Bogotá Needs a Congestion Fee!

An every-day traffic jam in Bogotá.

'Three to a car.' A Petro-era plan to require
car-pooling was never enforced.

This week, transit experts are meeting in Bogotá at Corferias to discuss solutions for the horrendous traffic congestion in Bogotá and other big cities.

Noisy, polluting traffic in La Candelaria:
Making cycling, walking and
generally living unpleasant.

Bogotá has been consistently ranked as one of the traffic jammed cities in Latin America and in fact the world. And, unless authorities take strong action, the situation will only get worse and worse as thousands more cars and motorcycles are packed into its roads.


What's the solution?

Pico y Placa has manifestly failed, and may even have made congestion and pollution worse by incentivizing the purchase of second cars.

The city's weak promotions for car pooling have accomplished almost nothing.

A sign announing London's
congestion charge zone.
(Wikipedia)

And the city's efforts to promote bicycling have been worthwhile, but their potential is limited. Colombia is not Holland. Only a small minority will ever be willing to ride bikes, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, the social and commercial pressures to drive, combined with big subsidies for cars, will continue crowding more vehicles onto our streets.

We can't build out way out of this nightmare.

The only solution is a London-style congestion charge.

London's congestion fee
increased cycling (blue).
(Wikipedia)

The charge discourages driving.

The charge finances mass transit.

London's congestion
fee reduced driving (red).
(Wikipedia)

By reducing noise, congestion and pollution, the fee makes cycling and walking much more pleasant.

It's the only solution.





By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Four Bucks for Freedom?

How much would you pay to get out of this mess?A traffic jam on NQS Avenue. 

This morning, two groups of foreigners heading towards the city center called me with the same predicament: they wanted to do a bike tour, but were trapped in immense traffic jams.

One of the groups made it, albeit late. The others arrived in downtown nearly an hour later than planned and

A daily traffic jam in the Santa Fe neighborhood.

missed the tour.

I couldn't help thinking about the congestion charges which Bogotá is considering once again. A few months ago, the City Council voted the charge down without offering any good reasons why - despite two studies finding that such charges were workable and would reduce the city's chronic traffic jams.

The latest version of the proposed law would impose an 8,000 peso fee on vehicles which enter certain congested parts of the city. Drivers will cry and gnash their teeth: 'This is an illegal tax'; 'It's an unfair burden on the middle class'; 'We can't afford it!'

None of those arguments hold water, of course. Those who own cars can afford to pay a few thousand pesos. And, the burdens they are placing on the city thru their noise, congestion and pollution cost all of us much more than 8,000 pesos.

But, this morning's experience demonstrated dramatically why the charge would also be good for those who pay it. One of the people trapped in the traffic jam, an airline pilot from Germany, told me that they'd lost an hour of time in traffic congestion. That's an hour of the lives of 5 people and their driver. And I'm sure it wasn't a very pleasant hour. What's more, congested traffic burns more gasoline - which means money - and produces lots more pollution.

How much does an airline pilot earn? A lot more than 8,000 pesos, which is about $4.00 U.S. per hour.

And there were six people in that car, meaning that the charge came down to much less than $1.00 per person.

That's a tiny price to pay to get back a chunk of your life.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Is Three a Crowd In One Car?

A man sneaks between stalled cars in central Bogotá today.

Is there an escape from Bogotá's traffic jams? Gustavo Petro's administration thinks so, but is rolling toward frustratingly slowly.

The Petro administration plans to modify the Pico y Plan policy once again - and it's a potentially

A single car, perhaps carrying only one person,
can occupy almost as much space as a bus,
carrying dozens of passengers..

positive adjustment for a failed policy.


In the first change, Pico y Placa is to be suspended in some neighborhoods, including parts of north Bogotá, where it's not considered necesarry.

In a more fundamental shift, in some parts of central Bogotá Pico y Placa is to be lifted for cars carrying at least three people. That's a positive change - if it works. Pico y Placa has patently failed, as a look at this city's traffic jams will show. Pico y Placa may even worsen traffic in the long run by encouraging the purchase of second cars by the rich so that they can drive every day.

So, if eliminating the restriction for high occupancy cars reduces car trips (rather than, say, drawing passengers out of buses), it'll be a good thing.

Most of these cars carried only one person. 

