For the last month and a half, I have been working on a transit evaluation project with the Across Latitudes and Cultures – Bus Rapid Transit Center of Excellence hosted by the Catholic University of Chile in Santiago. The University’s engineering department put together a quick overview of my work here (the result of my first ever interview in Spanish). Below is a loose translation:
Anson Stewart has completed nearly a year touring countries in Central America and Africa, observing transport systems
Anson Stewart, with bachelor degrees in urban studies and engineering from Swarthmore College (Philadelphia) and a masters student at MIT, is undertaking his investigation “School Bus Migrations” thanks to the Watson Fellowship, which 40 young people from the United States receive annually. This scholarship promotes the exploration and learning about other cultures around the world during a year.
June, 2011
South Africa, Tanzania, Guatemala, Panama, Belize, Nicaragua, and Argentina were some of Stewart’s destinations before arriving in Chile. In these countries he began his investigation about school buses that the United States exports en masse to different countries of the world for public transportation. After a bit of exploring, Stewart encountered some interesting findings.
All of the countries of Central America are scrapping the yellow buses which served in previous years as public transportation. Today there exist ongoing implementations or at least plans for bus rapid transit (BRT) systems, as was established in Colombia with the name Transmilenio at the beginning of the past decade, and recently in Johnnesburg. Nicaragua and Tanzania are in the planning stages, Guatemala has two corridors, and Panama has the buses but still do not use them because of the lack of political agreement.
Stewart believes that this tendency to implement BRT in all of these countries does not end up positively in all cases. “I think that the countries are replicating a technical model without necessarily thinking in the specific cases of culture, political system, or infrastructure,” he says.
Although there are not agreements among experts about its definition, according to Stewart, BRT is understood as a system of exclusive corridors for buses with prepaid fares. According to this definition, Transantiago corresponds to a BRT model in the trunk routes where prepaid boarding areas exist.
“Transantiago is the only case in which the change was complete at the level of the city, and not gradual, in contrast with the other countries where BRT is being implemented. This leads to quite a few challenges, and I think that the system functions quite well,” affirms Stewart. Among the positive aspects of Transantiago, the expert highlighted the ease of obtaining and using the Bip farecard,website services, and the security that results from drivers not having to race and compete for passengers.
To complement his investigation, Stewart hopes to travel to Punta Arenas and Puerto Montt, the furthest destinations to which school buses from the US have arrived. At the end of July, he will return to the US where he will begin
… Read the rest
Full Post | July 01 2011 | School Bus Migrations and Work | No Comments » |
Unlike in many cities, the commuter rail lines in Buenos Aires allow bicycles aboard during rush hour. I spent a weekday afternoon riding the Urquiza Line to see how it worked. At one point there were about 15 bikes hanging from the racks in the crowded car, and passengers were generally helpful about making room for the bikes.
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Full Post | June 21 2011 | School Bus Migrations | 1 Comment » |
Our Cities, Ourselves is an exhibition sponsored by the Institute for Transportation Development and Policy. It features ten cities that “have proven to be leaders in innovation in sustainable transport and are fertile ground for further transformation.” On my trip, I have visited three of these cities: Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg, and Buenos Aires.
The exhibition was in South Africa during my stay there, but I waited to visit it until it opened at Argentina’s Museum of Architecture and Design. It was especially fun to read about the African cities I had gotten to know in an exhibit in South America. Speaking about the exhibition’s cities when it was in South Africa, the executive manager for planning and strategy at the Joburg Development Agency, Sharon Lewis, noted, “Nearly all of the cities are in developing nations, because this is where most urban growth will happen over the next 20 years. They have the opportunity to learn from and leapfrog over the mistakes made by developed nations, particularly the over-dependence of cars in the United States.”
Our Cities, Ourselves explores the use of bicycles, public space, and public transportation as tools to combat overdependence on cars in cities (PDF booklet highlighting these tools here). A video of the exhibit (in Spanish) is here.
For me, one of the most interesting parts of the exhibit in Argentina was a lecture by Columbia sociologist Saskia Sassen, who grew up in Buenos Aires. She shared her thoughts on transportation’s role in bringing about a “tipping point” in the fight for global sustainability. There are important “microprocesses” involved with transportation, and “we don’t need the big flagship project.” This was an important perspective to hear, especially given the publicity and flagship status cities tend to give to BRT projects. She also mentioned the prevalence of “sites in the city of non-voluntary immobility,” a phrasing I found helpful. A video of her remarks (in Spanish) is here.
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Full Post | June 21 2011 | School Bus Migrations and Transport | No Comments » |
The subterráneo of Buenos Aires opened in 1913, the first metro system in the Southern Hemisphere. Its six lines offer service throughout the city with a heavily-subsidized fare. Line A still uses its original wooden cars, which contrast strikingly with the new stations being built as the system continues to expand.
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Full Post | June 19 2011 | School Bus Migrations | No Comments » |
Buenos Aires introduced a unified contact-less farecard system for its subway and various bus companies in August, 2010. The SUBE card is compatible with the Monedero card, which was previously implemented for the Subte (subway). The new card has gone a long way in reducing the severe coin crisis Argentina faced; for three years, bus companies hoarded the coins needed to pay fares, leading the one peso coin to be more valuable than a two peso note.
