With the growing threat of global warming and health concerns due to harmful emissions, the public may want to consider seeing what Bogota, Columbia is up to, as outlined in this New York Times article from a little while back.
As the article points out, one popular street, Seventh Avenue, illustrates a polluted, loud, and unhealthy approach to travel. We see this sort of image all over the world in major metropolitan areas. But less than a few miles away from Seventh Avenue, there is an example of a dramatically different way of dealing with traffic flow, noise pollution, and contaminated air. On the four center lanes of Avenida de las Américas, there are large red buses operating on a new transit system called B.R.T. (Bus Rapid Transit). Similar to a subway system that operates above ground, these buses are efficient, clean, and have low emissions.
Bogota’s B.R.T. (called TransMilenio) is less expensive than building an entire underground subway system, and is an indicative point that the country is moving in the right direction towards environmentalism and public health. TransMilenio averages 1.6 million trips a day, and has been the leading reason why over 7,000 private buses have been removed from the roads. Emissions from buses have been reduced by close to 59% since the opening of TransMilenio in 2001, according to this NY Times article. Following in similar steps, communities in
This got me thinking…we hear a lot about developing countries not wanting to reduce CO2 emissions, but here’s an example of an emissions-reducing, money-saving, growth-promoting move. Perhaps the work of grassroots advocacy is to identify opportunities like this and push for them. Although not as effective as an underground subway system, the B.R.T. is a climb in the right direction and much cheaper—and anything can help. It seems to me that this underscores that as responsible citizens, we need to be proactive and, especially, realistic in regards to environmental initiatives.
I’d like to start by welcoming you to the new IHF blog. Please check back often as we discuss some of the most pressing global issues we face and, more importantly, some successes the IHF (and some other groups) have had in addressing them.
Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to evaluate a number of technologies aimed at solving the problems of the developing world. These range from our very own smokeless stove program to complex water purification, to laptops for children, to pharmaceutical safety, to micro-enterprise initiatives. All of this talk of technology got me thinking.
We’ve found that technical solutions abound (if you look hard enough). This may sound odd as most global homes don’t have electricity or even access to clean water not to mention the internet or a phone line. But the engineering solutions to these measures of ‘development’ exist. Many organizations have solutions for solar power, for village-level grids, for water purification, and information distribution. So why are we still faced with the immense burden of disease posed by indoor air pollution and dirty water?
In my opinion, the deployment of technologies is where the innovation is needed. We’ve already spent countless dollars and hours developing solutions – well, partial solutions. But what good is a life-changing stove if it isn’t installed in a village home? Collaborative development, community-based implementation, and grass-roots ownership are key not only to the design of novel solutions, but also to the use, adoption, acceptance, and maintenance of long-term changes. Its time to move technologies out of the labs. I think we need far less effort spent on innovating and far more spent on innovative deployment. What do you think?
RSS
