Green Buses in Bogota

 

TransMilenio bus in Bogota

A good example of a city tackling climate change can be seen in Bogota, the capital of Colombia. In Bogota, nearly 70% of the population uses bus system on a daily basis in order to travel (SmartCities, 2022). The buses ran on deisel fuel, so as a result of the heavy usage, they were a large source of pollution in Bogota and indeed Colombia as a whole.

In 2021, Bogota's mayor, Claudia Lopez, instituted what she called the "Green Corridor Septima," a plan to decrease Bogota's carbon emissions, while strengthening public infrastructure. Part of this plan involved shifting away from the use of diesel fuel and converting all the public transit buses in the city to hybrid power or fully electric systems. The city has also expanded the use of bike lanes and pedestrian paths, in addition to "extending the reach of electric cable cars," many of which are solar-powered (Moloney, 2021). According to SmartCities, these changes have already contributed to a reduction in emissions "of over 350,000 tonnes annually" (Smartcities, 2022).

Distribution of bike lanes in Bogota by socio-economic status (Parra, et al.)

This is a good example of "bottom up" politics, as opposed to "top down", for several reasons. 

First, Bogota is definitely operating of its own accord in terms of valuing environmentalism, because the current administration of the Colombian government takes a more conservative approach to the environment, favoring fossil fuels and seeking to assert Colombia as a competitor in the global oil market. Furthermore, president Ivan Duque has approved plans to open 161 new oil drilling sites in Colombia, in addition to expanding the use of hydraulic fracturing, AKA fracking. Were this a top-down policy, Bogota would likely not be instituting these green policies (Motin, 2019). 

Bogota is also operating as a part of C40 Cities, an international network of 100 cities operating independently of their federal governments, working together to decrease their emissions and become "green cities." (Moloney, 2021)

Finally, another bottom up aspect of the Green Corridor Septima initiative is the way in which Lopez approached its execution. In order to tackle one of the larger aspects of the initiative- redesigning the extremely congested highway that goes through Bogota - she sought the guidance and perspective of 50,000 Bogotans (some civil engineers, some simply residents) in order to find the best way to redesign the road (Moloney, 2021).

References

Moloney, A. (2021, May 26). Bogota crowdsources a green transport future to cut emissions. Reuters. Retrieved April 23, 2022, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-climate-change-transportatio/bogota-crowdsources-a-green-transport-future-to-cut-emissions-idUSKCN2D7203

Motin, M. (2019, June 25). En amazonie colombienne, les terres autochtones pillées par l'extractivisme. Reporterre, le quotidien de l'écologie. Retrieved April 23, 2022, from https://reporterre.net/En-Amazonie-colombienne-les-terres-autochtones-pillees-par-l-extractivisme#nb1

Parra, D. C., Gomez, L. F., Pinzon, J. D., Brownson, R. C., & Millett, C. (2018). Equity in Cycle Lane Networks: Examination of the distribution of the Cycle Lane Network by socioeconomic index in Bogotá, Colombia. Cities & Health, 2(1), 60–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2018.1507068

Ten cities tackling climate change. Smart Cities. (n.d.). Retrieved April 23, 2022, from https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/10-cities-tackling-climate-change/178136/

TransMilenio Bus Biarticulado en Bogota. (n.d.). Wikimedia. Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/Bogota_TransMilenio_bus_biarticulado.jpg/2560px-Bogota_TransMilenio_bus_biarticulado.jpg.