Juliaca: Tricycle Capital of the Americas

No words can describe the joy of frolicking in the streets of Juliaca, dodging other drivers and stuck in traffic... but this time the traffic isn´t big noisy dirty trucks and mini buses, but TRICYCLES! Yes indeed, we have decided that Juliaca, Peru is the tricycle capital of the Americas. It´s full, full, full of triciciclistas, as the men (and yes they are almost 100% men) who ride the tricycles are called. One person told us there are 14,000 tricyclists in Juliaca, and another 50,000! Regardless, there are thousands, and at least 5,000 are out on the streets at anyone time. So, as you can expect, in a city of a few hundred thousand people, it makes its mark and the streets ultimately are majorly dominated by triciciclistas. Therefore, what fun!!! to bike around Juliaca, it felt like critical mass! But Juliaca has critical mass every day of the year... don´t we all strive to be like that??

We did several long interviews and talked with many tricyclists and were able to come up with the following information. Join our google group to listen to the interviews! They are all labeled "Juliaca"-- http://groups.google.com/group/movementporuncambio/

History
Juliaca is a very young city, only about 100 years old. It is a commerace city, where trucks come in from all over and most people make thier living off of thier own business selling goods. Although the truck traffic is terrible coming in and out of the city, once you are inside all you see is Tricycles. Tricycles have been used in Juliaca for as long as our interviewees could remember, but only in the last 20 years have they become something used for passengers. Before, they were only used to carry cargo (anything from beds to alfalfa to concrete to potatoes), and the person with the cargo would go along for the ride in the tricycle. Then, a few decades ago, tricycle manufactuers got the grand idea to design the tricycles to be more comfortable for the person who was traveling with cargo, and the idea to make tricycles that can be used for cargo, cargo and passengers, or purely passengers. That´s when the culture of using tricitaxis to get around started to kick in, and now it´s the main form of transportation within the city of Juliaca.

Study: While enjoying a 1 sol lunch (30 cents) we decided to perform a study. I counted how many tricycles and bicycles passed by us in two lanes out of a 4 lane street, and Cristhian counted the motorized vehicles. Who won? The cycles, by far! In 5 minutes we saw 65 cycles pass by and only 31 motorized vehicles. Now that´s bike culture for you.

Why so many Tricitaxis?
Like many other cities, Juliaca is flat with more or less wide streets, making it easy to bike in (although there are plenty of unpaved streets in the suburbs, making it difficult to access with cars or tricycles). There is also a lot of commerace within the city and therefore a high demand for short fast trips within the city. However, there are millions of other cities in the world with the same conditions which don´t have a single tricyclist and very few bicyclists. What´s so special about Juliaca? The only explanation we could find is that the culture of the tricycle is deeply ingraned in the culture of Juliaca... the people there have been using tricycles in one form or another for decades, and now the culture is so strong that indeed it is the DOMINANT form of transportation within the city. Everyone takes a tricitaxi! There´s no bike infrastructure to speak of, nor support from the local government for cyclists. This only proves that making biking a culturally acceptable and economical form of transportation, regardless of infrastructure, is the key for having a bike culture in a city.

Why do the people prefer to take a Tricitaxi?

When there are mini buses, motor taxis, and auto taxis? It´s the cheapest! To go almost anywhere in the city it costs 1 sol in tricitaxi, while a moto costs 1.50 soles and auto taxi costs 2. So the majority of people will always elect to take a tricitaxi, as it is just as fast and much cheaper. A triciclista doesn´t have to buy gas to run thier business, and therefore they can gain more and thier clients save money. Everyone wins!

In the Day of a Triciciclista

To be a triciclista is a tough job. Many start thier days at 6am and work until 6pm, and some work into the dark. Thier tricycles weigh about 120 pounds, and that´s without passangers. When carrying around a family or a woman with her 8 bags of cement, the load can be much more. These guys bike around with more than the wieght we do and for more hours than we do, every single day for years and years! It is truly impressive ... and as many tricicylistas told us, the major downside of the job is that it is TIRING, therefore most tricyclists are quite young and the older men have more trouble finding clients. On the flip side, being a tricyclist has its upsides. You can earn 15 to 20 soles a day, which is a decent wage. You can work on your own hours, flexible...meaning if you are studying or if you have another job, it´s not a problem. In addition you get good exercise everyday! In order to become a tricyclist, all you need is a tricycle and you need to pay the city a tax every year in order to have the right to operate. There are countless small factories of tricycles in Juliaca, and they sell the tricycles in payment installments. So although a tricycle is quite expensive (about $300 or 900 soles) someone can use the tricycle to pay off their debt over the period of months or years, depending on how good business is. There don´t seem to be any major barriers in front of someone wanting to be a tricyclist, and perhaps that is the reason why there are thousands and thousands of them in Juliaca. Of course, if you are a women there are barriers: it´s taboo, and it´s definately seen as "man´s job".

The Environment for other Cyclists in Juliaca

The fact that the tricitaxis are so prominent in Juliaca means that the streets are much more safe for other bicyclists. Therefore we were able to see women and children biking in Juliaca as well (though not many, of course). In addition, the tricycles made it so that Juliaca is relatively free of contamination! It´s a pleasure to breath in this bici-trici-city. The cycle culture in Juliaca is so complete that you can see any kind of business or service run on cycles! For example, there´s "Eco-Trici" that the people who pick up trash use, there´s people selling popcorn, C.D.s, bananas, corn, and anything else on a tricycle. Everything is on 2 or 3 non-motorized wheels!

The Future of Tricitaxis in Juliaca: Will they be taken over by motos?

When asked this question, most tricyclistas said no way, because the tricycle will always be cheaper and therefore clients will perfer it. However, one joven said yes the motos will take over because being a triciciclista is tiring and eventually people will opt for the easier option: to be a taxista in moto instead of bici. However, that was just one opinion and the majority of folks seem to think that tricycles are there to stay in Juliaca.

Puno

Puno is a city just south of Juliaca where there are also tricitaxis, although many fewer. Puno has the best bike park we´ve seen in our trip (Cristhian had fun playing on it for a few hours!), and you can see diverse people biking around. We made friends with two young women, one of which bikes just about everyday, and who was about to teach the other, her cousin, how to ride a bike! They want to try and encourage more women biking in Puno! You can hear our interview on our Google group.

North of Juliaca: Women Bicyclists!!

Juliaca was impressive, but still followed the traditional patterns of 98% of the cyclists being men. However, as we biked north into the region near Ayaviri we were surprised to see MORE women biking on the highway than men (and the highway is not safe)! As we entered the small city we saw some women biking tricitaxis and cargo on tricycles. Within the city we saw tons of women biking and children too! It was a very chill city with very little traffic, which might have something to do with there being women cyclists.

Peru in General:

We crossed the border from Bolivia to Peru and were instantly struck by a key difference: Peruanos bike more! At least in rural areas of Puno, the southern most district in the sierra of Peru. There is a significantly higher number of cyclists on the highways of Peru, which instantly made us feel good and welcome in this country.

Cusco: An exception from what we´ve seen in Peru

There aren´t any cyclists in Cusco, not a single one, it´s worse than La Paz, and La Paz has worse geography and traffic! It´s a very odd phenomenon and we just aren´t sure why we are the only ones biking here in Cusco. Perhaps if some of the funds the local government makes from such intense tourism went to promote biking there would be a great difference in the city of Cusco...

Overall we are pleased with what we have seen of bicycles in Peru. We are especially inspired by Juliaca´s culture of tricitaxis and hope to see trici-cultures sprout up in other cities. We hope to promote them in Quito when we return...