Advancing Urban Mobility with National Programs

Urban mobility is not merely a local concern. National governments in developing countries are increasingly investing in urban transport infrastructure. Although the body of knowledge on the topic is growing, further understanding and improvement are necessary. This paper contributes to the topic by providing an assessment and formulating recommendations for the Colombian national urban transport program. The program has increased the number of cities with mass transit from two to eight over the past 10 years. New bus systems, with a total length of 194 km of bus corridors, serve 2.5 million passengers per day. The policy supports smaller cities in transforming their public transport systems citywide. Projects have resulted in positive socioeconomic impacts through reductions in operational costs, travel times, air pollutant emissions, and traffic fatalities and injuries—with a socioeconomic internal rate of return of up to 45%. Two critical aspects for improvement are identified: (a) the competition between semiformal public transport and motorcycles and organized public transport and (b) the principle of self-sustainability of transit systems. Suggestions on policy responses, such as stronger focus on quality, subsidies—funded from transport demand management and land use value capture—and enhancement of institutional coordination and control, are presented. Lessons from Colombia are relevant to other emerging countries that are considering and upgrading national urban mobility policies.