[dunkalunk]

Not that I'm an advocate of any particular transit system, but what they are doing in Bogotá, Columbia (pop ~8 million) should send a message to other cities, especially those in North America. The Bogota system which runs under the name Transmilenio. The System uses feeder bus routes which are free to transport people to the main BRT stations which they pay for a ticket. The system also provides incentives for biking with transit by providing indoor bike shelters which function much like a self serve coat check, you get a sticker when you leave to access your bicycle.

Map
http://www.transmilenio.gov.co/nuevapagina/images/mapaentrada.jpg

Short film about the system and the impact on commuters. (http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/01/28/streetfilm-brt-in-bogota/)

[Hankster]

Thanks for sharing this. They have an awesome BRT system in Bogota, and there are many cities all over the world than can learn from this. I love the way they have integrated the system into smaller neighborhoods by fostering the use of bicycles and smaller feeder buses than transports people for free. Great job, Bogota!

[miketoronto]

Interesting service, but I do wonder how fast it is, as it tends to operate along major roads. Even with dedicated lanes, it still has to follow traffic signals.

[arlekin_m]

is this bogota or caracas?

[deasine]

Here's a short documentary, I guess you can say that, of the Transmilenio Bus System:

StreetFilms (http://www.streetfilms.org/archives/bus-rapid-transit-bogota/)

[CenIL_LA]

I will be interested to try this system out in June when I plan to go to Bogota. It is very impressive and would be a very interesting system for many cities trying to get better transit ridership where currently the system is too inefficient to warrant so. Bogota is building a metro next.

[youngregina]

Actually this system is very fast. I would have hated to be in the traffic that was traveling at least 4 times slower than the bus itself. And remember, the busses don't stop at every station. It would make the trip much longer if they did so. Along these routes the busses have their own routes, that stop only at assigned station, making the trip much quicker. So instead of stopping maybe 20 times along the route, you only stop 6 or 7 times. Remember, busses can pass other busses.

[Swede]

Jakarta has a similar system and a huge dedicated thread on SSC: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=314069

These systems show that when done right BRT can work wonders. The problem is that BRT is often proposed as a cheap way to get transit and thus done on the cheap. That way it's just not going to work. Done right a BRT is way better than a LRT done wrong.

/I'm actually a huge LRT-fan.

[miketoronto]

Bogota also has very strict auto bylaws. There are days when almost no one in the entire metropolitan area is allowed to drive. I think it is Sunday's or something that they do this. But there is a huge push to decrease auto use in that city by transit and also just measures banning car use.

[Lakelander]

I'd be interested to see the overall capital cost for developing this extensive dedicated busway system. What we are seeing in Florida is that building dedicated busways cost just as much as light rail in many cases.

[youngregina]

Depends on labour though,, doesnt it.. Like in i mean in the U.S. labour costs a lot,, am i right. But in Colombia, labour costs would be much less. Is labour not a factor in actual construction cost.

[Lakelander]

In Jacksonville, its coming down to right-of-way costs and the cost of constructing the busways. Because it costs more to build a two lane road then it does to lay a single line of track, the costs are about even and commuter rail using existing track infrastructure is looking to be about 1/3 the cost of BRT and Light Rail.

[miketoronto]

I am starting to question the ridership numbers with Bogota. The city has over 8 million residents, yet the busway system only carries 1.5 million riders a day. That really is not alot of transit riders for such a large area. Toronto and Chicago both carry about the same ridership numbers each day in much smaller cities.

[LeftCoaster]

??

Chicago is much larger than 8 million residents, and considering the entire GTA commuter pool (oshawa, hamilton etc...) its is close to Bogota as well.

Also the numbers the TTC carries is encompassing of all forms of transit (commuter rail, rapid transit, street car, bus etc...), while the number in Bogota only concerns local and BRT routes.

it is as well doubly impressive due to the fact that Bogota does not have nearly the built up CBD as Toronto or Chicago, making rapid transit much harder to facilitate.

Chicago and Toronto are also extremly wealthy cities which spend billions and billions on their public transit, Bogota's BRT routes have acheived a much higher ridership level for dollar spent.

I am very impressed with what Bogota has managed to do, especially when considering the budget.

[tarapoto]

I have ridden the Transmilenio in Bogota, very fast and efficient and easy to use, they have separate lanes so it doesn't interfere with traffic, pretty much works exactly the same as the subway system they have in guangzhou except it's long buses instead of trains

[PeterG]

Let's not get carried away. It's a good system, but it still has its problems.
For one, the buses run on diesel, and with Bogota at an altitude of over 2.5 km above sea level, this has a major impact on pollution.
Another increasing problem is that the system is severely overcrowded at virtually all hours of the day.
Not surprising given that Transmilenio is the primary public transport in Bogota, and is essentially a bus service serving a city with the same population as London.

I can't wait - going to Bogota later in the year. I'm so excited already.