Despite these improvements, implementation of the SUBE card still has a way to go. In April, only 2/3 of buses were equipped with functioning SUBE validators, with many buses featuring “Solo Monedas” signs on their windshields. The cards are not available at subway stations (as they are in Santiago, for example). Instead, obtaining one requires filling out an application and providing a passport or identity document at a post office. Although many convenience stores display SUBE recharge placards, 3/5 of the ones I visited seeking recharges did not have their systems enabled.
Full Post | June 19 2011 | School Bus Migrations | No Comments » |
After reading Saskia Sassen’s blog post about the largest market in South America, I decided I needed to visit La Salada. This sprawling agglomeration of clothing stalls and food vendors on the outskirts of Buenos Aires has a reputation of harboring some unsavory characters, but I decided to make an adventure out of my trip to buy warm clothes for my trip south to Ushuaia.
Shoppers from all over Argentina flock to La Salada on its market days, Tuesdays and Sundays. Indeed, when I was in Viedma (500 miles to the south), there were fliers advertising charter trips to La Salada. To make their bulk purchases, clothing resellers can ride such overnight double-decker charter buses, which travel directly through the masses of pedestrians and vendors to the parking lot in the center of La Salada (a video of such maneuvering, assisted by men who push people out of the way and expect tips from the bus drivers in return, is here). It is almost easier to reach the market from hundreds of miles away than it is to arrive from the center of Buenos Aires, since there are not direct regular buses. I had heard rumors of a special variant of the Route 32 bus that traveled from the central Estación Once to La Salada, but the ticket vendor at Estación Once told me and a number of other La Salada-goers that it was not operating. Since we could not take a direct bus, we had to transfer at Puente de la Noria to “truchas,” vans providing unlicensed passenger service. As we climbed onto the creaky wooden benches and seats in the back, one of the women complained, “We’re paying four pesos for this? I could hire a private car for that amount!” Her shopping companion responded, “Well, they only get the business two days a week, they have to take advantage of it.”
I arrived successfully and wandered the rows of stalls looking for a jacket and gloves. I was amused by the quantity of “trucha” merchandise – clothing bearing the logos of Nike, Adidas, and other brands, labeled with small stickers reading “Replica.” After making my purchases, I enjoyed dinner and marveled as a train made its way through the market (not unlike this, but with honking double-decker buses thrown into the mix). More pictures of La Salada are available here. I took some good ones of my own, but thanks to some unsavory characters, most of them didn’t make it back with me.
La Salada from the air; the bridge on the right is a railway bridge used by both trains and pedestrians
"Ask about shopping tour departures to La Salada" – sign in the Viedma bus terminal advertising the 500 mile bus trip to La Salada
Full Post | June 19 2011 | School Bus Migrations | No Comments » |
I attended an impressive outdoor tango show sponsored by the Buenos Aires municipal government:
“A tour through the different styles of tango – the sensuality and virtuosity of Stage Tango is combined with the style and elegance of Milonguero Tango. The lyricism and poetry, interpreted by Hernán Piquín and Cecilia Figaredo, joins five partners of excellent artistry that create an innovative musical and stylistic approach.”
Sensuality may be a bit of an understatement. These are pictures of some of the tamer moves:
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Full Post | June 18 2011 | School Bus Migrations | No Comments » |
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Full Post | June 17 2011 | School Bus Migrations | No Comments » |
Buenos Aires has a beautiful Japanese Garden, and the associated cultural center sponsors taiko concerts, bonsai workshops, ikebana classes, and sumo competitions.
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Full Post | June 17 2011 | School Bus Migrations | No Comments » |
Greater Buenos Aires relies on one of the most extensive commuter rail networks in the Americas (map here). Four main rail terminals are located in the city: Retiro (San Martín, Mitre, and Belgrano Norte lines), Constitución (Roca line), Once (Sarmiento line), and Lacroze (Urquiza line). Privatization during the early 1990s led to chronic underinvestment in these lines and deteriorating service. The national government is now undertaking a multibillion dollar improvement project, adding rolling stock, constructing grade-separated crossings, and electrifying lines.
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Full Post | June 17 2011 | School Bus Migrations and Transport | 1 Comment » |
Argentina’s Pink House (the equivalent of the United States’ White House) was completed in 1886. I enjoyed a guided tour through the building (during which I successfully resisted the urge to hum any lyrics from Evita). The tour started in the Galería de Patriotas del Bicentenario, an atrium inaugurated in 2010 for Argentina’s Bicentennial Celebrations and which features portraits of leaders from throughout Latin America’s history. It was exciting to stand on the Casa Rosada’s balcony looking out towards the Plaza de Mayo, the same way some of the country’s famous leaders have done. It was also cool to stand in rooms which I later saw on the news during presidential addresses. The tour guide seemed most excited about showing off the Presidential Elevator, donated in 1910; while we could look inside it, only the president and honored guests are allowed to ride in it.
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Full Post | June 17 2011 | School Bus Migrations | No Comments » |
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