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Buses of Santiago

After last week’s rant, now back to your regularly scheduled program.

An urban design and transportation engineering team from Santiago came up for a visit to MIT last week. Next fall, a joint MIT-PUC workshop will be focused on BRT corridor planning in the Boston area and for Transantiago. In anticipation, here are some photos from my visit to Santiago last summer:

: Ok? Ok!

: Trying to match André’s bus photography skills

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Read Full Post | May 04 2013 | Photos and Transport | No Comments » |

Buses of Ottawa

OC Transpo, the transit provider for Canada’s capital city, has a fleet of just over 1,000 buses. The agency’s service area was home to just over 800,000 people in 2010, while average weekday boardings reached 384,000. While the OC Transpo does provide limited diesel multiple unit (DMU) rail service, the majority of its riders use the Transitway bus network. Inaugurated in 1983, this system of exclusive bus infrastructure speeds transit passengers from outlying suburban areas to downtown, with buses operating at their 56 mph speed limit along most of the route. The Transitway has undergone continuous expansion, and now it handles 10,500 passengers per direction per hour in the morning peak. But with buses passing in each direction every 20 seconds downtown, the downtown bus lanes are approaching saturation and will soon be replaced by an underground light rail link.

Pictures from a recent visit are below. OC Transpo’s Flickr photostream also has an excellent collection of historical photos.

Read Full Post | March 31 2012 | Transport | No Comments » |

Buses of Curitiba

Curitiba, Brazil, implemented the world’s first bus rapid transit system in the 1970s. Along with programs to convert floodplains to green space, pedestrianize downtown streets, and improve waste collection, the new “surface metro” transformed the city. Curitiba is the inspiration for many of the other BRT projects I learned about during my year of travel, so a visit there was perfect for my last stop.

: New Volvo/Caio biarticulated bus

: Malfunctioning loading ramp

: New Volvo/Neobus biodiesel biarticulated bus

: “Arrive home more quickly with the new Express Line”

: Shirtless bike ride in the middle of winter

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Read Full Post | September 08 2011 | School Bus Migrations and Transport | 1 Comment » |

Buses of Maipú

Many of the bus routes in the southwest parts of Greater Santiago have been realigned with the recently opened extension of Metro Line 5.

: Bus only lanes in Maipú

: Maipú

: Volvo/Marcopolo articulated route 413 buses on the Los Pajaritos busway

: Bike and bus signals

: Zone J feeder on Las Torres

: Bus depot

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Read Full Post | September 07 2011 | School Bus Migrations and Transport | No Comments » |

Trolleybuses of Valparaíso

Valparaíso’s electric trolleybuses are an iconic part of the city and were even included in the city’s petition for UNESCO World Heritage Site status. A significant portion of the fleet was manufactured by Pullman in the United States in the late 1940s.

: 1952 Pullman trolleybus

: 1948 Pullman trolleybus passing through Plaza Sotomayor

: Trolleybuses along Avenida Argentina

: Hopping off a 1948 Pullman Trolleybus

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Read Full Post | September 06 2011 | School Bus Migrations | No Comments » |

Daladalas of Zanzibar

Unlike on the mainland, the daladalas of Zanzibar are mostly converted Toyota Dyna trucks. Benches run along the side of the bed, so passengers sit facing each other. A roof provides shade, cover from rain, and a place to store goods. Tarps are rolled up on the edges of the roof, ready to be unfurled to close off the otherwise open-air passenger area from rainstorms.

: Zanzibar Town daladala stand

: Zanzibari daladala

: Zanzibari daladalas

: Zanzibari daladalas

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Read Full Post | March 30 2011 | School Bus Migrations and Transport | No Comments » |

Bus Art Closeups

The buses in Panama City are covered with captivating spray-painted and vinyl adhesive images, cartoons and photos ranging from mystic wizards to Shakira, lions to Tupac, and Darth Vader to Pinky and the Brain. This article from 2008 details the buses and the concerns about losing valuable public art as they are replaced and helped convinced me to make Panama one of my stops. Though it mentions a renowned artist from El Chorillo, the drivers I talked to also spoke highly of a number of bus artists in the Santa Librada neighborhood. To my eye, the Santa Librada buses were the most well-decorated.

: “Suavivor” – suave survivor?

: Well-decorated Thomas Saf-T-Liner

: Picking up passengers at Metromall

: Ward transit-style

: Original; What Style!

: Battery compartment

: Fill it up well!

: Marvin the Martian

: Pinky

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Read Full Post | February 22 2011 | School Bus Migrations | Comments Off |

Buses of Panama City – Los Diablos Rojos

Los diablos rojos, the red devils, as the buses of Panama City are widely known, were some of the most well-decorated I have seen on my trip.

: Buses in El Chorillo

: Buses in a traffic jam

: Well-decorated bus

: Piquera de Villa Lorena

: Hermione and Ron

: Harry Potter

: Via Espana bus

: Party bus for rent

: Thomas Type-C stopped at Plaza 5 de Mayo

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Read Full Post | February 15 2011 | School Bus Migrations and Transport | No Comments » |

Buses of Costa Rica

Unlike in Nicaragua, the majority of the intercity buses I saw in my week in Costa Rica were coach buses (mainly Marcopolo bodies manufactured in Brazil). There were, however, plenty of old school buses being reused as transport for agricultural workers and students. The ones still being used as school buses were well marked with stop signs, etc.

: Assorted buses outside of Nicoya

: Thomas Saf-T-Liner FE for pineapple pickers

: ?”Turismo – Pulaski County Special School District”

: Blue Bird All-American FE

: Many of the school buses in Costa Rica are still used as school buses

: Blue Bird All-American FE with the Arenal Volcano in the background

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Read Full Post | February 08 2011 | School Bus Migrations and Transport | No Comments » |

León

One of my first weekend trips outside of the Department of Managua was to Las Peñitas, a surfing beach near León. The surf was marginal, but the bumpy ride on the Old Highway on the way there was redeemed by sharing the smooth ride back on the New Highway with a rooster.

: Buses and a Toyota Hiace minibus in León

: Buses in León

: Rooster on a minibus from León to Managua

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Read Full Post | December 10 2010 | School Bus Migrations | No Comments » |

Buses of Managua

Managua is a relatively low-density, sprawling city. After the 1972 earthquake heavily damaged the historical center, rebuilding radiated outwards, with a great deal of construction taking place in outlying lots owned by the Somoza regime. The first old school buses from the US came in the mid-1970s as a response to the earthquake, and their history in Managua is intertwined with the city’s sprawl. On an average day, about 800 local buses are on the road in Managua, transporting 855,000 passengers on 34 numbered routes. While many of these buses are conventional and transit-style former school buses (with back doors added), some are transit buses manufactured by Dyna (in Mexico) or Kavz (in Russia).