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Mapping Equality in Access The Case of Bogot S Sustainable Transportation Initiatives
Mapping Equality in Access The Case of Bogot S Sustainable Transportation Initiatives
To cite this article: Thijs Teunissen, Olga Sarmiento, Mark Zuidgeest & Mark Brussel
(2015) Mapping Equality in Access: The Case of Bogotá's Sustainable Transportation
Initiatives, International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, 9:7, 457-467, DOI:
10.1080/15568318.2013.808388
To enhance social equity, three important sustainable transportation initiatives have been introduced in Bogotá. Spatial information and
GIS have been used to analyze levels of inequality in access to these initiatives. The results show that the TransMilenio BRT offers
equal access for all socio-economic strata (SES). Nonetheless, its modal share is low for the poor due to affordability issues. The
Cicloruta bicycle network and Ciclovía recreational program do not offer equal access for all SES, especially for the lower SES. Their
users, however, mainly come from low and middle income SES. Marginal network extensions can improve equality in access.
Keywords: Access, Bogotá, Colombia, equality, GIS, spatial analysis, sustainable transport
In addition to the TransMilenio, Bogotá has introduced two social exclusion thus closely relates to distributional aspects of
bicycle programs. First, the Cicloruta is the most extensive accessibility.
bicycle path network in Latin America with a length of Only a few studies have examined levels of social exclusion
291 km. The paths connect in part to TransMilenio. After due to spatial access to transportation, particularly in an OECD
the Cicloruta program was implemented, the bicycle modal country context. Delbosc and Currie (2011), for example, study
share increased from 0.58% to 4.4% between 1996 and 2003 access distance to transit stops, demonstrating that low-income
(Cervero 2005) and traffic accidents and deaths were reduced residents and households with low car ownership in the inner
(Wright and Montezuma 2004). city of Melbourne, Australia, experience relatively high levels
Second, the Ciclovía is a recreational program introduced in of access to transit supply, which may be caused by residential
1976 in which streets are temporarily closed to motorized self-selection. Foth, Manaugh, and El-Geneidy (2013) study
vehicles to allow exclusive access by pedestrians, cyclists, employment accessibility in Toronto, Canada, and find that
rollerbladers, and others for active recreation (Sarmiento et al. socially disadvantaged groups experience higher accessibility
2010). This program was developed as an initiative to overcome and lower travel times by using public transportation. In con-
inequalities and improve quality of life (Díaz del Castillo et al. trast, using GIS-based tools, Wu and Hine (2003) demonstrate
2011). For Ciclovía, 97 km of main roads are closed for motor- that those living in the most deprived wards in the city of Belfast
ized transportation during seven daylight hours on Sundays in Northern Ireland are also the most disadvantaged in terms of
and holidays. As a co-benefit to promoting physical activity, public transportation access. In addition, Paget-Seekins (2012)
participants of the Ciclovía are more likely to use a bicycle analyzes nonwork accessibility in seventeen U.S. cities and
for commuting (Parra et al. 2007; Torres et al. 2013). shows that those with higher incomes generally experience
All three of Bogotá’s sustainable transportation initiatives higher land coverage for PT and NMT.
could contribute to reducing access inequalities in the city as The scale of social exclusion in Bogotá may differ greatly
well as other goals such as reducing traffic congestion, improv- from that in OECD countries. The GINI-coefficient that quanti-
ing quality of life, and promoting physical activity, among other fies the level of inequality suggests that income inequalities are
aims. Yet, the spatial distribution of these initiatives compared larger in Bogotá. Hence, social exclusion may manifest itself
to the locations of the different SES has not been assessed more evidently. Transportation systems may thus have great
(Torres et al. 2013). Hence, this paper aims to assess spatial potential to function as a social equalizer in cities such as
access to TransMilenio, Cicloruta, and Ciclovía by SES through Bogotá. Delmelle and Casas (2012), in addition, provide an
a spatial analysis of its infrastructure and the locations of example in a non-OECD context in a GIS-based accessibility
Bogotá’s residents. The results will be useful in bridging the study of the BRT system of Cali, Colombia. That study shows
gap between transportation and social analysis and could that the greatest access to transit is enjoyed by middle social
serve similar programs in assessing indicators of transportation- classes and that in terms of destination accessibility, the lowest
related inequity. social class is underserved.
