Questions: How has Bogotá attempted to address issues of modern stress and inequality in one of the largest cities in Latin America?
Bogotá serves as the capital and the most populated urban center in Colombia. With a population of over seven million, Bogotá’s daily life showcases the hustle and bustle often associated with large urban centers, particularly those of political and economic importance. Bogotá’s population grew from 100,000 to over 7,00,000 over the course of a single century through the absorption of internally displaced persons escaping over half a century of civil wars mostly fought in the rainforests, hills, and mountains of Colombia. The most dramatic period of growth came after the Second World War, with the first of two civil wars (1948-1958) and with the second still raging today (1964-today.) J. M. Shultz’s “A Pilot Study of a Stepped-Care Brief Intervention to Help Psychologically-Distressed Women Displaced by Conflict in Bogotá, Colombia” discusses how this form of growth creates a unique condition of modern anxiety, where the population is burdened with the daily tolls of urban life along with the lived and generational trauma carried on the backs of the millions of Colombians coming to the capital for sanctuary (Shultz 2019, 1-2, 5.) Shultz includes how Colombia’s government has attempted to address the mental health of Bogotá’s internally displaced persons, with laws that provide funding and legal protections to those deemed most vulnerable (Shultz 2019, 3.) Shultz asserts that the trauma experienced by these individuals is coupled with the transition to a dense urban environment with its own set of stressors that contribute to the healing process (Shultz 2019, 10-11.) The individuals included in Shultz’s article are from a newer generation of arrivals to Bogotá, a city populated by internally displaced persons and their descendants. The generational trauma created by civil wars and the concentration of individuals that experienced displacement, violence, and other forms of violence create a city of trauma and unique urban experiences. Following the winding down of the civil war near the turn of the twenty-first century, Bogotá’s leadership began to address the issues brought on by crowded streets, endless traffic, pollution, and urban anxiety. To this end, several renewal projects and public health initiatives attempted to change how people traversed their city, with the TransMilenio and yearly days of street closures and no cars being the most visible.
Jesse Rodriguez’s “Bogotá: A guide to a sustainable Metropolis” exhibits Bogotá’s transformation from a city declared to be in decay to one of the city-wide transportation investments and the rehabilitation of public spaces. Rodriguez details the city’s urban transformation as difficult, with city-wide projects going over budget and causing more traffic and population while under construction. Ultimately, Rodriguez argues, the hardships endured by the city and its population paid off, with the current Bogotá enjoying several public services and new public spaces. Bogotá’s transformation began in the early 1980s with the introduction of the Ciclovía. Every Sunday, major roads around the city are closed to vehicles, allowing pedestrians to walk, jog, bike, skateboard, rollerblade, and more, on these roads, along with public venues set up to provide exercise classes to any and all people in the city (Rodriguez 2014.) The Ciclovía aimed to create a new healthier Bogotá to reduce stress caused by life in the urban sprawl (Rodriguez 2014.) Olga Sarmiento’s “Influences of Built Environments on Walking and Cycling: Lessons from Bogotá” discusses the effects of the Ciclovía, asserting that the neighborhoods nearest to the Ciclovía report higher levels of participation and physical activity (Sarmiento 2009, 223.) Sarmiento’s article also discusses the importance of the Ciclovía to the health of a growing and aging population, citing the positive correlation between Ciclovía participation and reported higher levels of personal health (Sarmiento 2009, 222-223.) Sarmiento’s article concluded with a positive view of Bogotá’s walkable streets, citing the success of the city’s walking and cycling initiatives in not only providing a source of physical activity within a densely populated city but also encouraging individuals to buy bicycles and other recreational modes of transportation, making it more likely for these individuals to use alternative modes of transportation than privately-owned motor vehicles (Sarmiento 2009, 222-223.)
Following the implementation of the Ciclovía, the city’s leadership began a more ambitious approach to transform the city. Through the 1990s, various mayors of Bogotá attempted to address the issues of congestion and long commuting times that clogged the highways and streets of Bogotá every day. The election of Enrique Peñalosa to the mayorship of Bogotá in 1998 marked the beginning of the city’s most significant public transportation project. Mayor Peñalosa’s project, dubbed the TransMilenio, began construction in 1998 with the first line of service taking passengers in December of 2000 (History of TransMilenio, 2014). The TransMilenio project expanded access to transportation affordably and effectively for those who first could access the system. As a model of the Bus Rapid Transit system pioneered in the Brazilian city of Curitiba, the TransMilenio aimed at providing a rapid transit system that could traverse the city’s major roads at a fraction of the time it would take a privately owned bus to do the same. The TransMilenio also created an opportunity for the city to reduce air and sound pollution, as the vehicles utilized by the TransMilenio use less fuel as they travel down their exclusive roads (Rodriguez 2014.) Over the last two decades, the TransMilenio has grown to eight routes covering nearly 120 kilometers of road and carrying a daily ridership of over half a million people. The TransMilenio project coincided with another project aimed at reducing stress and anxiety, particularly for commuters, in the form of the Ciclorrutas of Bogotá (Rodriguez 2014.) The Ciclorruta system stretches throughout the city, with around 400 kilometers of bicycle lanes alongside pedestrian walkways (Guzman 2020, 8-9.) These projects aimed at the crowded streets and the inaccessible commuting and leisure routes so focused on private vehicles, succeeding in reducing reported stress levels (Jimenez-Vaca 2020, 8.) Andres Jimenez-Vaca’s “Effect of Urban Trips on Stress and Cognitive Performance, a Study in Bogota, Colombia” utilizes the Stroop test, a reactive stress test, to ascertain the reflexes displayed by young Colombian adults commuting to school by bicycle and public transportation. Jimenez-Vaca’s study concluded that the reflexes and cognitive ability of the bicycle subjects did not significantly differ from the reflexes and cognitive ability of the public transportation subjects (Jimenez-Vaca 2020, 8.) Jimenez-Vaca continues with a discussion comparing the bicycle and public transportation subjects to a control group of commuters that use their own vehicles. Jimenez-Vaca concluded that the reflexes and cognitive ability of the driver subjects were significantly lower than that of the bicycle and public transportation subjects, showcasing the lower stress level of commuting by bicycle or public transportation (Jimenez-Vaca 2020, 8.) Jimenez-Vaca’s study demonstrates the benefits of both public transportation and bicycle infrastructure. These methods of relieving stress in the modern metropolis have proven effective but not enough to keep up with the continuous rise in population and the demands of a more mobile urban space.
