around the world, including Los
Angeles, now host periodic “open streets” events,
but Bogotá’s Ciclovía, which started in 1974, was
arguably the first, and it’s unquestionably the big-
gest. In fact, an estimated million-plus Bogotanos
take to the streets on any given Sunday, making
this Ciclovía, in terms of participants, conceivably
the largest regularly scheduled recreation event on
the planet.
Outsiders might be more likely to associate
Colombia with violence and cocaine than with
cycling and civic activities. After all, for more than
6 decades, armed guerrillas, paramilitary troops,
LEFT: HUGH MITTON/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO. RIGHT: DIEGO ALEJANDRO
and drug cartels wreaked havoc on the country,
killing hundreds of thousands of people and dis-
placing millions more.
“Those were very sad times,” Bogotá native
and avid cyclist Carlos Candela said as we rode in
the Ciclovía. “We had bombings, kidnappings. Our
country was going nowhere. Nobody wanted to
come to Colombia. But that’s the past.”
Indeed, since the landmark 2016 peace
agreement between the government and the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC),
violence in Colombia has lessened considerably.
Yet crime and insurgent activity persists, and in
May, the U.S. State Department again advised
Americans to reconsider traveling to the country.
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to more avid cyclists, like these members of the Los Leones club.
Still, Colombia has given the world the magi-
cal realism of Gabriel García Márquez and the hip-
shaking hits of Shakira and J Balvin. The country is
among the world’s most biodiverse, with more bird
species than any other nation. Its coffee-growing
highlands and spindly wax palms inspired Disney’s
2021 animated movie Encanto. And the food
scene? Hotter than ever.
For all these reasons and more, travelers have
been flocking to Colombia—to the Caribbean coast,
home to fabled Cartagena; to Medellín, which
draws an international crowd of remote workers;
and to misty, massive Bogotá, which Time maga-
zine named one of the World’s Greatest Places of
2022, citing the city’s culinary scene and sustain-
ability efforts, including local bike-share programs
and the 52 miles of new bike paths added during
the pandemic.
Spread out across more than 600 square miles,
Bogotá is South America’s fourth-most-populous
city, with nearly 8 million residents. Like so many
capitals, Bogotá isn’t immune to poverty, air
pollution, and traffic, but the city’s commitment
to cycling is undoubtedly world-class. In fact,
in 2019, Bogotá ranked 12th in the world on the
Copenhagenize Index of bike-friendly cities.
European municipalities dominated the list, and
Bogotá was the only city in Latin America to land a
spot on the index. “We’re very proud of that,” said
Candela, who worked with the city’s tourism office
at the time of my visit. Bogotá’s nearly 400 miles of
dedicated bike paths, or ciclorutas, were a factor.
So too, of course, was Ciclovía.
WINTER 2023 WESTWAYS | 45

