A New Model of Equitable and Sustainable TOD Around Future Bogota Metro Stations

The Colombia TOD NAMA is launching an exciting new project. CCAP and our partner CIUDAT (hosted by Findeter) have joined forces with the Metro de Bogotá Company to demonstrate a new model of transit oriented development around BRT and rail transit stations. Bogota, Colombia has been a leader in innovative mass transit, ever since the first Transmilenio Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line opened in 2000. The success of BRT led Bogota to first expand the routes, but then start to reconsider higher-capacity rail-based mass transit. In 2016, after decades of studies and discussions, the national and city governments signed an agreement creating the Metro de Bogotá Company to manage the construction and operation of the first 25 kilometer line of a new Bogota Metro.

Over the last few years CCAP and CIUDAT have been promoting the Colombia Transit Oriented Development (TOD) NAMA in several medium and large Colombian cities that have a variety of public transit systems. Offering a combination of policy innovation, world-class planning and design, and project financing, all supported by a grant from the NAMA Facility, the TOD NAMA helps cities focus on place-making improvements that demonstrate better linkage with transit and create more spaces for walking, working, living and playing without the need for more driving of private cars and motos – thereby reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

TOD neighborhoods can improve jobs/housing balance, creating more equitable communities while giving more people access to well-paying jobs. Exercise gets built into daily activities when it’s safe and convenient to walk and bicycle. People walk more in compact, mixed use communities, resulting in greater overall health, longer life expectancy and improved mental health. These very real benefits mean real estate values are higher per acre, leading to increased value that can be “captured” by the city and returned to the people in the form of better infrastructure, maintenance and services.

With this in mind, Bogota and the Metro Company have requested CIUDAT’s expertise to study a critical new multi-modal station area along the new Metro line project in the southwest of Bogota. The Portal de las Americas is a major transfer station between TransMilenio and local feeder bus lines. Each morning thousands of commuters pass through the station to go to work in central Bogota and return in the evening. When the Metro is built, even more daily riders are expected – more than 100,000 by 2030. In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, the Bogota urban planning department is interested in minimizing the need for