Mexico City Sunday Morning Bike Rides
I just got back from the best bike ride of my life.
Every Sunday, Mexico City closes down the entirety of Avenida Reforma between the huge city park and downtown. I knew about this and headed out to ride it. I thought it astonishing that the City would close an eight-lane boulevard that crosses the city diagonally, but sure enough, when I got there there were people everywhere bicycling, in-line skating, jogging, and also in wheelchairs. In all eight lanes of Avenida Reforma! It is difficult to fathom, much less express, what a mess this must create for Mexico City drivers, because Reforma is the main artery through the center of town. This city was laid out in the 16th Century, and isn´t exactly easy to get through with Reforma closed.
The City also rents bikes for free to all-comers. It isn’t limited to adult bikes, either. They rent a lot of bikes–probably most of them–to kids. It was especially encouraging to me to see so many young girls getting bikes, because it is very, very rare to see a woman riding a bicycle in Mexico.
And for the really young kids, they have tricycles available, too! (Also kid’s bikes with training wheels!)
The real surprise though came when I got the end of the route and noticed that people were continuing on into downtown. The streets were closed and police were at every single intersection, making cars turn around. The ride zig-zagged through the historic district and I continued on, following the route along the cobble-stone streets.
The route just kept going and going, so I kept trudging along. Pretty soon I was well off my map and far away from anyplace I’ve ever been in Mexico City. But I certainly didn’t have to worry about getting lost because there were bicyclists everywhere and police at every intersection.
My admiration for the City’s committment to this ride grew with every mile we rode, because they were closing down major streets to traffic, and they must have employed hundreds of police to manage this thing. And they were friendly police, too! Proving once again that bikes make everyone happy.
Eventually we ended back up at the historic district, but I was pretty tired when we got there! It turns out this is a 30 kilometer circuit that they open on the last Sunday of every month. The streets are closed from 9 AM to 2 PM. I would guess thousands of people take advantage of this ride, and a third of them or more are women. Entire families were doing the whole circuit, and the City provides water and mechanic’s stations at regular intervals. Gatorade gives out free drinks, too.
And the idea that this City would rent bmx bikes — hundreds and hundreds of them — to kids for free to ride on a Sunday morning is really cool, given how many families in this city of 24 million people cannot afford to buy their children bikes of their own.
I hate to be the critic all the time, but it puts Tucson’s efforts in a little bit of perspective.
–Erik Ryberg
December 29th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Erik,
What a blast! Thanks for sharing your trip with us. Mexico City has just moved up on the travel wish list.
Lori
December 29th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Wow, what an amazing ride to have taken part in. Maybe we can get Tucson to shut down Grand Road once a week for cyclists. (!)
Thanks for taking us along for the ride. Excellent post.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
[...] these links to read about my experiences riding in the the Mexico City Ciclovia and the Bogota [...]