Clockwise from Any Given Sunday
above: The author
Eager to experience the event, I set out by bike on
(center) rides with
his Bogotá guide a cool Sunday morning late last year with Candela
Carlos Candela and Felipe Camelo, one of Ciclovía’s many uni-
(left) and Ciclovía formed guardiánes, safety officers who patrol the
guardián Felipe
route and assist participants who need help.
Camelo; a sign
redirects cars; We rode through light traffic to El Dorado
along the route,
police officers and
Avenue, where a barrier blocked automobiles and
a bright yellow sign indicated we were
ciclovía
civilians dance
entering a car-free zone. Then we joined hun-
together.
dreds of cyclists streaming down the wide-open
street. (While the avenue was car-free, the city’s
TransMilenio buses operated in protected bus-only
lanes.)
We soon spotted a group of dancers—incredibly,
members of the national police force. As thump-
ing music played, about a dozen officers in green
uniforms and baseball caps waved their arms and
spun in unison. “That’s a typical dance from the
Caribbean,” Candela said with a smile. “It’s an activ-
ity to get closer to the community.”
Passing cyclists nodded approvingly, and sev-
eral onlookers couldn’t resist dancing, too. Nearby,
a sculpture of a plump horseman looked on, the
work of famed Colombian artist Fernando Botero.
I couldn’t help but smile.
We pedaled on toward the city center, passing
46 | WESTWAYS WINTER 2023
“DO YOU REALIZE UP TO 2 MILLION
PEOPLE ARE OUT ON THE STREETS,
IN A COUNTRY LIKE THIS THAT’S
FAMOUS FOR VIOLENCE?”–JAIME ORTIZ MARIÑO
planner, architect, and Bogotá native credited with
creating the city’s first Ciclovía in December 1974.
Although he’d long since turned over the event’s
operations to others, Ortiz Mariño remained in awe
of its enduring success.
I asked how the idea had come to him, and he
recalled studying at Cleveland, Ohio’s Case Western
Reserve University in the late 1960s, as Vietnam
War protests and the civil rights movement roiled
the United States. “I had two types of
education,” Ortiz Mariño said. “One in
school, and the other in the streets.”
He returned to Bogotá as many
Colombians were leaving the country-
office buildings and bright murals, until we reached side for fast-growing urban centers. He
Parque del Centenario, home to sports fields, didn’t like everything he saw. “We were
a planetarium, and even a former bullring. We developing our cities in the image of
stopped here for a break. American cities,” he said, “with the car
“Can I get you a coffee?” Candela asked. at the center.”
IF
I wasn’t about to refuse a cup of Colombia’s rich Ortiz Mariño wasn’t opposed to
arabica. automobiles, but he wanted to pro-
As we sipped our drinks, I chatted with a cou-
ple of young cyclists who were relaxing on a bench.
mote other modes of transit, especially
widely available bicycles. Inspired by his
YOU
GO
“We ride all the time,” said Edier Lopez, who’d ped- experience of the counterculture in the
aled here from his home miles away. “We love the U.S., he and a few others organized the Anyone can
open streets and seeing all of the people out with First Mass Bike Ride, a peaceful demon- participate
kids and dogs.” stands selling salipicón de frutas, a cool, refresh- stration of sorts, on streets temporarily closed to in Bogotá’s
Ciclovía. It
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: DIEGO ALEJANDRO; JIM BENNING (2)
Indeed, around us, cyclists cruised past, parents ing Colombian fruit cocktail. Nearby, an aerobics cars. To minimize opposition, they planned it for
takes place
pushed strollers, and as if on cue, a couple walked class was underway, one of more than a dozen a Sunday, when fewer automobiles would be on
from 7 a.m. to
a puppy. The sun broke through the clouds. activities along the route. We’d been out for hours Bogotá’s roads.
2 p.m. Sundays
We resumed our ride, turning down Seventh by now and had seen thousands of people from all At the time, it was a radical idea. Ortiz Mariño and holidays.
Street, which was also closed to cars. Heading walks of life enjoying the open streets. I was begin- was teaching at a couple of Bogotá universities, The route runs
toward the upscale neighborhood of Chapinero, ning to grasp the expansive scope of this Ciclovía. and he recalled contemporaries thinking he was through the
we weaved past runners and then stopped to Honestly, I was blown away. nuts. “They were saying, ‘This ridiculous guy that city center but
chat with a dozen cyclists in matching lion jerseys. we sent to the United States to study comes back also includes
Members of the Los Leones club, they’d just fin- Peaceful Protest talking about bicycles? When the world belongs to many outlying
communities.
ished climbing Alto de Patios, a 4-mile hill beloved “Do you realize up to 2 million people are out on the car?’ ”
Bike rentals are
by serious riders. I could have imagined the Lions the streets, in a country like this that’s famous for Yet roughly 6,000 people turned out. The event
easy to find. You
feeling exhausted, but they were exuberant, seem- violence?” my lunch companion said with a wry grin was a smashing success. can also simply
ingly fueled by the festive vibes. a few days later. “It’s amazing.” Looking back, perhaps no one should have been walk or run
We rode on and paused at one of the many I’d sat down with Jaime Ortiz Mariño, the urban surprised. along the route.
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 SoCAL’S and Deputy Mayor Romel Pascual drove through town,

“CICLOVÍA IS
OPEN
they spotted cyclists riding in the snow. Villaraigosa
was quite moved, Pascual recalls: “He turned to me

SOMETHING
STREETS
and said, ‘Where’s my Ciclovía?’ At that moment, it
was full speed ahead.”

VERY The first CicLAvia took place in downtown L.A.

W
in 2010 and drew tens of thousands of participants.