The structure of this paper is as follows. In section 2, we dis- The type of social indicator that is used differs greatly
cuss the literature on social exclusion and indicators of social between OECD and non-OECD countries. In Cali, for example,
inequity. In section 3, we provide information on the materials a local stratification system based on household characteristics
that are used for this paper. We also introduce the methods that is used (Delmelle and Casas 2012), whereas in many OECD
are used for the determination of social inequity. Section 4 cases, a mix of social indicators, including immigration (Foth,
addresses the results of the study. These results are discussed Manaugh, and El-Geneidy 2013), race, and ethnicity, is used
in section 5, which also compares the findings with those of (Grengs 2013). These indicators are considered to be less of a
the previous literature. Section 6 concludes and presents policy determining factor in a city such as Bogotá, which shows that
implications. low-income groups in OECD countries are unlike those in non-
OECD countries.
2. Transportation-Related Social Exclusion In the present article, we map spatial access to Bogotá’s
TransMilenio system, Cicloruta, and Ciclovía for different
Social exclusion is defined as the broad political and structural socioeconomic strata to assess levels of spatial equity. Delmelle
barrier to opportunity. Accessibility to transportation is one such and Casas (2012) highlight the following two components of
barrier to opportunity (McDonagh 2006). Transportation-related assessing accessibility: access to the transportation system itself
social exclusion centers on the premise that it is not the lack of and access to activities throughout the city. The former is an
opportunities that hinders participation, but rather the lack of important first step and is the focus of this study, but a
access to these opportunities (Lucas 2004; Preston and Rajé destination-based accessibility analysis is most certainly
2007). The growing importance of transportation in enabling recommended for further research. In this study, we adopt an
access to essential goods and services is increasingly recognized infrastructure-based measure of accessibility following Geurs
within the transportation literature, as modern societies are built and Van Wee (2004) in which network-based travel times and
around the premise of the need for high levels of mobility. distances toward the TransMilenio, Cicloruta, and Ciclovía sys-
Accordingly, the socially excluded population is prevented from tems for the various SES in Bogotá are considered. In line with
participating in the economic, political, and social life of a given the above definitions of equality and equity, we use equality in
society due to a lack of accessibility, which is reflected in low the sense of a policy objective of achieving equal spatial access
levels of mobility (Câmara et al. 2001). Transportation-related to NMT and PT systems, whereas we use the term equity to
Bogotá’s Sustainable Transportation Initiatives 459
explain the contribution hereof to increase social inclusion and Table 1. Bogotá’s population per SES (DANE 2005)
opportunity. We consider these concepts to be dependent upon
a multitude of factors, including spatial access. SES Median income Population Percentage
Fig. 2. (a) TransMilenio lines, stations, feeder lines, and expansion in Bogotá; (b) bicycle infrastructure—Cicloruta and Ciclovía—in
Bogotá. Source: Universidad de los Andes. Authors’ elaboration.
Department of Statistics (Departamento Administrativo Nacional in Figure 2 and Figure 3, but were not part of the analysis.
de Estadística DANE). Table 2 shows the TransMilenio modal share per SES.
The TransMilenio lines, stations, and feeder lines are dis- The Cicloruta network provides access to most parts of
played in Figure 2a. The bicycle infrastructure Cicloruta and the city, except the south, where many of the poor reside
Ciclovía circuit are shown in Figure 2b. The blocks provide (Figure 2b). The Ciclovía program appears relatively evenly
an indication of the city’s density and, therefore, of the number distributed and, unlike Cicloruta, provides some infrastructure
of people residing in a particular location. in the south of Bogotá (Figure 2b).
