Can Bogota's Clean Bus System Be Replicated in Other Cities?

Due to growing urban populations, traffic congestion, pollution and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, major cities around the world are working to meet their mass transportation needs in an efficient and clean manner. Many cities have implemented underground or light rail systems. Bogota, Colombia also considered a rail system, but budget constraints required the city to change course. In 2000, Bogota implemented a rapid transit bus system called "TransMilenio" that has become a model for other cities to follow.

As reported by Alana Herrero for the World Watch magazine, in 2006 Bogota's TransMilenio system became the world's first mass transport project to be approved under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism. By reducing its emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants, Colombia earns credits that it can sell to industrialized countries that have emissions reduction commitments. These countries purchase the credits as an alternative to making emission reductions in their own countries where it is more expensive.

Elisabeth Rosenthal reports for the New York Times that the TransMilenio is more like an above-ground subway, with a constant stream of long, segmented buses in dedicated lanes, with enclosed stations along the routes where passengers swipe a card and enter through turnstiles. The TransMilenio has enough capacity to handle an average of 1.6 million trips each day. Rosenthal reports that according to Bogota city officials, the bus system has allowed removing 7,000 small private buses from the streets, reducing emissions by over 59 percent since it opened.

Users are happy with the bus system because they don't have to drive, the TransMilenio is comfortable and efficient, and they can reduce their commute time. Alana Herrero quotes the World Bank as saying the TransMilenio has reduced travel time by an average of 32 percent in Bogota. Aaron Napastek, in an article for Good Magazine indicates that smaller feeder buses pick up passengers for free on neighborhood streets and take them to the centralized terminals. The buses have low floors that meet the station platform for fast boarding, just like a subway. The buses run on time, and passengers know when the next bus will arrive based on real-time information systems.

A bus system can be built off existing infrastructure so construction costs are much lower than a rail system. Bogota had been debating a multi-billion dollar subway system for some time, but Enrique Peñalosa, the Bogota Mayor at the time, decided that a significantly cheaper rapid transit bus system, similar to the efficient system implemented in Curitiba, Brazil, would be a better alternative.

Oscar Edmundo Diaz, Director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy and assistant to former Mayor Enrique Peñalosa, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs in 2003, in preparation for the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. He reported that no subway in a developing country has cost less than $100 million per kilometer - a heavy investment for cities with many infrastructure needs. Diaz indicated that the TransMilenio covered 41 kilometers at a cost of around $5 million per kilometer, with a total initial investment of $213 million.

A rapid bus transit system is also much more flexible and can be more easily adapted to dynamic metropolitan areas that are constantly expanding and evolving. Bogota plans to add new lines to the system so that 80 percent of the city's residents are within 500 meters of a bus station by 2016. And the TransMilenio is a non-subsidized system - all operating costs are recovered through the fares collected, which are very reasonable - currently about US$0.75.

Sources:
Aaron Naparstek, "Get on the Bus" - GOOD
Alana Herrero, "Bus Rapid Transit Systems Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Gain in Popularity" - Worldwatch Institute
Oscar Edmundo Diaz, "Bus Rapid Transit and Other Bus Service Innovations - Bogota's Bus Rapid Transit System: Transmilenio" - Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
Elisabeth Rosenthal, "New bus system in Bogota a model to fight climate change" - The New York Times