Transmilenio BRT In Pictures and Words
We’ve seen the StreetFilms hagiography of the Transmilenio BRT - now let’s take a look at something that might be a bit more indicative of the true nature of Transmilenio - let me present, ‘Transmilenio In Pictures,’ for your pleasure.
First, when you want to go somewhere, walk to the gangplank, and walk over it to the safety island - pedestrians are allowed to be there. By the time you reach the station, you’ll probably need a rest, but it’s good morning exercise anyways. This massive plank keeps pedestrians safe from the river of motor traffic. And the highrise plank clearly indicates that pedestrians have the highest priority (literally) on the streets of Bogota:
Once we finish upgrading to light rail, we’ll be able to use this walking plank as a stairway to the moon.
After you’ve successfully navigated over the highway within a highway, you will enter the jail station:
Then pay your money for the privilege of sitting in traffic:
(Is that a biker over there?!)
It may be true that San Francisco deserves a bus system that was deemed viable for a developing nation because of its cost effectiveness, but I was under the impression that, for all its overexposure worldwide, and crumbling infrastructure and financial system, America could still afford to spend on real public transit. How much is San Francisco spending on the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, or is that money coming from some other fund? I can’t keep track.
Regardless, let’s see if the poor sections of San Francisco are comparable to the poor sections of Bogota - maybe that will serve as some indicator of the relative economic strength (or weakness) of San Francisco compared to Bogota. Maybe in this way we can know whether San Francisco can really afford real transit or not:
On our way to the Cicloparqueadero at Portal de las Américas, Peñalosa took us on a bike tour of one of the poorer sections of the city. We traveled through a neighborhood of unpaved roads overhung by jerry-rigged electrical wiring and surrounded, in spots, by open sewers. We rode past block after block of half-built cinder block housing covered with corrugated aluminum roofing. This was the scene I saw to my right.
To my left, there were cows grazing in an open drainage ditch. We were not talking about a particularly wealthy part of town.
Some of the people of Bogota were and are suffering miserably, as some are here in San Francisco, but the question remains, is BRT the best we can do in San Francisco?
Man - first the residents of San Francisco ask for BRT. What’s next — running water?
Keep in mind that this is not a question of whether BRT or LRT is the better solution for Geary Boulevard. Geary would clearly be best served by LRT (light rail). But BRT proponents tell us, “Sadly - we just cannot afford light rail.”
I’m calling Shenanigans.
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