Medellin’s transportation system, a role model for Latin America
The Spanish newspaper El País highlighted Medellín’s transportation system as a model for Latin America, since a person would only have to spend COP $2,980 (about 66 cents of an euro) to travel across the city using up to five transports: Metrocable, Tram, Metro (subway), Metroplús and Encicla.
“The differential factor with other transit systems is that Medellin began to conceive mobility as an integrated sector,” explains Manuel Rodríguez, transportation specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), who provides funding and knowledge (studies, informs and surveys) to many of Latin America’s structures. However, it is not replicable anywhere. Metrocable, for example, is only necessary in places with a very determined orography.
Another good performance comes from Metro, as it must execute the improvements in the transportation system with workshops which are teached and explained to neighborhoods so the community leaders can spread the information among the rest of the inhabitants.
Few systems of massive transportation in the world integrate so many vehicles.under the same umbrella strategy. Metro de Medellin is a public company that is in charge of all of them except bikes, which are for public use and depend of another organism that has managed to turn it into a model for all Latin America countries. The bicycle system is still far from perfect because of the challenge to expand its coverage, deal with traffic congestions, cope with pollution and encourage people to use bicycles.
Historical review
The Aburra Valley Mass Transit Company (Metro de Medellin Ltda.) was created in 1979, sixteen years before this transport was first operated. At the beginning, there were many questions about its viability, profitability and even about its necessity. In that times, nobody would have believed that nowadays it is a referent: there were cost overruns, institutional failures and hesitation about lawsuits nevertheless, it has consolidated into a system we all want to see.
In Medellin, it is an unquestioned investment. Within an urban area where civic involvement has been crucial to turn it around, citizens are proud of its service. Trains, which are more than 20 years old, look almost new.
On its own, Encicla, the public (and completely free) sharing bikes system, sent a message to citizens by generating a different concept, normalizing bicycles and putting an end to the insecurity.
Today, the goal Medellin seeks is to have a single card to transport all of its inhabitants.
