Advocacy Project English

Front 1

Claim M

Back 1

Bogota must make its citizens aware of the benefits of a fully functional Transmilenio system, and how they can help Bogota by reducing particular vehicle traffic, and using this saved money for improving public transportation.

Front 2

Traffic Today S

Back 2

-Of the 16 billion pesos allocated by the development plan of the capital, to improve the mobility of citizens only 3.56 billion have run, equivalent to 23% of the money assigned.

-Mobility is the second to last project the city has invested in

-Secretary of Mobility district, Rafael Rodriguez, manager of the mobility of the capital, presented his resignation some weeks ago claiming to have had some disagreements with the mayor.

-1,389,531 cars in circulation

Front 3

The Transmilenio Situation M

Back 3

-Protests of Transmilenio workers in Bogota, Cali, Barranquilla, Medellin, Bucaramanga and some more cities have been increased in the last couple of weeks and the reason is simple: These public transportation system are not self sustaining.

-As with the protests strikes in Bogota have become common, to the point that system users complained about the situation via twitter

-Increase in criminality in the Transmilenio

-350 police officers had to be ordered to patrol the system

Front 4

Bogota Grew too Fast S

Back 4

In a time span of 50 years, Bogota grew from being little more than the town to the mega city it is today. It has reached the astounding number of 8 million citizens! Right now, the city is growing at an urbanization rate of 5.5% per year, this is one of the highest in the world. Bogota doesn't have the money to keep up with this. The city is not ready for this type of expansion, only a tiny part of the city has infrastructure at the level of any other modern metropolis. This rapid expansion has brought along many issues involving transportation, housing and services.

Front 5

Solutions M

Back 5

Proposals Rafael Pardo: An article posted by Semana presented suggestions for improving mobility from Rafael Pardo's point of view. His most important ideas were to expand the bus and car lane widths in order to speed up traffic during peak hours, place policemen and Transmilenio authorities at vehicular traffic and Transmilenio intersections, analyze backflow and alternate routes to change the bus' path thus making the main roads less congested.

Front 6

Solutions S

Back 6

Taxing particular vehicle users: Particular vehicle users will be taxed high amounts of money. This will make them consider the idea of using a much cheaper form of transport, such as Transmilenio. If they decline, they will still be helping the system by paying the tax money which is going straight to the development of the Transmilenio.

Front 7

Solution M

Back 7

Restricting the Number of Vehicles per Registered User: This will reduce the number of cars on the street, considering that the Pico y Placa is in place, people will have to use the Transmilenio system at least 5 days a week.

Front 8

Solution S

Back 8

The metro system conflict: According to architect Jaime Lerner, implementing a metro system is not the solution to public transportation problems, he says Transmilenio is good enough and has to be given a chance to improve. Juan Pablo Borrejo, a transportation expert, also stated that the metro system wasn't the solution because wasting a huge part of the cities scarce funds on a system that might be too expensive for many to use, will also sacrifice many other projects that are also important to the city.

Front 9

Solution M

Back 9

Modernizing transportation: Another vehicle that slows down the traffic greatly are the outdated horse carts which still roam the streets. Other than slowing down traffic, these animals are being extorted, several animal rights groups have stated that forcing these horses to carry up to 600 pounds worth of garbage qualifies as abuse.

Front 10

Why it may not work S

Back 10

Since Colombia is trying to keep up with countries such as England and the US, we try to use the systems and policies they use; according to many Londoners, buses are a thing of the past. People feel that they are of lower classes by riding the Transmilenio because of statements such as this. Also, because we live in this consumerist culture, many believe that having a car implies having power and comfort; these two issues will make it hard for the campaign to increase awareness of the benefits of Transmilenio and of giving up their cars.

Front 11

Why it may not work S

Back 11

The upgrade of the Transmilenio system isn't for free, the vehicle users' taxes wouldn't be enough to fix, improve and maintain the new system, therefore the fares would be at least 300 pesos higher. Considering that the minimum salary per month is 616.000 pesos, and that the current fare cost is 1.700, making the cost 2.000 pesos would be exuberantly expensive for many people.