Back in the 90’s, I went to Colombia to visit a friend. I remember when I told my boss that I’ll be in Bogotá for 2 weeks, he went nuts! My officemates were laughing at me. I was subjected to a lot of ridicule. “Huh! I’ll prove you all wrong!” I told them. My boss even offered me a free round-trip ticket to go to France instead. You see, back then, Bogotá was a war-zone. It’s spelled: Pablo Escobar. You can’t miss it on American TV. Bombs were exploding all over the place. I was even afraid, the TV itself will explode. So, I told everybody: “No worries! I’m used to it. I grew up in the Philippines!”

During my stay, I never saw a single bomb explode in the city. We still went out at night. Bars still close at 2:00 am. My carabao Spanish was put into practice. You see, except for my friend, every single one of his friends speak no English. They were laughing at my brand of Spanish. But I was able to get by. Who wouldn’t try to speak in Spanish? When you’re surrounded by some of the most beautiful people on earth?! Damn! I’m glad I’m one of them! Hehehe!

I actually had a great time in Bogotá, even a side trip to Caracas. Going back to his apartment after a night out, I noticed something. My friend removed the car’s steering wheel and brought it with him to the apartment. He was driving a yugo car. Damn!

Bogotá has been through a lot. The name is synonymous with cocaine and drugs. But 10 years later, Bogotá would experience some sort of renewal, a renaissance. The City Mayor of Bogota (from 1998-2001), Mr. Enrique Penaloza brought in his vision of a sustainable city. That’s what he focused on. Building a city focused on people and not on cars. According to him, there’s been an enormous error building cities in the past. That if we want to build a city which would be nice for people to live, there will be some sort of restrictions for car use. (Watch 5:00 video 1)

Then, I saw their Bus Rapid Transit on You Tube which is being adopted by the New York’s BRT system. They call it: TransMilenio.

Bogotá’s TransMilenio made perfect sense. Why build a very expensive network of elevated trains when a TransMilenio type of rapid bus system offers a better alternative? The savings from building this network of trains can go to building schools, libraries and parks. (Watch 6:45 video 1)

While watching the video, I can’t help being reminded of the current insane state of public bus transport system in Metropolitan Manila. It’s not only the public transport system. In fact, the streets are not pedestrian-friendly. Did you notice that some of the low-cost subdivisions in Manila have roads where only one (1) car can fit?! Grrr!

As I listen to Mr. Penaloza, I thought it was funny that he was almost explaining the situation in Manila. Play 7:17 on Video 1, don’t watch the video and just listen to him.

“We did not have a public transport. We have some extremely chaotic bus system, individually owned, racing like crazy, they would stop in the middle of the street, blocking the other lane of the road so that the other bus would not overtake them, would dump people in the street, there were many accidents…”

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Here’s the New York Times video:

Here’s another one:

Sustainable city… Development focused on people and not on cars… Environment… An end to a chaotic public bus system… Public transport that works…

What do you think? Maybe our public officials can learn from their experience?

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reynz is one Uragon and a Filipino-American, has many years of public accounting & auditing, broadcast investments, housing tax credits and equity investments as his background. Based in the US, he maintains his personal and humor blog at reyna elena dot com. A graduate of Aquinas U, he went to GWU and Temple U in the United States.