Get On the Bus
- Posted by: Aaron Naparstek
- on April 17, 2009 at 9:00 am
For proof that buses can solve most of our mass-transit problems, look no further than Bogotá.
Is there any less sexy form of transportation than the bus? To the degree that Americans have paid attention to them at all, we have traditionally regarded city buses as a form of third-class transportation, a necessary evil, a kind of welfare on wheels. It’s not that we have an innate aversion to mass transit. Consider that in Brooklyn, where I live, we so completely identified with our early-20th-century streetcar system that we named our beloved baseball team the Trolley Dodgers. Then General Motors rolled into town, bought up the trolley lines, ran them into the ground, and replaced them with diesel-belching buses. Suffice it to say that no one ever nicknamed a sports franchise after the local bus system. Even in New York City, where 2.5 million people ride the bus every day, it is a much-unloved form of transportation.
And yet, an updated version of America’s most boring way to ride may very well be the fastest, cheapest way to solve some of our nation’s most pressing problems. You want to reduce traffic congestion, cut carbon emissions, and make America less automobile-dependent? Then it’s time to get on the bus.
It’s hard to believe until you’ve seen it for yourself, but the city bus can, in fact, be a sleek, fast, efficient, and first-class way to get around town. Unfortunately, you can’t find that kind of bus service in any U.S. city. You’ve got to travel down to Bogotá, Colombia, and ride the TransMilenio bus-rapid-transit system. That’s right: A city in a country that most Americans associate only with Pablo Escobar and Juan Valdez is now running the most modern, high-tech bus system in the Western Hemisphere. As you step aboard your first TransMilenio vehicle, it hits you pretty quickly: When it comes to buses, the United States is a Third World nation.
The city wants to do everything it can to encourage ridership on the TransMilenio, and it goes out of its way to accomplish that. The TransMilenio, like most top-notch bus rapid transit systems, has its own dedicated lanes. Fares are collected before passengers board, reducing wait time at each stop. Smaller “feeder” buses travel through neighborhood streets picking up passengers for free and delivering them to more centralized stations. The stations also include free guarded bike storage. The TransMilenio vehicles, meanwhile, are extra long, clean-burning, and have low floors that meet the platform for fast boarding and alighting. Real-time information systems let passengers know exactly when the next bus will arrive, and centralized traffic controllers keep buses running on time. On the TransMilenio you are never stuck behind a slow-moving car: Private motor vehicles have been relegated to their own lanes.
Some TransMilenio bus lines move so many passengers per hour that people call it “surface subway.” But unlike New York City’s Second Avenue subway project—which has been under development, off and on, for 80 years and will take tens of billions of dollars and decades more to complete—Bogotá’s then mayor, Enrique Peñalosa, got the first phase of TransMilenio up and running in just 18 months. TransMilenio immediately produced dramatic increases in bus speeds, reliability, ridership, and economic opportunity for people living in neighborhoods far from the jobs in the city center. Along with the construction of extensive bike networks and new public plazas, Peñalosa’s TransMilenio is a cornerstone of Bogotá’s rapid transformation from a traffic-choked mess to a model of sustainable urban development.
It’s hard to imagine that Americans would ever love the bus. But experiencing something like Bogotá’s TransMilenio system makes you realize that the bus can be truly lovable—even kind of sexy.
DISCUSSION: 29 Comments
Albuquerque of all places has been trying hard to get a rapid bus transit system in place the last few years. They only have two lines, but I used to take it to work and loved it. Fast, efficient, cheap. Good job Bogota!
hi, my name is Laura , Im from bogota
ok , yes Its true , transmilenio has a lot of good qualities , but you have to expirience the bad ones too, because one of the most inconvenient things is that there is no sufficient space to transport so many persons since as trasmilenio do it, is something as a sandwich, when you take transmilenio you have to fight to enter and obviously to go out and the trip often is unbearable,it is a system that needs to have more buses and more roads
Growing up in Massachusetts, my family rode the buss all the time since we didn’t have a car. We could get places pretty quickly and the buses were ALWAYS full. Now I live in the Tampa Bay area of Florida and I cannot even imagine a mass transit system. We don’t have neighborhood shops, restaurants, and entertainment. Everything seems so far away from home here, so naturally, people are pretty dependent on their cars. Roads here are constantly under construction to try to keep up with the increasing number of cars clogging them. It’s really a sad state of affairs and I don’t know if even getting a mass transit system will help. Will people just sell their cars if an efficient mass transit is developed? Probably not. It’s going to be a tough sell here since it appears we are a little too far gone.
