Bicycle use increases in Bogotá

A small, but increasing proportion of residents of Bogotá are reportedly using bicycles to move around the Colombian capital - a city particularly affected by car fumes - braving a range of dangers including getting run over. The proportion of residents who "use a bicycle" has reportedly increased from one per cent of the population in the 1990s to currently 19 per cent, while Bogota's Radio Santa Fe has cited a 177 per cent rise in daily bike trips from 281,000 in 2005 to 500,000 today; yet cycling remains occasional and far from generalised. A survey from 2011 showed that only four per cent of daily trips were made on bicycles.  The city government has promoted cycling through schemes like Bicicorredores, a lending system similar to those of many cities like Paris or Mexico City, and the more established Ciclovía. But persistent problems were said to include insufficient facilities to allow all those interested to use city bicycles, bike thefts and related violence, and danger from cars, El Tiempo reported on 16 November. The daily reported that the municipality intended to spend the equivalent of just over USD 16 million to expand the network of bike paths, which currently stretch 195 km. The city's transport secretary, María Constanza García was cited as saying that changing attitudes on transportation was essential, and "drivers should put themselves in bike users' shoes and respect the space provided for them." Bogota she said, was a "laboratory for creating awareness in other cities."

Travel increased in Colombia in 2012

The flow of travel in and out of Colombia increased 17.7 per cent in 2012 compared to 2011, with over 1.4 million more people legally entering and leaving the country at all entry points, El Espectador reported on 19 January, citing figures given by the state migration office. Travellers were numbered at a little over 9.44 million in 2012, just over 1.42 million more than in 2011 and representing the largest number in decades, the Foreign Ministry's Migración Colombia declared. Its head Sergio Bueno Aguirre was reported as saying that just over six million of the travellers were Colombians, and their favoured destinations in numerical terms were the United States (979,230 went there in 2012) Venezuela (475,007), Panama, Ecuador, Spain (187,469) and Mexico (134,748). Migración stated that just under 1.7 million foreigners entered Colombia in 2012, 65.4 per cent of them being tourists. The main groups among these consisted of citizens of the United States (327,721), followed by those of Venezuela (251,475), Ecuador, Argentina, Spain (94,910) and Peru. The capital Bogotá hosted most foreign visitors (907,815) in 2012, followed by the Caribbean resort of Cartagena de Indias (206,846), Medellín (166,407) and Cali (112,313). If travel were an indicator of Colombia's increasing security and prosperity, rising property prices in the capital were another. Colombia's Central Bank observed a 5.1 per-cent year-on-year rise in property prices in Bogotá in the third quarter of 2012, La República reported on 21 January. Observers of the housing market told the daily that while the capital was not for now the setting of a speculative housing bubble, demand for housing currently exceeded supply.