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New cars shown in the auto show in Corferias...
(Photo: Corferias) |
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| ...will soon be trapped in Bogotá's traffic jams. |
Bogotá's annual big auto show is going on now in the
Corferias convention center. What they won't show you, tho, is the congested, chaotic reality out on Bogotá's streets. And each additional car sold here will worsen that situation.
By 2020, the number of private cars in Bogotá is predicted to double. The city doesn't have room.
The unaffordable subway which Mayor Petro and Pres. Santos seem determined to build won't unravel the traffic jams. Neither will building and expanding avenues, which only encourages more driving. What Bogotá needs, in addition to more expensive gasoline, is a
congestion charge, which would pay for transit and discourage unnecessary private car use.
In today's
El Tiempo,
Jaime Lerner, ex-mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, calls private cars "the cigarette of the future." If people have cars at all, he says, they should be used only for recreation, not for city driving.
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| ...will soon be waiting in a traffic jam like this one. |
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| ...will make the same old traffic jams even worse. |
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| ...to wait on the street. |
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Looks nice, huh?
(Photo: Corferias) |
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| Stewing in traffic. Not so nice. |
By Mike Ceaser, of
Bogotá Bike Tours
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