We have something similar in Mexico city and it’s quite efficient, although there are a lot of repairs because it wasn’t built right the first time (it was election time, so there was a rush to have it finished quickly). Bogota’s transmilenio definitely seems more advanced than our MetroBus, but it’s the same idea. We have two lines already that stretch to 50 km approx. There’s plans to do more…The original idea was built on Curitiba, Brasil, and then expanded throughout the world. The mayor of the city at the time has a whole new perspective on urbanism It’s amazing. He’s a ted talk he gave… I love it http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jaime_lerner_sings_of_the_city.html
bogota is the shittiest place in south america, they just executed 3 foreign civilians with alleged terrorism and planned murder against the president without any proof or inspection. wake up people, who the fuck cares about their buses
Hmmm, well, the US has imprisoned, tortured, and killed thousands of people and that’s just Iraq and Afghanistan, and assisted in what amounted to the assassination of the president of Iraq. Our government in collusion with private telephone companies also tape recorded its private citizens, and still won’t tell us who it recorded or why. I’m not saying any of it is acceptable, but most countries are guilty of atrocities. So, I guess I’m trying to say that I care about their bus system.
Anonymous(3) you are one narrow minded individual, I guess to you it seems that since there is something wrong with the country nothing can be right or a appreciated like a bus system that is hundreds of times better than anything in the US and moves an many people as the NYC subway at a tiny fraction of the cost… Nerdmom got it right.
All you folks above, take your bickering elsewhere. More on topic, I think rapid transit systems whether buses or light rail need to be targeted to medium sized cities than trying to make it straight into large cities like NYC. Medium sized cities are where the growth is happening and their infrastructure will be most under stress in the next 5 years. Plus it will give a few models to try out before adapting to large cities. If we don’t take such initiatives in the US, soon our transportation systems, roads and services will slip under the so called ‘third world’ conditions.
I think that most of the US cities (not the really big ones like NY or LA) have ineffective bus system. Quality is good, but quantity is bad. The buses usually come in every 30 mins. If your destination is not on the street you got on, you have to get out and wait for the transfer. So, you end up taking 1 and a half hour on the bus for 10 mins drive! no wonder everyone is driving.
Well, it’s kind of a vicious cycle, isn’t it? People drive. Some want buses, so they get some buses. Relatively few people take bus. Bus operators run infrequent service because few people ride. Drivers try bus, discover that it sucks, go back to driving. Bus operators don’t improve service because no one rides. And so forth. What’s important is some initial investment to make the system good and attract riders, even if it loses a lot of money at first.
Some nice bus rapid transit would do worlds of good in places like New York City. While I still dream of the IND Second System, we can’t have heavy rail everywhere; there’s just too much to cover. Plus, it simply wouldn’t be cost-effective to run a subway between Queens and The Bronx, no matter how much Bronx High School of Science students from Flushing might want it. Bus rapid transit is a wonderful and cost-effective way to fill in the gaps.
Here in Bangkok, Thailand, a similar system is close to completion. Buses with dedicated lanes, stations etc. Jakarta, Indonesia also has a relatively comprehensive network like the Bogota one. Adelaide, Australia has had one for a while, as has Germany – called the O-Bahn. Still not as good as trains, in my opinion, but yes, a good way to roll out a transport network quickly and cheaply.
In my area we have the same problem larryv. Our Mass Transit system is supported by the cities and townships in the area, so the bus service that we get is directly dependent upon how much each city is willing to put up. I’ve thought that if the Federal gov’t set aside specific funds, or a matching system of some sort, Kansas City could offer great bus service to this area. Also, simply asking residents where they think a bus would be utilized the best. I live in a dead zone, which means I’ve got a 25-30 minute walk each morning to catch the bus. This isn’t a problem on my own, but with two kids in tow, no sidewalks and poorly lit areas, at 6:00 am in winter this isn’t an option.I would LOVE a feeder line that ran into the evening.
it’s intriguing, though it’s hard to believe that BRT gives that much of an advantage over light rail.by the time you build BRT with it’s own lanes, platforms, fare gates, etc, you might as well have built a light rail track instead of a lane.Light rail is even cleaner, being electric, (or, electric trolleybuses means you’re putting up catenaries anyway), and whereas buses usually have to be replaced after 12 years, light rail will last more like 30 or more years. Much less maintenance / wear and tear (no repaving roads either).However, i could envision a program where aggressive light rail is built out, using BRT in the meantime while asphalt streets are converted for rails. then the light rail can use the same platforms, etc, as the buses did. then BRT moves to the next line / city / region while those are being built.lastly, there’s nothing like a fixed guideway to spur development. a bus route can change tomorrow (and the transit budget crunch is causing this), but once there’s a permanent rail line in, that is a much more permanent corridor to live and work near.BRT is good, in moderation. Light rail gives more “bang for the buck” to quote the NY governor.
they just executed 3 foreign civilians with alleged terrorism and
planned murder against the president without any proof or inspectionColombia does not have capital punishment so the above is a lie.
