The first thing to say is that if you can tolerate the heat and wear appropriate protection against the sun Mérida is a pretty darn good city to bike in. I should also add the ability to tolerate extreme traffic noise and pollution is another requirement. The city is extremely flat so you never have to worry about any hills. There are plenty of wide quiet side streets to avoid main arteries en route to your destination. The city is fairly compact and within the periferico it’s possible to bike downtown within 30 minutes. There are quite a few separated bike lanes that traverse large sections of the city – for example you can basically bike from downtown to the northern section of the periferico using only bike paths. However the quality of the roads for biking varies a lot and care must be taken for all sorts of obstacles and dangers such as potholes, glass, nails, rocks, tree branches and myriad of other articles.  Aside from the road itself the other main danger to cyclists arises from motorists (surprise!). Bikes will never win in a battle with two tons of steel so it’s probably best to bike defensively and defer to motor vehicles regardless of whether they are right or wrong. If you like biking there are lots of places to rent a bike. If you’re in the market to buy a bike Mérida probably has more bike stores per capita than most other cities in the world.

Final note – the buses on the VayVen network can carry bikes for free (2 per bus).