Bogotá Doubles Down on Bus Transit While Global Cities Struggle With Gridlock

Bogotá residents spent an average of 62 minutes commuting each way last year, according to mobility data compiled by the city's traffic authority. That's worse than Madrid's 47 minutes and comparable to São Paulo's 64 minutes, yet the Colombian capital is approaching the problem in ways that set it apart from how other overcrowded cities have responded.

The timing matters. Global supply chains are fracturing. Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz threatens fuel prices worldwide. Spain is battling catastrophic wildfires that have crippled regional transport. Amid these pressures, cities are reassessing their dependence on private vehicles and fossil fuels. Bogotá's gamble-to prioritize buses and cycling infrastructure over road expansion-offers a case study in whether a mid-income city can leapfrog the car-dependent model that wealthy capitals are now trying to reverse.

TransMilenio's Expansion Versus the Old Model

The TransMilenio bus rapid transit system carries 2.4 million passengers daily across 148 kilometers of dedicated lanes. That's substantially more than Madrid's metro system, which serves roughly 2.5 million daily riders but requires far more infrastructure investment. The Bogotá system cost $3.2 billion to build over two decades. Madrid's metro, by contrast, consumed nearly $10 billion before completion.

Yet here's where Bogotá diverges from global precedent: it's not building more highways. When congestion worsened between 2019 and 2023, the city rejected proposals to expand the North-South Freeway through Chapinero and instead committed $850 million to extend TransMilenio lines to peripheral zones like Suba and Engativá. The Metropolitan Planning Department announced last month that three new feeder bus corridors will open by 2028, serving neighbourhoods where cars remain the default.

Compare that to São Paulo, where mayors spent the 1980s and 1990s widening avenues only to watch congestion worsen. Or Mexico City, which is now demolishing elevated highways-a project that costs four times what preventive transit investment would have.

The numbers tell the story. Bogotá's private vehicle ownership grew 3.2 percent annually between 2015 and 2025. In the same period, TransMilenio ridership climbed 2.8 percent despite fare increases from 3,450 to 3,800 pesos in 2024. That's unusual. Most cities see transit lose ground when car ownership rises.

The Bicycle Infrastructure Gamble

The city installed 150 kilometers of protected bike lanes since 2016. Valencia, Spain, built 200 kilometers in the same period but serves a population less than half Bogotá's 8.3 million. The Colombian capital's cycling network still lacks continuity-gaps remain along Avenida Jiménez and between Zona Rosa and the International Centre-yet usage has doubled, with roughly 850,000 bike trips recorded weekly on the CicloVía system alone.

Last January, the city introduced congestion pricing for cars entering the central business district between 6 a.m. and 8:30 p.m., charging 32,000 pesos per day. London pioneered this approach in 2003. Stockholm and Singapore refined it. Bogotá's version is stricter-it captures most central zones, not just the core-and early data suggests it reduced vehicles in the business district by 18 percent while increasing TransMilenio boardings by 9 percent.

The risk is real. Low-income workers living in peripheral areas like Bosa and Ciudad Bolívar bear the burden if transit fails them. The city operates a targeted subsidy program allowing residents earning below 1.4 times the minimum wage to ride TransMilenio for 1,950 pesos, half the standard fare. About 40 percent of riders qualify.

Still, the approach differs sharply from how Toronto, Vancouver, and Chicago have managed growth-cities that expanded highways and suffered decades of induced demand. Bogotá isn't perfect. Maintenance problems plague TransMilenio during rainy season. Bus drivers have staged strikes over pay. But the city is betting that transit-first planning, even when imperfect, outperforms the car-dominated model that now burdens wealthier capitals.

If global fuel prices spike further, that bet may look prescient. If it fails, Bogotá residents will pay the price in hours spent sitting in traffic.