BEAUTIFUL.
hile Southern California doesn’t have a Organizers were thrilled. “It reinforced this belief I had
Ciclovía that rivals Bogotá’s in size and in L.A. that anything is possible,” says Pascual, who’s

IT’S THE
scope, a number of communities host now executive director of the nonprofit CicLAvia.
periodic open-streets events, which “There was one common denominator. Where you

ONLY PLACE
temporarily turn roadways over to cyclists, skaters, live, how much money you make, and the color of
pedestrians, and others. Among them are San Diego, your skin—none of that mattered. It was that sense
Encinitas, the San Gabriel Valley, and Los Angeles.

WHERE ALL
of belonging, of experiencing the same thing the
In fact, with 9 events planned annually, Los Angeles’ same way.”
CicLAvia (a play on Ciclovía) bills itself as the country’s I can attest to that. Unlike Bogotá’s Ciclovía, which

OF BOGOTÁ largest open-streets program.

CicLAvia organizers took their inspiration from
has a fixed route, each CicLAvia event is held in a
different neighborhood. Among my favorite memories:

SOCIETY Bogotá. SoCal native and urban anthropologist Adonia

Lugo traveled there in 2008 and met with Jaime Ortiz
joining others making their way between Boyle Heights
and the Arts District on the new Sixth Street Viaduct

CROSSES Mariño, who shared his belief that these family-friendly

events change participants’ attitudes toward their city.
(pictured) late last year. It felt like a giant street party—
L.A. at its best.

PATHS.” The following year, Lugo and other activists got a little The next CicLAvia event will take place in Leimert

JIM BENNING
help from Copenhagen, Denmark, where then–Los Park and Historic South Central on December 3.
–RICARDO MONTEZUMA Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa found himself for Pascual is looking forward to it—and to growing
the United Nations Climate Change Conference. As he CicLAvia in the coming years. a JIM BENNING

Moovil owner At least that was my thought as I strolled into
Ricardo Moovil, a 3-story temple to Colombia’s love affair
Montezuma
with cycling. Set among the posh hotels and
stands in the
doorway of his restaurants of Chapinero, the elegant store oper-
multifaceted ates as a combination bike shop, café, bookstore,
cycling shop. art gallery, and museum. Archival photos, framed
articles, and colorful cycling jerseys decorate its
walls. The shop also stocks dozens of hard-to-find
books on cycling, and one floor is lined with iconic
bicycles.
“I wanted to create a place that would value the
cultural aspects of cycling in Colombia,” explained
owner Ricardo Montezuma, an author, cycling
expert, and professor of urbanism and planning
at the National University of Colombia. Among
the many books he has written is Citizens, Streets
& Cities, a history and celebration of Ciclovía in
Colombia and beyond.
Montezuma led me through the store, pointing
Your AAA travel
advisor can help out historic artifacts, including a framed 1980s-era
you plan and book
your next trip.
Café de Colombia jersey from the country’s first
national cycling team. “Those were marvelous
Visit an Auto Club
took off. The first major race—the 1951 Vuelta
a Colombia, or Tour of Colombia—linked once-
isolated areas in the mountainous nation, drawing
crowds and sparking the public’s imagination.
Cycling remains one of Colombia’s most popu-
lar sports, and fans still obsessively follow the coun-
try’s elite riders in the Tour de France and other top
races. And in a country beset by poverty, cycling
remains accessible to nearly everyone. Bicycles
outnumber cars.
Perhaps that’s why Ciclovía is beloved by so
many in Bogotá, not least Montezuma. “For me,” he
said, lowering his voice as though sharing a secret,
“Ciclovía is something very beautiful. It’s the only
place where all of Bogotá society crosses paths.
Poor people, the middle class, the wealthy. It’s very
democratic.”
That, I realized, helped explain the joy I felt when
I rode in Bogotá’s Ciclovía. Everyone, it seemed,
was outside, sharing the roads and enjoying this
unlikely cycling haven up in the Andes.
TAKING IT TO THE STREETS Learn more about open-streets events in these SoCal communities:
LOS ANGELES SAN GABRIEL VALLEY ENCINITAS SAN DIEGO
JIM BENNING

times when the team really represented in Europe,”

branch, call (800)
he said. Over coffee, he traced cycling’s rise in JIM BENNING is the travel editor of Westways CicLAvia 626 Golden Streets Cyclovia CicloSDias
814-7471, or go to
AAA.com/explore. Colombia to the 1950s, when competitive cycling magazine. ciclavia.org 626goldenstreets.com encinitasca.gov/cyclovia sdbikecoalition.org/ciclosdias

48 | WESTWAYS WINTER 2023 AAA.COM