In terms of spatial extent, TransMilenio serves most areas of In terms of use of the various systems and modes in the city,
the city, albeit with different densities, showing lines traversing Table 2 shows the trip-based modal split over eight modes for
through the city and with feeder lines providing access to the the different SES. The table shows that TransMilenio and
city’s outskirts (see Figure 2a). Currently, two new lines have cycling have a relatively low modal share (6.8% and 3.3%,
been constructed, providing access to the east of the city and respectively). Regular buses, or paratransit, comprise the
to the northwest of the city center. These lines are indicated majority of trips, especially for low and middle SES, because
they provide a cheaper alternative and service every part of for accessibility differences per trip purpose. This analysis
Bogotá. With respect to Ciclovía, Diaz del Castillo et al. would also allow for more targeted interventions in both the
(2011) report approximately 600,000 to 1,400,000 users per transportation infrastructure and land use development.
event or 8.6% to 20% of the total population.
4. Results
3.2. Mapping Spatial Access
Walking access levels to the TransMilenio stations and feeder
In this study, we consider spatial access to TransMilenio stations lines are shown in Figure 3. These data are used to derive the
and the networks of Ciclovía and Cicloruta by SES category shares of spatial access to TransMilenio per SES group and
(low, middle, high; see Table 1). Average travel time to reach per catchment area as depicted in Table 3. The table shows that
these systems from the dwelling locations is used because levels of access are nearly equal for all SES for the longer
access to a transportation system, or temporary circuit in the distances, whereas the low SES have the highest access for all
case of Ciclovía, is considered to be associated with using these walking times except for travel time bins above 20 minutes
systems (Cervero et al. 2009). We, therefore, use the SES of walking. The high SES are relatively worse off given the low
residential locations as a base. Nonetheless, future studies levels of access for all walking times. These differences in access
should include an accessibility analysis that links dwellings to show that TransMilenio benefits the lower social classes. The
specific destinations (by SES category). TransMilenio modal share, based on the SDM 2005 mobility
We use ArcGIS to determine the population per SES within survey, is also shown in Table 3. The TransMilenio modal share
the catchment area of the different sustainable transportation is highest for the middle SES. Notably, the lower average modal
systems. Population numbers by SES are obtained by selecting share for the high SES is a result of the 0% modal share for SES
all of the block centers that are within the transportation class six (not shown here); otherwise, this modal share would
system’s (travel-time and distance-based) contours or catchment have been approximately equal to the modal share of middle
areas. Different contours are used to illustrate the growth in the SES. Even though the level of access is relatively similar, differ-
level of spatial access if the catchment area is enlarged. ences in TransMilenio modal share are evident.
Following the methodology of Delmelle and Casas (2012),
the catchment areas are derived by constructing buffers for each
of the transportation systems. These buffers are network-based
because transportation systems can only be accessed using
the general road network. First, buffers around TransMilenio
stations are constructed. The catchment areas are based on
walking times of multiples of five minutes, with a maximum
of 30 minutes. The radius of the buffer is based on an average
walking speed of 4.4 km per hour following Knoblauch,
Pietrucha, and Nitzburg (1996). Hence, buffers with a radius of
411 meters or a multiple are used. Additionally, for the feeder
lines of the TransMilenio, similar buffers are constructed.
Because these buses provide free access to the main TransMilenio
lines, inclusion is required to provide a complete view.
For Cicloruta and Ciclovía, a similar approach is used to
establish the catchment areas. However, the buffers are applied
to every intersection, as Cicloruta and Ciclovía can be accessed
at any point along the route. The 2005 mobility survey of
Bogotá (Secretaría Distrital de Movilidad 2005) shows that
the average bicycle trip distance is 7.1 km. Furthermore, the
SDM survey shows that 30.5% of all bicycle trips are over
10 km in length. Taking into account that bicyclists primarily
desire direct trips (Pettinga et al. 2009), the access trip to bicycle
infrastructure is only a small fraction of the total trip distance.