The issues of congestion and urban stress that the TransMilenio and the Ciclovía address are still present in Bogotá today. Luis Guzman’s “Urban Form and Spatial Urban Equity in Bogota, Colombia” discusses economic inequality and the growing size of the city as issues that still need to be addressed by the city’s transportation system. Income inequality and the sprawling of Bogotá are comorbid occurrences, with the expansion of informal neighborhoods (i.e., neighborhoods without public utilities) in the city placing more and more of the low-income population outside the current BRT network (Guzman 2017, 4494-4496, 4504-4505.) The expansion of informal settlements coincides with increased violence in the countryside of Colombia, driving more internally displaced persons to the safety of Bogotá, bringing new traumatic experiences with them. Guzman argues that creating an integrated city planning policy that addresses the expansion of unofficial housing with public housing projects must include the simultaneous expansion of public transportation access (Guzman 2017, 4504-4505.) Guzman’s argument also addresses the issue of mobility and stress, adding that the informal settlements at the edge of Bogotá are less likely to be able to afford a personal vehicle, which creates a layered issue for those seeking employment in the financial center of the city (Guzman 2017, 4504-4505.) The structure to alleviate these inequities, Guzman argues, already exists in the infrastructure of Bogotá, as the TransMilenio serves as a direct line to all of the city’s financially important sectors, which are heavily concentrated in the periphery of Bogotá’s colonial and government district. The city government of Bogotá is currently taking some steps to alleviate these issues, with planned expansions to the number and routes of feeder buses (TransMilenio buses that operate outside the self-contained lanes of the BRT) along with a new system of transportation below the city’s congested streets.
In the future, the city government of Bogotá aims to alleviate the current congestion levels and limited urban mobility by creating a new form of transportation: an underground metro system. Construction on this project began in 2020 with plans of active operation by 2028. The reasoning behind the need for a new method of mass transit is the continuous demand for affordable and effective transportation that can bring people from the expanding suburbs and outer layers of the city to the central business district and the neighboring governmental community (Calderon-Restrepo 2018, 52-56.) When completed, the metro is planned to have up to sixteen lines crossing in a grid-like pattern, allowing for mobility between residential districts and from residential to commercial districts. Metro stops are intended to be accessible from street level and follow a similar trajectory as the TransMilenio, with walkability and mobility across the city as the mission behind the transportation system. As discussed in the Jimenez-Vaca study, public transportation is proven to reduce the stress levels of Bogotá’s population. The construction of a new transportation system will likely reduce stress levels in commuters, increasing cognitive ability. Such systems, however, have the potential to cause separation and gentrification of neighborhoods, especially if the new metro system does not reach the low-income neighborhoods the TransMilenio system services with feeder buses (Guzman 2020, 8-9.) Calderon-Restrepo’s A Mixed-Use and Walkable Bogotá is an excellent example of how a new mass transportation system can continue to democratize space with accessible and welcoming metro stations with efficient trains that can transport individuals to any corner of the city. This system is also set to alleviate the congestion of the privately owned vehicles and the TransMilenio system, as the roads have become heavily congested and the TransMilenio has become overcrowded and difficult to navigate (Calderon-Restrepo 2018, 52-56.)
Bogotá’s modern anxiety is unique to the Colombian experience. The common experiences of urban space are familiar to most who have spent time in a city. However, the city’s unique history and trajectory into becoming the most populous city in Colombia create unique forms of anxiety in our times. The transportation systems aimed at alleviating current traffic congestion created hundreds of kilometers of public transport. Such mobility allowed the city’s population to cut down on daily transportation time while addressing the issues of affordability and accessibility. However, these methods of stress reduction do not address the issues of public mental health issues brought the by millions of internally displaced people and their decedents. As Bogotá grows in size and population, so does the need to address the existing and generational trauma alongside urban anxiety, the more common of the two issues. In the future, with the influx of Venezuelan refugees and the increasing violence of the countryside, Bogotá’s modern anxiety will likely increase alongside the need to expand public transportation.
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