Cyclists in Bogota fear becoming crime victims (NYT)

[fiamme red]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/13/w...smid=url-share

“The insecurity for cyclists is at a maximum high,” said Yim Ángel, a founder of the Bicycle Collective, an advocacy group. “Cyclists contribute to the environment, to transportation, to health, to sports, to recreation. But in this moment, we don’t have a guarantee of security to move around freely in Bogotá. We’re scared.”

David Santiago Cortés Peña, 23, who runs a bicycle shop in Bogotá and rode on a professional cycling team last year, set out recently on a roughly 30-mile training ride to a town outside the city.

Around 5:30 a.m., en route to meeting friends at the base of the mountain near where he lives, Mr. Cortés said a man jumped out from behind a tree in the dark. He tried to maneuver around the man, but he said the man fired at him, a bullet grazing his eyebrow and forcing him off his bike.

As he lay bleeding on the ground, Mr. Cortés said, he saw the man racing off with his bicycle, which cost him $3,500. To pay for it, he had taken out a loan, sold some belongings and got help from his older brother...