The Cicloruta and Ciclovía radius is set at multiples of 500
meters, with a maximum of 3,000 meters. All of the catchment
areas, including the TransMilenio, have been established after
consultation with transportation experts in Bogotá.
Only access to the transportation systems is analyzed,
excluding destinations accessible by such systems. However,
an accessibility analysis that focuses on destinations is recom-
mended for a next study because this approach would allow a
more complete evaluation of the land use–transportation system
and the role of the various sustainable transportation modes.
Following Grengs (2013), such a study should also account Fig. 3. Access to TransMilenio per walking time.
462 T. Teunissen
Table 3. Access to TransMilenio (TM) per walking time and SES and trip-based TM modal share
SES Within 5 min Within 10 min Within 15 min Within 20 min Within 25 min Within 30 min TM modal share1
For Ciclorutas, the access to the transportation system per has particularly limited access to Ciclorutas. The results shown
distance class is shown in Figure 4. This figure clearly shows in Table 4, which represent the access in percentages per access
that the south of Bogotá, where low SES households are located, distance, confirm this finding. The access to Cicloruta is highest
for middle and high socioeconomic strata. Low SES have less
access to all distance classes. Thus, there is an unequal access
to Ciclorutas. Table 4 also shows the bicycle modal share based
on the 2005 SDM mobility survey. The bicycle modal share
decreases for higher SES and the bicycle modal share of low
SES is evidently highest; these results are also confirmed in
the recent study by Torres et al. (2013). However, the SES with
higher access to Ciclorutas do not show a higher bicycle modal
share, but rather a lower modal share. Thus, it appears that the
provision of bicycle infrastructure and bicycle use are unrelated
for the low SES population.
The access to Ciclovía per catchment area radius is shown
in Figure 5. The central and eastern parts of Bogotá, in parti-
cular, have good access to Ciclovía. Access to Ciclovía is also
expressed in percentages for each SES and access distance (see
Table 5). The Ciclovía manual states that the maximum dis-
tance traveled to Ciclovía should be two km (PAHO et al.
2009); thus, the first four access distances are particularly
important. This finding clearly shows that access to Ciclovía
is greatest for high SES and lowest for low SES. Table 5 also
shows the percentage of Ciclovía participants per SES class
(National University of Colombia and District Institute of
Recreation and Sport 2005). This result shows that the majority
of Ciclovía participants, 67.6%, are from middle socioeco-
nomic strata and that a significant portion of participants,
24.2%, are from the low SES, which is again in line with
the recent study by Torres et al. (2013). Only a small portion
of Ciclovía participants are from high SES. It is noteworthy
that within a country with marked social inequity, over 90%
of the participants are from low and middle socioeconomic
strata, even though access to Ciclovía is lower in low SES
areas. The lower access in low SES areas is also partially
explained by the fact that the streets that are closed for this
program are recommended as main avenues for touristic attrac-
Fig. 4. Access to Cicloruta per access distance. tions (PAHO et al. 2009).
Table 4. Access to Cicloruta (CR) per access distance and SES and trip-based CR modal share
SES Within 500 m Within 1000 m Within 1500 m Within 2000 m Within 2500 m Within 3000 m CR modal share2
Table 5. Access to Ciclovía per access distance and SES and Ciclovía users
SES Within 500 m Within 1000 m Within 1500 m Within 2000 m Within 2500 m Within 3000 m Ciclovía users3
Table 6. Car ownership and bicycle ownership per SES individuals, cycling provides the best combination of speed
and transportation costs.
