There have been a few months of protests over the new public transport system in Santiago, Chile and yesterday an annual 'Day of the Young Combatant' demonstration turned violent.
"The Transantiago plan, designed to improve the city's chaotic system of buses and reduce pollution from the transit vehicles' exhaust, has instead stranded passengers, generated marathon waits and overtaxed the city subway." latimes.com
While the violence is a terrible shame, what fascinates me is that people are so passionate and interested in the quality of their public transport system. Granted there is little choice for the hundreds of thousands of poor in Santiago, so their interest in effective public transport is not surprising. But that they believe that the system can work, that it can be better, and are demanding it and want to use it, is a very positive thing in this world of ever increasing freeways.
It is great that the Chilean government has made such a bold move to completely overhaul and improve the system and reduce polluting emissions, however it seems the implementation of this new system has been poorly managed. Fingers crossed they can get the bus companies to provide the necessary buses and routes that were envisaged in the plan as soon as possible.
To maintain or increase the percentage of the city's journeys made by public transport (a whopping 59% in 2001) will take a very effective and responsive system and to build it effectively from scratch is a mighty ambitious move. Particularly in a place where more informal transport has developed organically over time to provide the necessary services...
"The overwhelmingly comprehensive transportation reform is trying to replace the chaotic private system characterized by its unruly drivers, poorly maintained and visually unappealing yellow buses and high speeds. It was also known for being fun, especially near Barrio Suecia
at closing time around 4 am, slightly dangerous, relatively effective and an incredible study in anthropology." nowpublic.com
This film sounds like an excellent portrayal of the chaos of the former system...
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