Panama Forum

panamajames
Joined 2012
Posts: 5096

5 years ago

Panama City Traffic Congestion - Almost 2 Hrs to get to work

5 years ago

According to the Inter-American Development Bank, in order for 2050 Panama to become a developed capital and suitable for all types of mobility, an investment of $ 3 billion will be required.

However, Panama has already invested more than three times in just one decade and not much improvement. The traffic congestion, the motorization rate and the expense / time of transfer is one of the highest in the region, despite the more than $ 10 billion invested since 2009 in the Metrobús system, the Metro and North and South corridors , not counting the millions invested in roads, road repairs and sidewalks.

Based on the Urban Mobility Plan presented in October 2017 by the President of the Republic, Juan Carlos Varela, 1.5 million people reside in the capital, apart from another million that comes to work daily from the eastern and western sectors of the country, thickening the vehicular park that circulates in the city and that generates a congestion that impacts the economy and the quality of life of the people.

On the vehicle fleet, according to the Transit and Land Transportation Authority (ATTT), until April 13, 2018, there were 1.3 million cars in the country, of which 813,841 had a current insurance policy, which indicates that there is a large number of vehicles without insurance or that they have not been discharged from the Municipality.

For its part, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, in its report 'The inefficiency of inequality', highlights that the rate of motorization in Panama is 150, an index that increases in proportion to the increase in purchasing power; however, the motorization index of Panama is higher than that of Norway, which even having a much higher GDP per capita ($ 70,812), its motorization rate is much lower, largely due to the efficiency of investments in urban mobility.

The report highlights that there is ample space to increase the participation of cleaner modes of public transport.

According to the Urban Mobility Observatory of the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) (2015), 56.4% of daily trips are made by public transport, and of these, the electric trains and meters cover approximately 16%.

This is reinforced by the most recent Economic and Development Report (RED), prepared by the CAF, which emphasizes that Panamanians take one hour and 52 minutes to travel from their residence to their place of work on each journey, a figure that It rises up to 67 minutes if you travel by public transport and up to 56 minutes, by private vehicle.

This issue has been a flag of the government administrations, especially that of the last five years and the current one.

In 2010, the administration of Ricardo Martinelli managed the purchase of the North and South corridors for $ 1,070 million, with the promise that they would be free in ten years, that is, starting in 2020.

That same year, the Executive invested close to $ 270 million in a concession to replace 1,200 'red devil' buses with metro buses.

In April 2014, one month before the presidential elections, Panama became the first country in Central America with one meter, inaugurating Line 1 of the Panama Metro with a cost of $ 2,009 million, an initiative that was married with two additional lines for a future project.

Line 2, tendered in the administration of President Juan Carlos Varela, is estimated to be partially operational before the World Youth Day, which will take place in January 2019 and which will cost, so far, about $ 1,857 million.

Line 3 of the Metro and the fourth bridge over the Panama Canal, works also scheduled in the current administration, will cost together $ 4,000 million more and are expected to be ready by 2022.

Another transaction in the long list of attempts to improve Panamanian urban mobility was the purchase of the metrobuses system operated by the company Transporte Masivo de Panamá, SA with the promise of maintaining the passage of the trunk routes at $ 0.25. However, it was not until 2017 that the fare of the bus tickets that pass through the corridors will decrease from $ 1.25 to $ 0.75.

Despite all the investment committed, road congestion will not cease due to lack of road planning in line with the development of the capital city, where the majority of the population converge.

And eight years later, the complaint of the citizenship is the same, the frequencies are sporadic and the travel times have not been reduced, or at least not for the majority.

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