[sustran] Re: What to do with 900 bikes?

[Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory]

Hi from Berlin,

Seems a lot of these bikes can be used, even as "Frankenbikes" (with 
parts from several bikes being used to make one whole bike). Best would 
be to get some org to get the whole lot, store them somewhere else,  and 
then go through them slowly and repair or have people repair in order to 
get one for free, with remaining bits available temporarily for 
functional bike sculptures or just sculptures...

Functional bike sculptures: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_bikes>

In regards to use as sculptures: Wow, this kind of repression you never 
hear about in discussions about Ciclovia or cycling in Bogotá! 
Confiscating bikes for not wearing helmets! What is the Spanish or 
Columbian version of "ignoring the elephant in the china shop" (putting 
too much emphasis on something with debatable merits like helmets when 
it is automobile speeds and number + bad driving which are the main 
issue in regards to road safety)? Even the US government went too far 
with this and admitted a mistake! See the following link starting with 
"Handy Lessons from Overseas": 
<http://www.copenhagenize.com/2010/03/good-news-from-over-there.html> *

OK, a focused suggestion: How about if ITDP Colombia in tandem with some 
local orgs. organise or hopefully sponsor a contest wherein artists or 
anyone  have to use the leftover bike junk as the only raw material for 
sculptures (and even performances) on that "ignoring the elephant..." 
theme, perhaps specifically using helmet confiscation to 
highlight/continue to discuss the good and not so good things about 
transport policy in Bogotá? Would some art schools there agree to 
participate as a way to help with financing? Encouraging artists to get 
more involved in transport politics is always a good idea... (after all, 
the talented mobility sculptor who heads ITDP Colombia is not a 
transport engineer).

- T

* I was one of a perhaps small number of people who complained about this.



Carlosfelipe Pardo wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a practical problem: Bogotá's traffic police have taken away
> bicycles from people not wearing helmets, and getting them back costs
> more than the actual cost of the bike. In consequence, there are a
> couple of yards with some 900 bikes sitting there for the last 10
> years. This week a judge has told a local organization that they are
> willing to "donate them" for a noble cause, but that they must be
> taken from the yards before this Friday. They are getting a warehouse
> to store them at least from Friday and during some weeks, but now the
> questions are:
> - Will they be at all useful (imagine, bikes that have been in the
> open and under rain, sun, etc for up to 10 years...)?
> - If they're not useful as fully-functional bikes, what can they be
> used for? Some people have said they should do a sculpture, do various
> sculptures and do an auction with those sculptures, turn them into
> blocks of scrap metal...
>
> Now my question to all of you is: what would you do with 900
> used-disfunctional bicycles? (of course, imagine you have very limited
> amounts of money to do something).
>
> Best regards,
>
>   


-- 
--------------------------------------------

Todd Edelman
Green Idea Factory

Urbanstr. 45
D-10967 Berlin
Germany

Skype: toddedelman
Mobile: ++49 0162 814 4081

edelman at greenidea.eu
www.greenidea.eu
www.flickr.com/photos/edelman

CAR* is over. If you want it.

"Fort mit der Privatautostadt und was Neues hingebaut!" 
- B. Brecht (with slight modification)

* "Car" is a sub-category of automobile, i.e. one used inappropriately, opportunistically or without creativity