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No, 37 (May, 2007)
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Transmilenio in Bogota
It used to take over one hour by bus to
go from the northern district to Bogota’s centre; now it is about 20
minutes if you by ride a bus from Transmilenio, a surface mass transportation
system based on buses running along main arteries.
When I visited Bogota in March I was surprised by
how the city has changed, like the expansion of Transmilenio; the name refers
to a transportation system in the new millennium and started by the end of year
2000. There are new lines, it now operates 18 hours a day, it has a
sophisticated control system, it has reduced travel time and vehicle gas
emissions considerably and there is even an Internet site to plan a route or
find timetables.
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Transmilenio bus in Bogota |
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Exclusive lane for buses and normal transit in an important city artery |
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| Long buses ride on exclusive lanes
separated from normal vehicles and they only stop in certain bus stops, these
allow the buses to go faster than normal cars. Bus stops are like train stations,
passengers buy a ticket and enter the system like in a train-based system. Bus
stations are built in the middle of the avenues and have information boards and
there are assistants and police officers too.
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Bus station |
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Access to bus station |
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With Transmilenio you can to the colonial
sector and many city museums, go to the north area
with modern and stylish shopping centers, to public libraries and parks in the
south of Bogota, or just watch the city from the window.
Transmilenio has made mobility easier for
people, on the other hand, buses get crowded during rush hours and pickpockets
abound. Some years ago, when I first used the system, it was easy to
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A view of Bogota from a bus, A homeless and his dogs
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understand how it worked; but this time it was difficult to ride an express bus and make a
line connection to another part of the city.
Air pollution in Bogota is still high, most of the
buses have diesel engines and high altitude increases gas emission;
Transmilenio buses should use natural gas, like some taxis and private cars are
now running in Bogota. Other cities in Colombia plan to adopt a similar
transportation system because it is efficient and versatile, the construction
of an underground system is much more expensive.
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