But I just wonder how such a rule could possibly be enforced. Do they propose to cite all vehicles which cross a specific street with fewer than three occupants inside? If so, I expect to see professional passengers-for-hire standing on that street to ride across to fulfill the quota and then getting out a block later. (That's happened in car pool lanes in the U.S.). Will we start noticing passengers who appear suspiciously inanimate (or inflated) and who stay in the vehicle all day long - and all night - just to satisfy the quota?

And how about all those cars with tinted windows which prevent seeing who's inside?

A street vendor outpaces jammed cars. 

This is, unfortunately, also another example of an isolated, uncoordinated policy. This policy would make sense, and be more realistic, if the city had first thot about encouraging car pooling with, say, a website, car pool lanes and incentives for businesses. Instead, they expect drivers to change their habits overnight. Fat chance. Most of the cars I saw waiting in central Bogotá traffic jams today carried only one person (but those single passenger vehicles often occupy almost as much road space as a small bus carrying a dozen people).

Much more effective potentially is the congestion charge the city is also talking about. A few thousand peso fee to enter congested areas will not only reduce traffic jams, but also generate money for public transit.

In this cartoon in today's El Tiempo, a man tells his wife that his pretty young passengers are only there to help him escape Pico y Placa.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Is Bogotá Ready for a Congestion Charge?

Drivers wait, and wait, on a downtown Bogotá street. With a congestion charge, they might be home by now. 

Stopped cars block
a TM bus.

Does Bogotá need a traffic congestion charge?

Is it ready for one?

The answer to the first question is a clear yes, as anybody who's sat thru the city's massive traffic jams can attest. But the second question is more complex.

The municipal and national governments are preparing legislation to enable the city to charge drivers who contribute to traffic jams, particularly in central Bogotá, according to El Espectador.

A private car, which may carry only one person,
can occupy almost as much road space as a bus,
with dozens of passengers.

This week, two transit experts from Transport for London visited Bogotá to advise the city about congestion charges and other policies. The Britons told El Espectador that London's charge had reduced congestion by 35%, while also financing public transit. (It's also reduced air pollution.)

But the two men seemed to damn Bogotá's transit with faint praise: "There's potential," they opined, "but (the transit systems) should be more integrated."

Bogotá's Parque Nacional turns into a public parking lot on
many days. Here, cars block a pedestrian ramp.

They might have added that TransMilenio is inadequate for the city and that the private buses are old, polluting and chaotic. Meanwhile, the number of private cars, which hog 80% of road space but transport only 20% of people, is exploding.

London implemented its congestion charge when its transit system was ready, the Britons pointed out. Today, London's transit system includes its subway, light rail lines, buses, a cable car, river boats and public bicycles.

Bogotá is not quite there yet.

However, as the number of private cars explodes, Bogotá's huge traffic jams will only get worse, unless official take strong measures soon. And pico y placa has clearly failed.

Bogotá has a surplus of thousands of old, polluting buses.
But city leaders fear the bus companies' ire 

Congestion charges, like all taxes, generate lots of opposition at first. But where they've been implemented, residents generally come to like them once they experience the benefits. After all, today drivers are paying a high price in less concrete ways: lost time, burned fuel and more stress and pollution.

A congestion charge will not be the perfect solution. Nor will it convert Bogotá transit into that of London or Paris. But it can only be an improvement over the sorry situation that exists now.

Car economics: 'What they sell', 'What you buy' and 'What we all pay.'

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Metro System Will Solve Our Ills?

 

A subway train in Santiago, Chile....

This week, the World Bank gave the go-ahead for final studies for a subway line for Bogotá, which

...and a traffic jam in Santiago de Chile.

 tentatively would run from Kennedy in the city's southwest to Usaquen in its northeast.

A subway, if it's actually built, will be great for those who use it. But for those who believe it'll solve the city's worsening traffic jams, I've posted these photos from other Latin American cities which do have subways.

If Bogotá does go ahead with its first subway line, which is supposed to measure 27 kms and will cost billions of dollars, let's brace for a decade of urban upheaval, corruption scandals, cost over-runs and, and, of course, traffic jams.

That's not to say that a subway isn't a good idea. But, as ADN headlined, 'The World Bank Believes that Bogotá is Unsustainable for the Enormous Use of the Car.' To reduce traffic jams, Bogotá needs to limit the use of the private car. Pico y Placa has failed. The solution is a London-style congestion charge.

New vehicles pero 1,000 people in 2009. As Colombian car ownership escalates, cities will become unsustainable, unless governments take strong measure to reduce private car use.

A metro train in Mexico City, Mexico....

