Public Transportation Challenges in America: What can we Learn from Mid-Size Cities in Latin America?

A “natural” consequence derived from personal income growth has been car ownership growth, but as far as there are some countries where this relation is not true, or at least, it is not at the same ratio as most cities in the USAa, we may go in depth analysis of the variables that influences such different choices. At the end we want to analyze how is car ownership and car use related to “quality” of life, for this we will consider time spent on daily traveling which then determines time available for other activities that usually makes our life more productive, as far as, we find more opportunities for personal leisure, social life, education, family activities and so on. Of course we know that time availability is not the only variable to be considered important but to the extent of this research it is. As a preliminary hypothesis, we consider that there are some variables related to consumer preferences on a broad range of goods which then determines if buying a car is among the most valuable options and on the other hand how is the built environment related to transit and how is then perceived the quality of the public transportation system. We consider from a heuristic approach that the built environment which I define as the Spatial Framework (SF) of the City and the Transportation Facilities Framework (TFF) induce car ownership, there ought to be some other variables that influences consumer preferences but the chosen variables are within our most immediate domain as Urban Planners. To assess the built environment-related to-transit quality we consider the following variables: a) Distance/Time, from Home to Work. b) Train, Subway, and/or Bus Station (BRT) distance from dwellings. c) Walkability around Main Origin and Destination Places. To assess the quality of public transportation we consider the following variables : a) Multi-Modal Connectivity b) Park&Ride Availability c) Non-Motorized Modes Availability We have chosen two cities (Quito-Ecuador and Medellin-Colombia), with a population of almost three million people, as case-study, and we will outline similarities and differences between them so that we can infer strategies focus on improving “quality” of life, by lessen car ownership rate, or diminishing its use, and at the same time, by improving transit modes, enhancing Time Value. Of course, land use planning and density management play a critical role too, for achieving success.