168
M. Audouin and M. Finger
prepaid card, so users needed to top-up cash on their card at dedicated machines to
be able to travel. Users would need to tap-in their card on card readers when entering
a bus or metro station, and tap-out when exiting, so the AFC system would calculate
the total distance traveled and deduce the corresponding fare from their T-money
balance. Ultimately, the T-money sought to streamline human traffic flows at metro
gates, to reduce bus delays caused by cash transactions for fare payments at vehicle
gates, and as an IoT device, to ensure complete transparency of bus drivers operations,
and obtain data about public transportation use by the citizens (Park and Kim 2013).
The card was widely embraced by the population, as in 2013 it is estimated that it was
used for 97.1% of the 32 million trips processed daily on Seoul public transportation
system (SMG 2014).
14.3 Bogota Case
With almost 10 million inhabitants, Colombia’s capital is the most populated city
in the country (Munoz-Raskin 2010). The economic situation in Colombia, specifically in Bogotá, is significantly less developed than Korea and can be characterized
as belonging to the Global South (Cervero 2013). Prior to 2000, the Metropolitan
Area of Bogotá was characterized by a fairly complex transportation system. Bus
services were provided by 64 different companies operating around 21,000 vehicles
citywide. Private bus operators were often leasing their routes (previously obtained
on concessions-based contracts) to third-party bus owners, creating a complex structure for bus operations (Cain et al. 2006). At that time, most of the bus-operating
companies used obsolete vehicles, and showed very little concern for public safety.
Bus stops were actually depending on the willingness of the bus drivers to stop,
resulting in an anarchic bus system. As the income of bus drivers was directly linked
to the number of passengers they carried, Bogota’s bus system was synonymous of
chaotic competition between operating companies, also known as the “penny war”
(Ramos 2015), resulting in serious safety issues for pedestrians and other road users
(World Bank 2010).
To address the poor condition of public transport in Bogota, the 1998 newly
elected Mayor, Mr. Enrique Peñalosa, proposed a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system,
called TransMilenio (Ardila 2004), in cohesion with the Bogota Mass Transport
System plan of the Colombian National Development plan (Lara and Gutierrez 2012).
TransMilenio was a citywide, city-owned system that was supposed to offer speed
and convenience to its users. Buses were to run in dedicated corridors to avoid
traffic flows, and riders were to purchase their tickets at the entrance of bus stations
instead of upon entering buses. The project started in 1998 and was inaugurated
in December 2000. Additional corridors opened every year until 2006 (Heres et al.
2013). Old buses were progressively taken out of these main corridors ensuring a
smooth transition so that eventually TransMilenio was the only public transportation
remaining on the main routes. Through concessions, TransMilenio outsourced the
operation of the BRT and feeder line buses. Tendering processes were implemented
M. Audouin and M. Finger
prepaid card, so users needed to top-up cash on their card at dedicated machines to
be able to travel. Users would need to tap-in their card on card readers when entering
a bus or metro station, and tap-out when exiting, so the AFC system would calculate
the total distance traveled and deduce the corresponding fare from their T-money
balance. Ultimately, the T-money sought to streamline human traffic flows at metro
gates, to reduce bus delays caused by cash transactions for fare payments at vehicle
gates, and as an IoT device, to ensure complete transparency of bus drivers operations,
and obtain data about public transportation use by the citizens (Park and Kim 2013).
The card was widely embraced by the population, as in 2013 it is estimated that it was
used for 97.1% of the 32 million trips processed daily on Seoul public transportation
system (SMG 2014).
14.3 Bogota Case
With almost 10 million inhabitants, Colombia’s capital is the most populated city
in the country (Munoz-Raskin 2010). The economic situation in Colombia, specifically in Bogotá, is significantly less developed than Korea and can be characterized
as belonging to the Global South (Cervero 2013). Prior to 2000, the Metropolitan
Area of Bogotá was characterized by a fairly complex transportation system. Bus
services were provided by 64 different companies operating around 21,000 vehicles
citywide. Private bus operators were often leasing their routes (previously obtained
on concessions-based contracts) to third-party bus owners, creating a complex structure for bus operations (Cain et al. 2006). At that time, most of the bus-operating
companies used obsolete vehicles, and showed very little concern for public safety.
Bus stops were actually depending on the willingness of the bus drivers to stop,
resulting in an anarchic bus system. As the income of bus drivers was directly linked
to the number of passengers they carried, Bogota’s bus system was synonymous of
chaotic competition between operating companies, also known as the “penny war”
(Ramos 2015), resulting in serious safety issues for pedestrians and other road users
(World Bank 2010).
To address the poor condition of public transport in Bogota, the 1998 newly
elected Mayor, Mr. Enrique Peñalosa, proposed a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system,
called TransMilenio (Ardila 2004), in cohesion with the Bogota Mass Transport
System plan of the Colombian National Development plan (Lara and Gutierrez 2012).
TransMilenio was a citywide, city-owned system that was supposed to offer speed
and convenience to its users. Buses were to run in dedicated corridors to avoid
traffic flows, and riders were to purchase their tickets at the entrance of bus stations
instead of upon entering buses. The project started in 1998 and was inaugurated
in December 2000. Additional corridors opened every year until 2006 (Heres et al.
2013). Old buses were progressively taken out of these main corridors ensuring a
smooth transition so that eventually TransMilenio was the only public transportation
remaining on the main routes. Through concessions, TransMilenio outsourced the
operation of the BRT and feeder line buses. Tendering processes were implemented