Don't Hold Your Breath

'By 2040, only electric and zero-emission cars will operate in Bogotá.' (El Tiempo)

The story never changes: Just wait, and Bogotá will have clean air (and a clean river). But whether

Does anybody care? A SITP bus belches
away in central Bogotá.

it's five, ten or fifteen years away, that dream never feels any closer.

The city's latest plan is that after 2025 all new TransMilenio buses must be zero emission, and after 2036 (only 18 years away) all new SITP buses must be zero emission. (A portion of the new TransMilenio buses which Bogotá will buy next year are to be low or zero emission, which is progress.)

But, even assuming that the politicians actually stick to the plan, the dirty old buses we have now will stay on the road. And, meanwhile, the city will fill up with many thousands of additional cars and other vehicles, whose pollution will add their poison to the air.

Don't expect relief soon.

Why don't authorities try something novel and different? Penalize those rolling chimneys we see belching away unmolested every day?

That would bring our throats and lungs some relief, not in 2036 or 2025, but tomorrow!

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours