[UrbanSophist]

Check it out:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1493018781552435759

We need more mayors like this that aren't going to put up with the b.s. of selfish people who don't care about the life of the city.

 

[Hia-leah JDM]

Very impressive.

 

[jetstar]

amaizing!

 

[Slartibartfas]

Wow, thumbs up for this former mayor.
I did not knew that Bogota was that progressive especially in terms of public space and bicycle lanes. It seems true, that those things are not some luxury for some wealthy city but should be something also poorer places should seek to establish.

While I think a metro system could have granted higher capacities at a higher efficiency than the BRT system, I guess it was out of the budgetary limitations so its fine to have that well running BRT instead of some chaotic inefficient bus system as before.

 

[Bogota]

Unfortunatelly Mr. Peñalosa was not relected late last year, as the populism that is running on high in Latinamerica decided that a Metro system was the answer to all our problems, not a well structured long term plan as we have had for several years now. We are really hoping the city will continue to progress regardless of the "first world" projects that sell so easy on some people, whose self esteem seem to rely on few impressive infrastructure projects rather that coherent progressive policies that have made our city improve its quality of living dramatically in just a decade.

 

[Slartibartfas]

I hope the proposed Metro system is at least well integrated into the Transmillenia system. Of course the question remains if its too expensive for the city of Bogota.

 

[Bogota]

The problem is that with the money that the first line of Metro will be built, several Transmilenio lines could be built also. Transmilenio at present transports over 1.4 million people a day in 3 lines with only 80 kms of coverage. The whole project will cover over 400 kms of lines and it will transport over 5 million pax a day. Unfortunatelly the metro project has slowed down progress in TM which is now over 1 year behind of its initial chronogram. Another very interesting thing about TM is that by law 10 old buses have to be disposed off for every new TM bus, so slowly but surely we are getting rid of all old buses. And finally TM project includes the revamp of all the avenues that it goes through including the building of new sidewalks, ciclepaths, new street lights and sidewalk benches plus and improvement on tree coverage on those avenues.

Money wise Bogota has a great credit rating, several international Banks including the World Bank have preapproved loans for over 4 billion dollars for the innitial project. Out of the cost of the project only 30% is paid by the city, the rest will be paid by the Colombian Government. Our mass transport system law states: that any city that wants and has the money for 30% of the cost to build a mass transport system, the Colombian Government will chip in with the remainder 70% of the cost. At present 7 Colombian cities are building Transmilenio type BRT systems.

 

[Slartibartfas]

The problem is that with the money that the first line of Metro will be built, several Transmilenio lines could be built also. Transmilenio at present transports over 1.4 million people a day in 3 lines with only 80 kms of coverage. The whole project will cover over 400 kms of lines and it will transport over 5 million pax a day. Unfortunatelly the metro project has slowed down progress in TM which is now over 1 year behind of its initial chronogram. Another very interesting thing about TM is that by law 10 old buses have to be disposed off for every new TM bus, so slowly but surely we are getting rid of all old buses. And finally TM project includes the revamp of all the avenues that it goes through including the building of new sidewalks, ciclepaths, new street lights and sidewalk benches plus and improvement on tree coverage on those avenues.

Money wise Bogota has a great credit rating, several international Banks including the World Bank have preapproved loans for over 4 billion dollars for the innitial project. Out of the cost of the project only 30% is paid by the city, the rest will be paid by the Colombian Government. Our mass transport system law states: that any city that wants and has the money for 30% of the cost to build a mass transport system, the Colombian Government will chip in with the remainder 70% of the cost. At present 7 Colombian cities are building Transmilenio type BRT systems.

I really know nothing about the specific situation of Bogota, but the metro certainly is able to handle even higher capacities than Transmillenia. In case those capacities are also needed it should be able to do so also more cost efficient over the long.

Of course its a must that a potential metro is well interconnected with existing or at least planned TM lines. Both also need to be part of the same paying scheme.

I think the TM project is a fine one in fact, but you also can improve public space when building metro lines below. Of course the political will for that has to be there as well. The determining factor here should be the supposed capacity. For a large city as Bogota is one a metro backbone might actually make sense, thats principally no contradiction with the TM system.

In Vienna we don't have BRT systems. But apart from a metro we have an extensive tram network (partially grade separated), and for the not so important lines buses. It all adds up to a fine network, because all those means of transort work together in a pretty good way.

 

[Bogota]

A metro can transport higher number of passengers on a given corridor, TM is able to transport less ammount of people on more corridors. The 400 kms of lines in TM plan will put a line of TM within 500 mts of any given point in the city, that is something that can not be achieved in a metro in a long time. The metro originally proposed by Mr. Peñalosa would be part of a regional train system that would connect Bogota to neighboring commuter towns and would serve as metro in the urban area stopping only at high density stations.

Another great thing about TM is the express buses, every station has express buses of some sort, and if you do not find your express bus in your station you go in a regular bus one or two station and catch an express bus that can cross the city with a minimum of stops. Another interesting thing about it is that the buses actually change line, you catch the appropiate bus for the appropiate destination in the city and you do not have to get off, walk into another line and wait again. The only changing that needs to be done is from regular bus into express bus or viceversa.

www.surumbo.com will give you an idea of how the system works in terms of city coverage.

p.d. off course you can change a city on top regardless if you build a metro, the interesting thing about is that cities in Colombia are able to renovate the urban landscape (very important for third world cities as you saw in the video) with the money of the central government thanks to the metropolitan transport law. The pay for 70% of the whole cost of the TM systems, and that includes urban renewal.

 

[PsychoBabble]

Bravo Bogota!!!!!!!!!

 

[MARACUCHisimo]

Wooa! That was an admirable change. Disagree with mayor, I think Bogota is a model for world cities.

A BIG step ahead.

 

[Guest]

It's an incredible project! Peñalosa rules (he has my surname too -Peña-:lol

 

[ISTARI]

Quite uplifting video and good to see something positive for this city.