With more than 8 million inhabitants and growth that has not stopped in recent decades, Bogotá, the Colombian capital, has become one of the main Latin American cities with the greatest problems of road traffic jams in the region.
Bogota residents spend an average of 117 hours a year stuck in traffic, which translates into 5 days lost annually. These figures place Bogotá as the second city in Latin America, after Lima, in vehicle congestion, according to data released by TomTom Traffic Index, a web portal specialized in measuring travel time in the main cities of the world.
Rush hours, both in the morning and afternoon, have become a “nightmare” for residents. Added to the large traffic jams that generate slow travel is the “stress” of drivers and users of public transport.
The Voice of America He traveled from north to south along one of the main avenues of Bogotá during rush hour on the afternoon of Monday, September 30. The journey took two hours and 30 minutes, when according to Google Maps projections, the journey should take between 1 hour and 10 minutes.
On the trip, accompanied by the rain, the VOA He spoke to motorcyclists who were dealing with traffic, weaving between vehicles in a failed attempt to try to escape the traffic congestion.
“Traffic is difficult today, the rain slows it down a bit,” said one of the motorcyclists to the VOA. Another, for his part, stated that from work to home, from north to south, it takes “around 1 hour and 30 minutes.”
The saturation of the buses of the main public transport system, known as TransMilenio (a network of rapid transit buses), the lack of sufficient routes and the lack of options to connect different areas of the city, as a consequence of excessive urban growth , have caused many to opt for the use of private vehicles and motorcycles, exacerbating the problem of congestion.
This is explained by Professor José Rojas, director of the Mobility Observatory of the National University of Colombia, who assures that the city has “tried” different options to offer “better public transportation.” However, the massive stacking due to high user demand has caused people to continue using their private car.
“For people to leave their cars and migrate to a public transportation system, it needs to be economical, and we are working on that. But it also needs safety and comfort conditions in public transportation that we do not have today,” explained Rojas.
Furthermore, he added that “these conditions are what can invite private car users to migrate to the public system. Otherwise, as is happening now, car drivers know about congestion and traffic jams, but they will continue in their vehicles because they feel safe.”
Currently, Bogotá has ambitious plans to improve its infrastructure and reduce congestion. The construction of the first metro line, planned for operational tests in the first half of 2026, is one of the most anticipated solutions.
This was detailed by the current mayor of Bogotá, Carlos Fernando Galán, who has held the position since January of this year. Galán hopes to reduce some travel times by half with works such as the expansion of the North Highway, the extension of 63rd Street, the 13th Street Trunk and the construction of the Western Longitudinal Avenue in its northern and southern sections.
This last work will help decongest the exit through the South Terminal, the point where the journalistic team of the VOA It arrived two and a half hours after leaving the North Terminal.
“These are the works that we have planned so that, in the future, we do not talk about disconnection, but rather we begin to connect the city. Our task is to execute these works for the good of the citizens,” commented Galán.
However, experts warn that the city “still” needs to “strengthen” a comprehensive approach that includes improvements in public transportation as a whole, with better planning that leads to reduced dependence on private vehicles. Meanwhile, the capital will continue to face the problem of road traffic jams, known in Colombia as “trancones.”
“Metro lines, metro cables, cycle routes; All of this forms a massive transportation system that needs to be strengthened. That is the underlying solution. What we want is for people who are in private cars to migrate to bicycles or public transportation to decongest the city, and in that sense, we are a few years away,” Rojas highlighted. VOA.
Finally, according to figures from the Inter-American Development Bank, traffic congestion generates economic losses in Bogotá of more than 600 million dollars per year, due to additional fuel consumption, loss of productivity and vehicle maintenance costs.
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