Towards a greener and faster public transport?

In some cities, municipalities have long been looking for ways of improving the quality of their public
transport

In the week the world was in Poznán, in Poland, at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC)(1), we investigate how some cities have acted early and managed to build innovative
systems of mass transportation able to deal with increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases(GHG) in
the atmosphere.

While in many cities of the world environmental solutions to the public transport have not yet been
addressed broadly, there are places that, long before the expression “Climate Change” become a fashion,
have managed to design a cheaper, faster and greener system of public transport.

Thinking green, acting fast

Curitiba(2), in Brazil, and Bogotá, in Colombia, are two Latin American examples of cities that, through
innovative ideas and well-planned infrastructure for their buses, have lowered emissions of greenhouse
gases to the atmosphere as well as contributed to enhance their citizen’s quality of life.

Back in the mid 70’s, the city of Curitiba designed and started to implement its bus express line, which
started to work in 1978. Over the years many improvements have been made to the original project.

Curitiba’s mass transportation system is deeply integrated, enabling passengers to save money and time.
There are Tube Stations (bus stops designed in a tube format), and a three articulated bus, aimed at
polluting as if it was just one bus.

The buses are also identified by colors: yellow, orange, green, red, grey, white, blue & yellow. Grey buses, for
instance, are the speedy ones, while the Blue & Yellow’s take children with special needs to school.

Bogota’s Bus Rapid Transit, or Transmilenio(3), designed by Enrique Peñalosa, Mayor of the city between
1998 and 2001, while seen as a good example of sustainable means of transport, has been under some
scrutiny as well.

In Mr Peñalosa mayorship, Bogota was shaken by many important changes that altered radically the
general landscape of this South American city: it was built miles and miles of bicycle routes, the use of cars
were restricted on rush hours, many parks were constructed, and, taking Curitiba’s system of transport as
an example, it was built the Transmilenio.

Transmilenio’s well-structured system follows Curitiba’s paths of special lane for the buses(4), trying to
reduce the GHG emissions in the atmosphere, fair fares for the passengers, speediness, flexibility to
passengers all at the behest of a high quality citizen life.

Although Transmilenio has been highly praised in many parts of the world as an example of sustainability,
it has its critics as well. Alan Gilbert, from University College London, said in an article published in the
July issue of the journal Transport Reviews(5) that Bogota’s rapid bus systems have its “flaws”, and, as
such, should be analysed critically. By doing so, Dr. Gilbert argues, cities intending to copy Transmilenio
idea will therefore be able to build for themselves a better system of mass transportation.

Saskia Sassen(6), professor of Sociology at Columbia University, who is one of the advocates of Bogota’s
Transmilenio, gave us an interview earlier this month in São Paulo. She was a speaker at the Urban Age
South America Conference(7), organized by the London School of Economics and the Alfred Herrhausen
Society.

In the interview, Mrs Sassen said that Bogota’s Milenio Bus concept is cheap, because it is running on the
surface. I asked her, then, that if by talking about buses as a main means of transport, we wouldn’t be
implying its side-effect too, namely, pollution. She said “No, absolutely”. “We can have clean buses”,
stressing that there are more greenhouse gases emissions when we’re “building a subway” than when you
have a system of buses such as the Transmilenio.

She pointed out that “cement and construction” can do more harm do the atmosphere than clean buses
running on the surface. “Buses don’t have to pollute and it’s so much cheaper, and people feel more
comfortable and safer in a bus”, she said.
São Paulo’s biggest challenges

In São Paulo, a city of almost 20 million people, there have been many improvements in the system of
trains, underground and buses over the last years. São Paulo’s Mayor and the State Governor are working
together to make the public transport better to the population.

Yet, one third of the public opinion seems not to be feeling satisfied with the city’s public transport, a 2008
survey released by Ipsos Public Affairs Brazil revealed.

According to the survey, 33% of the respondents said that transport is what worries them most. Moreover,
26% of the interviewees said that improved public transport would enhance the quality of life in the city.

One of the São Paulo’s biggest challenges seem to be, however, its 6 million cars running on the streets, its
intense daily traffic jams and the air pollution.

Mrs Sassen suggested that to tackle these problems, it’s important that governments make sure that “public
transport is not polluting”. Also, she said that in São Paulo there could have “many centralities, distributed
over a broader area of the city”, where there night be malls and restaurants for people to go. Her argument
is that there might be in each borough of the city a Main Street, with all the facilities and services citizens
normally only find in the city centre.

For her, in this way, people wouldn’t need to travel large distances to do basic things, such as walk to shop
or to their work or to school or take a bike. Therefore, this ideal city would mean a more “humane life” for
citizens and would be also easier for those who have children, who wouldn’t have to travel large distances as
well.

“I think that those are all strategies, but I think that it takes very active governments, who are really
beginning to work”, she concluded.

By Hamilton William dos Santos

Freelancer reporter for RT

Sao Paulo, Brasil

Could you, please, put these as hyperlinks in the reporting?

(1) http://unfccc.int/2860.php

(2) http://www.onibusdecuritiba.com.br/novo/

(3) http://transmilenio.surumbo.com/index2.php3?domain=transmilenio.surumbo.com&alias=&frames=0&refe
rer=http ://www.transmilenio.gov.co/WebSite/Default.aspx

(4) http://images.wri.org/photo_transmilenio_danielsson.jpg

(5) http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a793828931~db=all~order=page

(6) http://www.sociology.columbia.edu/fac-bios/sassen/faculty.html

(7) http://www.urban-age.net/01_introduction/intro_conference.html

Please, note that these two links below are only for the newsroom crew check some facts in the article. The video is
particularly instructive about Curitiba and it is in English.

http://www.ecologicmedia.com/index.php?option=com_seyret&task=videodirectlink&id=8,

http://archive.wri.org/newsroom/wrifeatures_text.cfm?ContentID=880