1063147 - Tutorial 7 (Wednesday 5 pm)

INTRODUCTION
The growth of Colombia’s principal cities was marked by the influx of mi-
grants coming from rural areas, victims of forced displacement in the
second half of the twentieth century. The result was the appearance of
informal settlements in the outskirts of consolidated cities, whose mor-
phology, adapted to the steep slopes of the mountains, presented chal-
lenges for the provision of all public services, including transportation.
With the turn of the century came a nationwide plan to redevelop infor-
mal settlements, focusing on the integral renovation of public spaces, of-
fering new urban amenities to improve the quality of life. The most nota-
ble example is the MetroCable system in Medellín, which serves the most
unprivileged population and consists of a series of cable cars that con-
nect the city with the most remote sites of the communes. The following
presents the case of the neighbourhood Santo Domingo Savio in the 1st
commune, home of the K MetroCable line,

DEMAND MANAGEMENT OF THE PUBLIC TRANSPORT

The Mass Transportation Company of the Aburrá Valley integrates five
modes of transport (Bus, BRT, Metro, Tram and Cable car) that cover
the metropolitan area of Medellín, and moves around 1’003,565 pas-
sengers each day, offering different costs and concessions:

Source: www.metrodemedellin.gov.co/viajeconnosotros/tarifas

Intermodality is also promoted by the proximity of parking spaces.

Public parking lots can be found Bicycle parking is available in all The public is allowed to take
nearby the metro stations. Metro and MetroCable stations. their bike inside the metro.

DENSITY AND LAND USES

The 1st commune of Medellín is home to 131,696 people, spread
across 12 neighbourhoods in an area of 3.09 square kilometres. This
means that it has a density of 426 people/ha, high above the city av-
erage (100.04 people/ha). According to the 2018 census, the average
household in the commune is part of the strata 1 and 2 (lower-lower
and lower classes), and was formed by 5 people, out of which two
are employed (whether formally or informally), two are studying and
one is either retired or unemployed2.

Typical informal dwellings of the strata 1 and

2. The ground floor is commercial, and be-
comes residential from the first floor up.
Regularly built in precarious conditions.

Population pyramid
of the neighbour-
hood. The informa-
tion reveals that it is
Source: Acuerdo Municipal
No. 46 de 2014
composed primarily
by young people,
Land uses of the comune. Green: Public with a mean age of
space; Orange: Mixed use land (commercial 26 years.
and residential); Blue: Equipments; White: Source: Demographic Profile
of the Neighbourhoods of
Residential. Dashed line: Santo Domingo the 1st commune (2016)
Savio neighbourhood

DESIGN/DISTANCE (PEDESTRIAN PERMEABILITY)

The informal morphology neighbourhood was made by its early in-
habitants, mainly pedestrians, who built their roads, alleys and pas-
sages to cross the steep slopes without walking long distances. This
is why many places do not have vehicular access and are connected
by stairs that may even pass through the interior of some homes5.

Staircases, storefronts Staircases built into

and ocasional vertical the hillside allow
shafts interrupt the pedetrians to cross
sidewalks, causing the neighbourhood
people to walk on the without walking great
streets. distances.

Cars in vehicular ways

may also need to
share their space with
pedestrians, bicycles
and even ani-
mal-drawn vechicles.

Users of the subway

can transfer to the
MetroCable for a
small fee, and be
taken to different sta-
In Orange: Street morphology around the
tions uphill
MetroCable station. The widest street is 15
meters.

INTERVENTION No. 1: “DON’T WALK THAT EXTRA MILE!”

One of the biggest challenges of the MetroCable is offering alterna-
tives for people that need to transfer to another mode after exiting
the cable car. At the moment, there are no official options for the
people, which means that they need to walk up to 25 minutes after
leaving the station.

Trip from the

Acevedo
Metro Station
to a house in
the neigh-
bourhood.

Cooperative
busses that
operate in the
area to suple-
ment the ex-
isting system.
Source: Google Maps

As seen above the people of the neighbourhood organise transport

cooperatives to transport people from the station to their residenc-
es. However, since they are not part of the Integrated Public Trans-
port System, they must pay an additional fee.
My proposal would be to affiliate these informal cooperatives to the
bus network of the city, or replace the so called “flotas” with feeder
buses that the people that live farther away could use to get to their
places without additional charges.

INTERVENTION No. 2: “MAKING A MORE ACCESSIBLE SIDEWALK”

The sidewalks in the area are invaded by con-
structions, great height differences and steep
stairs, which make the pedestrians end up walk-
ing in the street due to the difficulty of using
them. Renovating the sidewalk system is vital
for the improvement of the public space, since
their bad condition puts in risk the life of the
population. This has already been made in the
5th commune, where street space was redis-
tributed, altering level changes, slopes and built
environment to create adequate sidewalks.

FINAL STATEMENT
The communes of Medellín are places from
which much knowledge can be extracted, given
that the mix of informal design, created by and Up: Current state of
for pedestrians, and cutting-edge formal design sidewalks
characterize a walkable city, where the average Down: Renovated side-
user is always the focus of development. walks in Commune 5

BIBLIOGRAPHY
SOURCES: 1 Departamento Administrativo de Planeación. (2015). Plan de Desarrollo Local Comuna 1 [Ebook]. Medellín: Alcaldía de Medellín. 2 Depar-
tamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística. (2016). Perfil Sociodemográfico por barrio Comuna 1 Popular [Ebook]. Medellín: Alcaldía de Medellín. 3
Empresa de Transporte Masivo del Valle de Aburrá. (2011). Multimodalidad: una visión hacia una política integral de transporte. Revista Metro, (3), 42-45.
4 Secretaría de Planeación de Medellín. (2019). MapGIS5. Retrieved from https://www.medellin.gov.co/MAPGISV5_WEB/mapa.jsp?aplicacion=0 5
Valencia, J. (2013). Comuna Popular es la más rezagada en calidad de vida. Retrieved from https://www.elcolombiano.com/historico/comuna_popu-
lar_es_la_mas_rezagada_en_calidad_de_vida-FBEC_245044

IMAGES: 1 Carvajal, C. (2018). Bicycle Parking in Metro Station. Retrieved from https://pedaleandoalma.com/sistema-integrado-de-trans-
porte-del-valle-aburra/cicloparqueadero-estacion-envigado-metro-de-medellin/ 2 Metro de Medellín. (2017). Ayurá Station Public Parking.
Retrieved from https://www.metrodemedellin.gov.co/al-d%C3%ADa/noticias-metro/artmid/6905/articleid/211/ parqueadero-en-ayur193-un-ser-
vicio-clave-para-la-integraci211n 3 Metro de Medellín. (2016). MetroCable in Santo Domingo Savio. Retrieved from https://www.metrodemedel-
lin.gov.co/al-d%C3%ADa/noticias-metro/artmid/6905/articleid/73/medell205n-es-de -nuevo-noticia- en-el-mundo-por-los-metrocables 4 Sáenz,
R. (2016). Metro User With Bike. Retrieved from https://www.elcolombiano.com/antioquia/movilidad/metro-de-me-
dellin-permite-transportar-bicicletas-YC3545706 5 Trujillo Villa, C. (2015). Renovated Sidewalks of Commune 5. Retrieved from https://www.elcolom-
biano.com/antioquia/medellin-estrena-22-000-metros-de-andenes- KY1188158 6 User Louise. (2013). Biblioteca España With MetroCable.
Retrieved from https://elblogdelouise.wordpress.com/2013/ 08/28/a-la-aventura-llegada-y-primeras-impreciones-sobre-medellin/ 7 Google
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