[sustran] Bus, rail, Transmilenio and pedestrian crossings

[Lake Sagaris]

Hi Folks

I realize that Eric has clarified that he was actually talking about the 
bus system in Sao Paolo, but in the meantime I requested and received some 
interesting responses on our Spanish-language, Latin American list, 
innovacion urbana. They do provide some insight into how Transmilenio 
(Bogotá) has affected pedestrian crossings and other transport modes.

Hope this is useful.

All best
Lake



From: "German C. Lleras" <gcll at yahoo.com>
Mailing-List: list Innovacionurbana at yahoogroups.com; contact 
Innovacionurbana-owner at yahoogroups.com
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 20:45:15 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: [Innovacionurbana] Fwd: Re: [sustran] Re: Bus and rail (fwd)


Regarding the situation for pedestrians and bikers I would say that 
Transmilenio has improved it in several ways rather than the contrary. 
First, I think that the comparisons should be made considering the previous 
situation and should be done under the appropriate context. This is not to 
say that we did not consider the feasible optimum as a desired condition or 
that further improvements should be made. I don't know exactly what 
pictures were shown; however, the
situation changes if you are looking at Calle 80, Autopista Norte or Av. 
Caracas.
In Autopista Norte the situation improved substantially, this road was 
first designed (early
60's) as a limited access highway (10 lanes, 5 in each direction) and 
therefore only a few pedestrian or bike crossing were included in its 
original design, always attached to grade intersections designed for vehicles.

Not a single at grade-signalized intersection exists
in about ten kilometers making almost impossible to
cross it. Over the years, some grade intersections
were built connecting the eastern and western part of
the city, some of them were pedestrian bridges used
also by bikes, even though they did not have ramps and
therefore were not easily accessible for bicycles, let
alone wheelchairs. The BRT system enabled the
construction of pedestrian bridges with ramps
(Colombian equivalent to ADA compliance), some of them
integrated to what is called "linear parks" and the
citywide bikeway network. These overpasses serve as
well as the main access to the stations in the median,
encouraging the use of these facilities and reducing
the number of fatalities and injuries involving
pedestrian and bikers. An additional effect is that
these new crossings are now attached to a bigger
infrastructure that plays a more relevant role than an
individual pedestrian overpass; thus its maintenance
is, in a way, more secure. It is important to stress
that some of the existent overpasses were poorly built
and maintained even to the point of collapse (one or
two actually collapsed over the last five years) and
the personal safety (many crimes took place in those
bridges) was endanger because of the lack of lighting
and poorly designed and maintained neighboring areas.
It can be argued that the pedestrian use of the area
has been extended for an additional few hours.
Now, in relation to Calle 80, I think that the whole
area has improved in terms of mode segregation in an
integrated way, I don't know if that is that the right
expression, but the point is that previously, there
were not conditions for pedestrians or bikers at all.
They had to coexist in the same road space with
literally hundreds of buses fighting a battle for
passengers and therefore the number of injuries and
fatalities was very high and the idea of riding a bike
was discouraging. It is important to say that many of
the pedestrian and bikers were, and still are, captive
users of these modes rather than choice users as may
be thought in the US, making this a more relevant case
in terms of accessibility and equity. Although built
as a highway connecting the city to the western part
of the country, it had several at grade-signalized
intersections used as the main points of crossing,
most of these intersections remained part of the BRT
design, however, some adjustments to the phases were
made. In addition new overpasses were constructed
where the access to the stations were being built
increasing the number of opportunities to cross the
buslane safely. The crossing distance has been
maintained and the urban design and traffic signal
phasing have been also improved. Not to say that
parallel to the bus lane there has been an extensive
program to build sidewalks where none exist before,
creating an environment where people can actually
walk.

Finally, in Av. Caracas, perhaps the most critical
road in terms of pedestrians and bikers, the
improvement has also been relevant. I'm not sure if
the people in this forum are aware of the conditions
previously existing in this area; it was the most
hated venue in the whole city, people walking there,
did it because that was the only alternative. It was
the most dangerous place for pedestrians and bikers in
terms of accidents and fatalities, let alone the
pollution caused by the number of ill-maintained and
noisy buses circulating (approx.1000 per hour). Those
are the conditions in many other main arteries in the
developing world.

As Lake pointed out, the bus lane infrastructure in
this area has discouraged jaywalking and enabled
crossing at places where it is safer to walk (that was
the main problem for pedestrian use of the road). The
crossing distance has remained the same and now the
extended and improved median serves as a shelter
between green phases for the buses. The presence of
police and Transmilenio staff in this area also helps
to encourage more activities in this area and
pedestrian use of the sidewalks that, as in Calle 80
underwent a major restoration. This is a more central
road going through the CBD and the old part of town,
therefore it is more densely populated and the number
of at-grade intersection is very high becoming, in
some areas, an obstacle to the desired speed for the
buses. That is certainly an issue when making a trade
off between bus speed and pedestrian facilities.
However, the constraints are usually associated with
phases to allow other cars to cross rather than with
the pedestrians. In fact several signals were
implemented along the corridor to allow pedestrians to
cross the road, and gain access to the BRT, where no
cars are allowed to do so. It is important to stress
that the fact that the stations are located in the
median and the system operating without subsidies
requires all the possible demand makes imperative the
pedestrian friendliness of the areas around stations.
Something that is still and issue and need to be
improved.

I would like to hear more about the debate pertaining
the operational costs, I don't think that the BRT
costs under the operational scheme established for
Transmilenio will result in higher costs even
including maintenance of the infrastructure and
vehicles when comapred to agencies like the MBTA, the
CTA or the MTA.
German Lleras
Candidate MST/MCP
Massachusetts Institute of Technology




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