SES Car ownership Bicycle ownership Considering the increasing wealth in developing countries, it
can be expected that many of the people who are now captives
Low 2.4% 13.6%
to NMT will gain additional transportation opportunities in the
Middle 10.2% 19.6%
future. From a sustainable development viewpoint, it is impera-
High 40.0% 16.6%
Total 8.5% 16.9%
tive to maintain or possibly increase their bicycle use; otherwise,
motorization will result in major congestion problems. Further-
Source: Municipality of Bogotá (2005). more, given the limited access to Ciclorutas for the lower SES,
there is potential for a higher bicycle modal share. Improved
In conclusion, TransMilenio infrastructure provides rela- spatial access will provide advantages for social equity and
tively equal spatial access for all SES. However, due to afford- possibly increase current bicycle use. However, in a city such
ability issues, the lower SES portray a lower TransMilenio as Bogotá, social safety must be examined in parallel, as a
modal share. This finding implies that lower SES cannot benefit Cicloruta survey shows that robbery and crime contribute more
from the higher travel speeds that TransMilenio offers over to safety perception than does road safety (Torres et al. 2013).
paratransit; thus, more time is spent traveling. Notably, this Access to Cicloruta can be increased through expansion of the
paper only evaluates spatial access to TransMilenio and does bicycle network. A hypothetical case in line with Wu and Hine
not analyze TransMilenio travel times. Given that the only (2003) is analyzed to demonstrate the effects of network expan-
TransMilenio lines traversing Bogotá from north to south are sion. This expansion is based on three principles. First, expansion
in the east of the city, TransMilenio transportation from north is suggested to increase access for the low-income groups, as our
to south in the west part of the city may be inefficient. Hence, previous analysis has shown that these groups score lowest. The
access to destinations from dwellings is not incorporated in this expansion of Ciclorutas in the south adds greatly to access for low
analysis and may provide different insights. Furthermore, SES (Table 7), which is not at par with the other SES. New infra-
mainly low SES neighborhoods are serviced by feeder lines. structure in the south could further increase the bicycle modal
Therefore, the trips of low SES are at lower average speeds, share in the lower SES and could offer an attractive alternative
making paratransit relatively attractive. transportation mode once additional modes become available.
Second, expansion to improve spatial coverage of the network,
5.2. Cicloruta network connectivity, and directness of routes to stimulate
bicycle travel is proposed on key corridors. Third, a number of
The results indicate that access to Ciclorutas is highest for mid- small missing links are needed to reduce fragmentation and
dle and high SES and significantly lower for low SES. This improve local connectivity. The total expansion is 119.5 km
finding suggests that the low SES population in Bogotá has less and will cost approximately 17.6 million U.S. dollars, based on
access to bicycle infrastructure. Interestingly, the bicycle modal the construction costs of the initial Cicloruta of 147,000 U.S.
share is highest for low SES and lowest for high SES. Thus, it dollars per km (C40 Cities 2011). Interestingly, Massink et al.
seems that access to bicycle infrastructure is inversely related to (2011) discuss how this bicycle infrastructure expansion can
bicycle use. potentially be financed through carbon savings.
The bicycle use can partially be explained by other explana- An overview of the current Cicloruta network, proposed
tory variables. Clear differences exist between SES in terms of expansion per motive, and new access per distance are shown
car and bicycle ownership (see Table 6). The higher bicycle use in Figure 6. The levels of access per SES after the intervention
of lower SES cannot be explained by higher bicycle ownership and access distance are shown in Table 7. The low access for
because their bicycle ownership is lowest. Car ownership low SES in the first two distance bins is due to many dwellings
slightly explains this difference because higher SES have a in the very mountainous east of Bogotá, where Cicloruta con-
much higher level of car ownership. Torres et al. (2013), for struction will not increase bicycle use. The average increase
example, found that 82.9% of the Ciclorutas users do not own depicts the increase of access per SES averaged over the six
a car, which could partially explain the mix of users of access distances. Clearly, the expansion mainly benefits low SES.
