Transmilenio

As someone interested in transportation, but especially in bus transportation, I was quite excited to finally be able to get to Bogota, Colombia a couple weeks ago. The city´s segregated bus system Transmilenio is one of the better success stories in recent urban transportation projects.

The idea is this- the city had been trying to figure out the plans for a subway system for 30 years, but obstacles such as finances kept the plans blocked. Subway systems are great, but they are massively expensive. Very few in the world cover their costs, and nearly all require subsidies. Instead cities such as Curitiba, Brazil realized that they have a great answer at a fraction of the bus - urban busways.

The concept is that by using double or triple articulated buses, the buses can handle capacities similar to subway systems. And they can overcome one of the biggest problems of most buses - that they take longer than simply driving a car - by just giving them their own lane. When done properly as in Bogota, they can dramatically increase transportation capacity and benefit the entire city at a relatively low cost.

Now I see why all the transportation experts I worked with at the World Bank often call Bogota a model of a successful project (and it was a World Bank project, as was Transantiago, a related project in Santiago that is being inaugurated on Saturday).

Interestingly, when we rode it, we asked a few local college students what they thought. They said they didn´t like it. Why? Because it was always crowded. But that is just why it is a success.