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xMost main roads in developing country are a mind-numbing, eye-burning, cough-provoking experience. They're a noisy, fume spewing parking lot of cars, diesel-burning produce trucks, ancient, polluting microbuses and, depending on the country, pedi-cabs, rickshaws and the occasional animal-pulled cart. A toxic brew that's enough to make everyone exhausted and feeling sick, not to mention the terrible impact on air quality. However, Bogota, Colombia boasts a new option that is catching on in many countries: buses that operate similarly to subways. Known as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), sleek red vehicles filled with commuters, speed along the center lanes of the Avenida de las Americas. These long, reticulated, low-emission buses act like an above-ground subway, with seven intersecting lines, enclosed stations that have turnstiles where travelers pay by card and coaches that look and feel like trains. This innovative system bypasses the costly development of underground transportation that takes years to construct, by using already existing roadways. Bogata's rapid transit system accounts for roughly1.6 million trips each day, has allowed the city to remove 7000 microbuses from the roads and has reduced the use of bus fuel. City officials claim that it has cut the city's emissions by more than 59 percent since it opened the first line in 2001. TransMilenio, as it is known, is the only large transportation project approved by the United Nations to generate and sell carbon emission credits. Developed countries that exceed their emissions limits or want to create a greener image, can buy credits from TransMilenio, which has brought the city between $100 million to $300 million in revenue so far. Not bad for a small country that is faced with major problems in the South. While industrial emissions are decreasing worldwide, transportation emissions are expected to rise more than 50 percent in industrialized and developing nations, with 80 percent of the increase in the developing world. Bogota's model is a model of how international programs to combat climate change can help the world's growing urban regions. "Bogota was huge and messy and poor, so people said, "If Botota can do it, why can't we?" said Enrique Penalosa, an economist and former mayor of Bogota, who took TransMilenio from a concept to it's opening in 2001. He is now advising other cities on how they too can benefit from BRT. Bogota, like many cities in developing countries had an ideal setup for Bus Rapid Transit. With wide streets, a large population and people accustomed to traveling by bus, made it an easy-sell. They turned traffic lanes in the middle of major boulevards, erected low walls to create specific lanes for the buses, and installed dozens of metal-and-glass stations. The bus doors slide open level with the platform and provide easy access for entering the bus. Hundreds of people can wait at the station just as is true with subways. Systems similar to TransMilenio are now being implemented in cities around the developing world, including Mexico City, Cape Town, South Africa, Jakarta, Indonesia and Ahmedabad, India. Public transportation systems such as these improve traffic flow and significantly reduce smog, while costing a fraction of building a subway system. So not only are the BRT systems improving the quality of life for people in growing cities, they are reducing heat-trapping gasses linked with global warming.
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