Challenges of Implementing à la Mode Transport Projects

Abstract

Politicians, consultants, and researchers often look at successful transport and urban transformation projects in cities in developing countries and assume that these may be an appropriate solution for similar cities. In reality, customizing such projects for a city-specific context is a difficult challenge that does not always end well, for example, because of poor technical and financial capacity of transport institutions, scarce information on travel demand behavior during the planning stage, private companies operating routes with a certain degree of informality, and poor political commitment. The authors reviewed the experience of implementing bus rapid transit systems in five cities in Colombia that followed the steps of the successful Transmilenio in Bogotá. Most projects had cost overruns and lower demand and therefore performed worse than expected in ex-post assessments. Competition from traditional and private transport and institutional capacity at the local level were key problems to be addressed. The authors also reviewed the experience of cable cars, the new à la mode project, which was promoted in a number of developing cities such as Cali and Soacha after the success of the Metrocable in Medellín. Cable cars could contribute to equity in cities, but these contributions would be extremely limited if the project did not inject the urban environment with complementary investments. Transferring successful transportation projects to new areas or to other cities is an important, difficult challenge. Key success factors must be considered to implement transport solutions successfully in different contexts.

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