...and a traffic jam in Mexico City.

A map of the Mexico City subway system. In a decade, Bogotá might have a single line.

Sao Paulo's shiny subway....

...and Sao Paulo's terrible traffic jams.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours





On Cars and Colombia

Nothing movin': A routine traffic jam in La Candelaria.

Today's Car-Free Day in Bogotá (a misnomer) is a good time to look at cars in Colombia.

Gray skies at dawn: Morning
pollution above central Bogota. 

Colombia actually has a low per-capita level of car ownership, compared to wealthy nations and even many other developing countries, thanks in part to high gasoline prices and historically high import tariffs. That might come as a surprise to anybody trapped in Bogotá's horrendous traffic jams, but it's also a warning of how monumental those traffic jams could be as more Colombians buy cars. That's already happening: 150,000 new cars are brought into Bogotá every year, and that number looks likely to accelerate with increasing economic growth and free trade agreements with the United States, Korea and the European Union.

If authorities don't take strong measures soon, Bogotá will strangle in traffic.

A parked car blocks a handicapped
ramp in the National Park. 

The auto industry does generate lots of jobs in car assembly plants, sales, maintenance, etc etc. But the auto industry also bleeds Colombia's economy: about 60% of new cars are imported, taking capital out of the country, and each additional car consumes more gasoline, which otherwise could be exported and produce more income for Colombia's economy.

Add to that the pollution, traffic congestion and health problems caused by too many cars, and it's clear that automobiles are a drag on Colombia's economy, as well as its environment and quality of life.

Bogotá's Pico y Placa policy has obviously failed. Mayor Gustavo Petro wants to create a London-style congestion charge: that's not only a good idea. It's a necesity for this city.

Sensible transit? A cyclist passes cars in a traffic jam. 

Related blog posts: Scenes from Car-Free Day

Bogotá: One-Way Trip to Becoming Los Angeles, Calif.?

Green or Grey Bogotá?

End of the Line for for Bogotá's Traffic Congestion?

Why expensive car fuel is a bargain for Colombia

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Petro's Brave Transit Plan

Paying every minute: Traffic jams now cost Bogotanos millions in lost time, fuel and pollution. 

If there's an urban problem which causes more suffering for more people than traffic congestion, I haven't seen it: you name it: stress, lost time, sedenterianism, air pollution - even hearing damage - traffic jams cause them.

Build it and they'll fill it up:
a congested ten-lane 'freeway' in California. 

But, there also may not exist a problem with more vested interests: construction companies which want government gravy to build subways and freeways; car owners who want to be able to drive anywhere anytime; car dealers and importers who want to sell more machines - no matter the impacts on the community.

That's why most cities have tried to build their way out of traffic jams - usually unsuccesfully. That's because there's money there for everyone, even tho new roads take many years to build and soon fill up with more cars.

So, give Mayor-elect Gustavo Petro lots of points for planning to attack traffic problems by limiting demand, rather than feeding the traffic monster.

I can already hear the shrieks about Petro's plan to create urban tolls to charge drivers for the impacts they cause. Motorists, after all, don't want to pay for something they believe they've been getting for free.

A private car gobbles up much more road space than does a bus passenger. 

But car drivers don't realize that they are paying to congest the roads: in time lost in traffic jams, extra fuel burnt, in stress and even in lung damage from breathing in pollution generated by those traffic jams. 

Worse, neighbors, pedestrians, bicyclists and bus passengers also suffer lots of these impacts - even tho they don't cause them. 

By spurring commuters to reconsider unecessary trips or switch from cars to bicycles or buses, congestion pricing will reduce all of these problems - just as it has in highly-liveable cities like London, Stockholm and Singapore. Congestion charges will also generate money for public transit, so that Bogotá can improve its bus system and actually pay for its dreamed-of subway system.

This cyclist is the only one moving.

Even those who continue driving cars into the city center will benefit, because they won't waste hours in traffic jams. 

Encouragingly for Petro, London Mayor 'Red' Ken Livingstone, who created London's pioneering congestion charge won reelection - and his conservative successor Boris Johnson has continued the system. In Stockholm, Sweden, support for the congestion charge jumped from 25% to over 50% after a trial run. Traffic in Stockholm's city center was cut 20%. After London implemented its charge, traffic speed jumped 30% and travel times dropped 14%. That means millions of dollars (or pounds sterling) in saving for the economy.

Read about other cities' experiences with congestion pricing here.