I love Public Transport, no matter how crowded be it… I loved Mumbai Local trains. They have a life of their own… I originally am from Indore and BRT reduced the transport woes there also… http://www.embarq.org/en/news/08/02/22/indore-india-and-embarq-team-up-improve-citys-transport-systems
Bogota’s bus system is cheap because they’re living in a dictatorship that was willing to suddenly eliminate half of a highway and *take* thousands of lane-miles in order to use for the bus system – without which the economy couldn’t afford to include the poor non-driving masses.
Tally up the pavement costs involved and I think you’ll find it’s a more expensive option than a subway line, much less a light rail line.
anonymous of april 21 is talking shit – if your know-how of something is 0 why dont you keep your mouth shut. 1. Per legislation TransMilenio was not allowed to take away road space from exisiting lanes. 2. The system in total with 4 phases (I and II operate, III partially under construction ) has less than 300km exclusive bus lanes, not thousands of miles…3. Colombia has a democracy and not clan rulers like the Bush family in the US. 4. The system cost per km excl. buses was on average 10 million USD. A LTR (Light train) costs 60-90 million and has less capacity per pax-hour than TransMilneio which reaches on Americas >40,000 pax per distance per hour (more than NY subway by the way…) – a metro costs anywhere between 100 and 300 million USD per km … so much for having the same cost. Including buses the cost mounts to around double, but still far cheaper. Also O&M of BRT is lower than a subway (only 2 subways in the world dont have operation deficits). Next to Bogota dozens of cities are copying world-wide the system with costs in some cities (e.g. Chongqing China) of less then 0.5 million per km By the way the TransMilenio is the first registered climate change transport project developed (see under http://www.unfccc.int) and earns carbon credits
A lightrail train costs only about 3x as much as a bus, but is so much more attractive!
“The stations also include free guarded bike storage.”I think I’m in love.
Next step: Group Rapid Transit.
Now that busses have their own rights of way, lay some track down and put automated vehicles on them. Less rolling resistance, lower operational costs (you don’t have to pay drivers, and insurance is probably a lot cheaper for railed vehicles than for tired ones), and you can make it semi-on-demand (the automated system adjusts service based on how many people are requesting each trip, and tries to minimize wait times and trip duration).
Oh, and also if you have railed vehicles instead of buses you can run them entirely off grid electricity, eliminating the air pollution and noise on-site. And if you generate the electricity from wind or solar you eliminate all emissions.
Trasmilenio está colapsando….es un sistema de transporte masivo que se está quedando corto en sus alcances…..el hacinamiento es parecido a la imagenes que se ven en Japón. Miles de usuarios apretujados como sardinas. Eso no me parece sexy! Es tan crítico el sistema que ya están pensando en hacer el metro subterráneo (desde hace mucho tiempo) lo que pasa es que Colombia no tiene plata para hacerlo y seguramente tendrá que tomar créditos con Bancos de EUA (eso es lo más seguro!)
Here in Portland, we just gold-plate our MAX, Streetcar and WES lines while ignoring (and dis-investing in) the bus system.We have an aging bus fleet that is one of the oldest in the nation. We have absolutely NO improvements in bus fare payment systems – we use a flash card pass system, no stored-value system, and debit/credit card holders are out-of-luck. (But cash payers are completely out of luck on WES, and increasingly out of luck on MAX.)The majority of bus stops are unimproved – nothing more than a sign on the shoulder of the road, are not ADA accessible, and frankly are unsafe for pedestrians. TriMet claims it’s not responsible for pedestrian improvements, yet spends tens of thousands, if not hundreds – PER STATION – for MAX, Streetcar and WES stations (from sidewalk improvements, crosswalks, traffic signals or pedestrian signs, multiple access points…)Good bus service attracts riders just like good rail service. The problem is, here in Portland, we gold-plate the rail system and expect bus riders to subsidize it, while getting negative benefit.