A view of the metro car during the inauguration event of Bogota's future metro system as a school of culture for public transport, on Aug. 10.toggle captionA view of the metro car during the inauguration event of Bogota's future metro system as a school of culture for public transport, on Aug. 10.BOGOTÁ, Colombia — The Colombian capital is home to 11 million people — and to some of the worst traffic jams in the world.
On a recent morning, workers moved mounds of dirt with bulldozers and installed steel reinforcement rods at one of the metro construction sites in central Bogotá. Line 1 of the metro, which will be an elevated train running 14 miles from the outskirts to the city center, is scheduled to open in 2028.
"This is what we are betting on," Deyanira Ávila, Bogotá's mobility secretary, tells NPR. She predicts that the metro, along with more dedicated bus lanes, bike paths and sidewalks,"will transform the city."created by location technology company TomTom, ranked the Bogotá metro area as having the world's worst rush-hour gridlock — beating out megacities like Manila, Mumbai and Tokyo.
The sobering statistics may seem odd coming from a city that's not especially crazy about cars. Bogotá has about 250 cars per 1,000 driving-age residents, says Arturo Ardila Gómez, a Colombian who is the