Ciclorutas. This finding shows that the alternative transportation
modes for many low SES Cicloruta users are only paratransit
5.3. Ciclovía
and walking, which do not provide faster transportation modes,
given that the average speed of public buses is only 15 km/h The results show that spatial access to Ciclovía is higher for the
(Olarte Bacares 2011). In other words, for many poor high SES in the city. The participation in the weekly Ciclovía
Table 7. Access to Cicloruta after expansion per access distance and SES
SES Within 500 m Within 1000 m Within 1500 m Within 2000 m Within 2500 m Within 3000 m Average increase
SES Within 500 m Within 1000 m Within 1500 m Within 2000 m Within 2500 m Within 3000 m Average increase
who currently have less access. Hence, expanding the Ciclovía multimodality (cycling and TransMilenio) can improve access
program will not only increase lower SES’ access to Ciclovía, opportunities and integration between Cicloruta infrastructure
but may also increase the bicycle use of those SES and aid in and TransMilenio stations. Hence, Ciclorutas can function as a
maintaining or increasing the current bicycle use even if wealth feeder for TransMilenio.
grows. The main goals of the Ciclovía program are recreation and the
promotion of physical activity, but the program provides an impor-
6. Conclusions and Policy Implications tant co-benefit through the promotion of social inclusion by pro-
viding access to places of interests during seven daylight hours
Bogotá has introduced three excellent examples of sustainable on Sundays and holidays. This paper shows that spatial access to
transportation developments in the past several decades. Trans- Ciclovía increases alongside SES. Contrarily, the Ciclovía pro-
Milenio offers equal access for all SES, but is somewhat favor- gram is primarily used by low and middle socioeconomic strata.
able for low and middle SES and thus promotes social equity. Hence, spatially, Ciclovía does not offer equal access to all popu-
This finding indicates that Bogotá’s transportation system has lation segments, but promotes social cohesion through interaction
become more equitable. However, the modal share shows sig- between different SES. Nonetheless, it is recommended to allow
nificant differences between low, middle, and high SES, with additional access to the system for low SES so that Ciclovía can
low SES using TransMilenio less frequently. This outcome is reach its full potential. Increased access also results in positive
expected to be partly due to quality self-selection; low SES pre- effects on utilitarian cycling, because Ciclovía participation is
fers low-price and low-quality paratransit over the higher-priced primarily associated with utilitarian cycling.
and higher-quality TransMilenio. Hence, TransMilenio experi- Unfortunately, only few accessibility studies have been con-
ences affordability issues for poor people, which can be ducted on BRT systems, bicycle infrastructure, and Ciclovía,
overcome through targeted subsidies for the poorest population although all of these are becoming increasingly popular in
segments. non-OECD countries in general and Latin America in particular.
Bogotá’s utilitarian bicycle infrastructure program, Cicloruta, Given comparable equity issues in other Latin American cities,
is famous for its extensiveness in a Latin American city. When we recommend additional accessibility studies for comparable
the Cicloruta program was initiated, its goal was to contribute to transportation systems in other cities, which can provide inter-
improvements in social equity. This paper shows that access to esting comparisons. In addition, further research on destination
Cicloruta is greater for higher SES and is quite limited for the accessibility is recommended to evaluate whether the three sys-
lowest SES. This finding indicates that as a result of providing tems discussed in this paper allow the poor equal access to
spatial access, Ciclorutas only have a limited contribution to opportunities such as employment, education, and health care.
improvements in social equity. Nonetheless, the bicycle modal Such research should take into account the linkage between
share is highest for the two lowest SES. locations where the poor reside and where they work and would
The remarkable correlation between access to Ciclorutas and allow a more definitive conclusion on the promotion of social
bicycle modal share is expected to be the result of the poor hav- equity as a result of the sustainable transportation initiatives in
ing less access to alternative transportation modes and traveling Bogotá. Such research would also provide the second step in
only via paratransit and walking, which do not provide faster or assessing Bogotá’s accessibility and can, in combination with
cheaper alternatives. Thus, even though access to Ciclorutas is the present research, provide a more definite conclusion on
limited, the bicycle modal share is high, which indicates a large whether the transportation system’s objectives of social equity
potential for bicycling. Furthermore, maintaining this bicycle have been met.
modal share while wealth increases is vital to counter the effects
of rapid motorization. This paper also shows that a small invest-
ment in additional bicycle infrastructure can significantly References
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Bogotá’s Sustainable Transportation Initiatives 467