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At times it can seem overwhelming to live in the city with its many challenges. Where to start first? Public schools? Crime? Corruption? Housing? Take your pick. Maybe there are subtler parts to the solution. Here’s an idea for an approach that perhaps we can take a cue from.

Colombia has a reputation as a troubled place. The country has suffered under a US-funded drug war (the US supplies much of the funding to both sides), nearly 40 years of guerilla insurgency and a host of other problems including a troubled economy and paramilitary groups operating freely, including some accused of the killing of union organizers at US owned businesses.

Bogota Bus Stop

In the midst of all this trouble, its capital city, Bogota, a city of seven million, also has one of the most efficient urban transit systems in the world. The Transmilenio busway carries 850,000 passengers every day. 11% of the regular riders on the bus system have switched from cars to bus. Approximately 45 percent of Transmilenio’s riders get to the attractively designed and pleasant bus stations on foot or by bike. The Transmilenio is served by 130 miles of dedicated bus lanes and bike paths. The city of Bogot� has invested $178 million into bicycle improvements in the city, which Planning magazine estimates is about half of the total amount spent in the ENTIRE US annually for cycling infrastructure.

You might be saying, OK, I know the Urban Conservancy has a thing for bicycles. What does Bogota, Colombia have to do with the urban environment and New Orleans in particular? Well, here’s a city saddled with many of the same problems that New Orleans has, perhaps worse, and yet the government of Bogota has chosen to pursue sophisticated public transportation as a keystone in an effort “to prevent brain drain and entice foreign capital and investment” (sound familiar?). From a speech Mayor Enrique Penalosa gave last year at the University of California in Berkeley:

“Do we want to create a city for children and the elderly, and therefore for every other human being, or a city for automobiles? The important questions are not about engineering, but about ways to live. A premise of the new city is that we want society to be as egalitarian as possible. For this purpose, quality of life distribution is more important than income distribution.”

We think this is a pretty good start too.

Filed under: Editorials