Watch a video here.

How do I escape from this?

I've only moved a block since noon!

I wish I were walking!

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

An End to Bogotá's Traffic Jams?

Nowhere to turn: Gridlock on Carrera 4.

You've seen them, often twice a day and much of the time in between, sitting motionless inside expensive metal boxes just as tho their purpose was to clog Bogotá's streets and avenues.

Better abandon your cars and walk. 

They're called car drivers, and they do it pretty well. According to El Tiempo, the average velocity on Bogotá streets has dropped to 23 kilometers/hour - and only 11 or 12 kms/hr on some corridors. That's little more than double an average walking speed and much less than a typical cyclist on Bogotá's flat terrain. In 2003, the paper reports, Bogotá's average traffic speed was 32 km/hr, meaning that traffic is slowing at a rate of almost one km/hr each year. And with hundreds of thousands of new cars entering the city, the congestion will only get worse.

The solutions proposed by politicians - a subway or urban freeways - would be either very expensive, far in the future or cause more pollution - or all these things. And they would only be stopgap measures, since experiences across the globe show that creating more space for cars only lures more vehicles onto the roads.

Visionary: Vicemin Felip Targa.

Enter Transport Viceminister Felipe Targa, who tells El Tiempo that Colombia might limit private car sales in Bogotá and create a congestion charge like London's. Targa points out that "when you drive during rush hour you're adding several seconds of delay to everybody else" and says that drivers should pay for that. The income would be used for road and public transit improvements.

Traffic jams are a perfect illustration of the tragedy of the commons, in which an individual benefits (or thinks he does) by driving a private car, but community in general suffers. "The best way to avoid" this trap, says Targa, is "thru tarification." Every car would carry a chip which would be used to charge the owner for entering the city center during congested times. Hopefully, that will push some people onto buses, TransMilenio or bicycles, or cause them to avoid unecessary driving.

The result: a less polluted, less congested, less stress-out city with a healthy population and better public transit. And everybody wins, including even those people who pay the congestion fee, because they'll get where they're going faster. After all, even if they don't know it, they're already paying a congestion fee in time wasted in traffic jams.

Green doesn't mean go. A few gridlocked cars block hundreds of TM passengers. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Will Bogotá Take the Same Doomed Traffic Policy?

'Cars Asphyxiate the Cities of Latin America'

This headline in Sunday's El Tiempo was no news to those of us living in Latin American cities, who see scenes like the one below every day. 

Cars asphyxiate Bogotá: The scene
this afternoon on Carrera 19 in Bogotá. 

But the report, which talks about cities all over the continent, sends a broader message: Latin American cities have tried all sorts of things to control traffic congestion: subways, urban freeways, pico y placa laws, and they've clearly all failed.

Will Bogotá take the same doomed route? 

The only real, sustainable solution is not to build more road space, which is quickly filled anyway, but to reduce traffic demand. And the only proven way to do that is with a congestion charge. 

Will Bogotá's next mayor have the courage?

'Traffic in Latin America is Intolerable.' News to anybody?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Fiddling While Bogotá Waits

Waiting for a solution

Bogotá has, for many years, had a policy called Pico y Placa which prohibits vehicles from driving in the city two days of each week, according to the last digit on the license plate.

The system successfully reduced traffic congestion -  in the short term. In the longer term, however, the policy is counterproductive, because it encourages the purchase of second cars with different license plate numbers by those who can afford to. A glance at the city's tremendous traffic jams shows patently that Pico y Placa has failed.

This week is particularly dramatic, because the city government suspended Pico y Placa during the holidays, when many people leave the city. However, while the city started back up on the 11th, the suspension extends until the 15th, condemning us to a week of really infernal traffic jams.

Last year, the city government expanded the restriction to 14 hours per day because of the traffic problems generated by roadwork. That change is scheduled to expire Feb. 15 - when the road projects were supposed to  be wrapped up. However, those projects are way behind, and so city hall is talking about extending the 14-hour  Pico y Placa - an inevitable decision. More broadly, officials may add Saturdays to the Pico y Placa rotation, banning cars from the streets three out of every six days.

Bogotá needs more bikes, fewer cars.

But does anybody realy believe that will make more than an incremental reduction in traffic congestion? Particularly when 140,000 cars and 40,000 motorcycles were registered in Bogotá last year?

What Bogotá needs is a congestion charge, the only solution which will take cars off of the road, while also generating income for public transit.



By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours