Bicitekas' proposal to create bike lanes
With a lack of government interest, a civil organizations called
Bicitekas
(sporting a logo with an ancient Aztec on a bike) is trying
to make room for bicycles.
Bicitekas informs the public - via a website
and a free magazine - about the use of a bicycle as an alternative
form of transportation. Bicitekas is knocking on the government's
doors with petitions, to create space for bicycles as an ecological
alternative for a smog-suffocated city.
After a 1998 proposal to create bike lanes in the centrical
Roma-Condesa area Bicitekas were not discouraged by the lukewarm
reception of the local district mayor (delegado) and proposed
on November 25 a more ambitious plan to the city's environmental
chief Alejandro Encinas.
The project consists in transforming the obsolete train tracks
to southern Cuernavaca, into a 'ecological corridor' or a cycling
lane that could also be used for skaters and wayfarers. The
bike lane that crosses the city could not only be used over
the weekend, but could be the start for a biking culture in
the city. The train tracks belong to the city government, who
is urgently looking for a new destination since illegal settlers
are invading the tracks. Unless Encinas decides to create an
extra lane for the city's beltway (Periferico), that runs alongside
the tracks, the first bike lane may soon become reality.
Cycling in DF
Today, biking in Mexico City seems not the most obvious thing
to do though. On the contrary, for the occasional visitor in
Mexico City, the idea of riding on a bike in the world's biggest
and most polluted city must equal the experience as as jumping
from a cliff on a bunji cord. (Editor's note -- read Greg
Green's article Bicycling
in Mexico City) Maybe it could be an item on adventurous
programs, like MTV-extreme sports where people jump planes with
a surfboard and parachute. Lots of adrenalin but only for seriously
deranged minds.
For many newcomers in this city, who observe the sheer madness
of traffic here, cycling must equalled to suicide. Crossing
a street on foot - even with a green light - is an adventure,
since drivers are likely to run you over when they take a turn
and you don't jump out of the way. These motorists are still
gentlemen compared to the taxidrivers and busdrivers, that distracted
by the funky cumbia music on their stereo and entangled in vivid
conversations with the money collectors sway their buses through
traffic like small fishing boats in a storm, threatening to
crush every lone pedestrian or cyclist on its way.
Yes, there are cyclists in Mexico City, although they seem
to pass unnoticed, carrying around groceries, meat, or stacks
of newspapers on the back of their Benotto tourism bikes (that
look like a bike from the '50s ) These repartidores (distributors)
belong to peculiar subculture. Dark tanned faces, determined
looks on their faces, they duck their heads to break the wind
and speed through traffic with long hauls of their pedals, apparently
unnerved by the chaos that surrounds them. These are working
class men, often second generation chilangos (Mexico City dwellers)
and still tainted by the bicycle culture of their hometown.
It's a paradox, but once you get out of the city and go to
the surrounding states, bicycles are the most common form of
transportation in small towns, that are called pueblos bicicleteros
or bicycle towns, chilango-slang for a backward town. Typical
is the state of Morelos, south of Mexico city, where revolutionary
hero Emiliano Zapata was born. Bicitekas refer to Zapata in
the popular slogan Si Zapata viviera, con nosotros anduviera
(If Zapata would still live, he'd be with us) that was jokingly
converted into Si Zapata viviera, en bici anduviera (If Zapata
would live, he would be a biker).
Giving the current economical conditions in Morelos, that's
probably not far from the truth. Most immigrants that come to
Mexico City though, lose their biking habits as soon as they
get swallowed by the bureaucratic monster, that demands to put
on a suit and tie and to use a proper form of transport, as
the bus or the subway. There is an unspoken code in Mexico about
transportation, the higher your are up on the social ladder,
the bigger car you're supposed to have.
While middle-class Mexicans might be able to afford a classic
Volkswagen Beetle, business men drive around in heavy suburbans
or sport utility vehicles. These cars do no only guarantee a
safe passage through the asphalt jungle, they also inspire respect
as a genuine status symbol for the powerful. But status or not,
huge traffic jams make fancy cars pretty useless in the Mexico
City traffic.
The overburdened public transportation system is barely an
alternative when it comes to move around quickly in the city.
Mexico's subway, although a marvellous example of fast, clean
and cheap public transportation, is often packed, especially
at peak hours when the coaches are so crammed that you'll miss
your stop if you don't start wrestling your way to the exit
doors on time. Above ground, taking one of the green buses is
not without danger either.
The last time I took a bus, the teenage driver was running
through red lights and going into one way streets, trying to
beat a colleague in a street race. The same day in November,
a bus tipped over a few blocks away from my house, killing three.
A final option for transportation, the ubiquitous cheap green
beetle taxis, has been discredited lately, after pirate drivers
have assaulted customers and scared the public away. Looking
at it more closer, biking in Mexico has its advantages.
Surprisingly enough, accidents involving bicycles are very
rare. Many times, traffic is so slow, that cars are taken over
by bikes instead of the other way round. Due to the persistent
chaos on the road, Mexican drivers hava also developed excellent
driving skills and a special talent for avoiding collisions.
While main arteries and thoroughfares are not recommended for
biking, considering the smog alone, there are many shortcuts
through amazing neighborhoods and quiet residential areas, one
would never discover otherwise.
Bicitekas organizes Sunday morning trips in the colonial center
or the art-deco neighborhood of La Condesa to rediscover architectural
jewels. Green areas, like the city's main park (Chapultepec)
are hubs for biking trips to whatever direction, with big paved
lanes that are lined with street vendors and romantic couples.
Finally the temperate climate of Mexico City - sunny, dry weather
- and the flat topography are other advantages that should not
be underestimated. And last but not least, a biker is never
stopped by the bribe-happy Mexico City cops. "They would never
bother you because they presume you're poor, that you don't
carry any money to pay them off," a friend of mine said and
he was right.
Reversing a vicious cycle
The biggest problem for bikers are not on the road, but authorities.
Finding a good place to park and lock the bike, is always a
challenge, and not only in the Transport Ministry. For instance
in the United Nations building in the posh Polanco neighborhood,
there is no bikepark but surveillance by private security guards,
that strictly prohibit to leave any bicycle near the building.
Altough the U.N. might consider the inclusion of the right
to choose one's own transportation in its charter, the official
denial of two-wheelers in Mexico is understandable and caused
by a vicious circle: The government does not promote cycling
lanes since there does not seem to be an overwhelming demand.
On the other hand, too few cyclists venture on Mexico City-streets
because of the lack of protective lanes.
That is were an organization like Bicitekas fits in. And the
creation of an ecological corridor, where a huge outdoor facility
would be created at its worst, and at its best a new ecological
alternative of transportation.
|
