Several weeks ago, I traveled back to Bogota with the expectation of seeing my family and friends as well as having some medical checkups done. As the days went by, I saw Bogota with different eyes and I realized what I never noticed before. Bogota is a very chaotic and stressful city. I consider myself a city girl, but I have lived in so much tranquility during this past 4 years without people getting on their nerves, yelling or fighting over lanes or being aggressive drivers. Chicago is the most proximate city to where I live and it doesn’t even get close to the tremendous chaos that I lived when I was in Bogota.
Cities are amazing because there are many opportunities to discover new trends, learn about different perspectives and have an amplified job market, but I realized that there are cities that are impossible to live in, regardless of the fact that they have their own enchantment. Bogota is one of those cities that despite of all the beautiful things it has to offer and bring to the table, its unable to demonstrate it due to the chaos and the unorganized legislations that the current Mayor has established in this city. I can’t believe that some American and British journalists consider Bogota’s current mayor as one of the best mayors in the world when the degrading quality of building and social infrastructure and the lack of civic reinforcement has brought Bogota to its current critical condition. I don’t want to criticize the Mayor’s social programs, but many of his new “ideas” have put Bogota into an uncomfortable position. It brought to my attention how time flew by in a day and I was only able to do two errands just because the traffic was unbearable and long lasting.
Years ago, Bogota created this system that controlled the flux of traffic during rush hour called “Pico y Placa”. The system consists of limiting cars that end with even or uneven numbers in their license plates during certain times of the day on certain days of the week. For instance, if my license plate had an uneven number and the date of today was an uneven number like the 7th of November, I would only be allowed to take the car out after 8:30 A.M. until 3:00 P.M., and after 8:30 P.M. If I take the car out at the hours that I am not allowed to transit, I can get a ticket of COP $380.000, which is a rough equivalent to USD $170.00 plus the police gets to immobilize and take the car. This system has been established in other countries such as Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela and Spain. It did work until a few years ago when traffic jams became impossible and uncontrollable. The maximum time I have ever spent on a traffic jam in Bogota to arrive to my place has been of approximately 3 hours when it should’ve been around 15 to 20 minutes. I have lived all my life in this city and I have been used to traffic jams, but this year, I had it. People insult each other over a car lane just because they don’t respect their turn or they didn’t give them the chance to change lanes. I admire people that drive in Bogota because the chances of getting into a car accident are absolutely high.
Bogota’s population has been growing rapidly, but the last census in 2005 said that the population was around 6,778,691 inhabitants. Now a days, the population estimate could be ranging between 8,000,000 to 10,000,000 inhabitants. The capital has always been an ideal spot for foreign and domestic immigrants to settle, but this phenomenon has made it difficult to innovate and create new transportation systems.
The amount of motorcycles has increased with the time because it has become the fastest and most efficient vehicle to avoid traffic jams, but it has also increased the rate of car accidents due to reckless driving. There is no control nor any law that instructs motorcycles to drive in a certain lane and there is no real police enforcement because even with the most obvious traffic shortcoming, they just stay there and stare without doing anything about it.
About 14 years ago, a new transportation system appeared with the intention of improving the city’s mobility and therefore providing a better service to the citizens. This system was called “Transmilenio” and it has been beneficial for the city even though many hate it. The system has helped mobilized a million of people over the years, but as the years went by, Bogota’s population started growing more making this system collapse. On rush hour, spectators that transit in cars or in public buses watch as rivers of people accumulate waiting to pay their bus fare to use this method of transportation. Others opt to seek the easy way to get in the bus by skipping the bus fare and risking their life by climbing and walking inside the glass doors. In these last two years, the local government created another system of buses called SITP (Sistema Integrado de Transporte Publico), which has improved transportation because they transit neighborhoods or areas where “Transmilenio isn’t capable of reaching. The technology of these systems has improved and it has made customers more knowledgeable of what buses to use and where the bus stops are located. Regardless of trying to improve the transportation in Bogota, people feel unhappy and limited to go wherever they want because they fear of confronting these never ending traffic jams. To diminish the traffic jams, “Pico y Placa” was applied to taxis and, just recently, public buses.
Since the 1950s, Bogota’s mayors have been trying to find a way to introduce the subway system in the capital, but no construction actions have been put forward into this project. Millions, or should I say Billions, have been spent on studies to construct the subway.
I love Bogota and I have personally got use to the traffic jams because I spent long hours in the bus when I was in school. I was picked up by the bus at 5 A.M. and taken back around 5 or 6 P.M. Regardless of growing up and getting use to long commutes due to traffic jams, I am unhappy to see my city undergo this transportation crisis and I wish I could do something about it. Then again, its very hard to please a diverse population with different necessities.
Endeavors of a Millenial 