metropolitan

Details of transportation plan kept under wraps

The Plan de Movilidad Urbana y Modernización del Transporte could affect up to 50 percent of capital dwellers who take the bus.

The government remains tight-lipped about the particulars of its plan to modernize the public transportation system.

DAVID MESA/LA PRENSA

changes: The plan’s traffic-alleviating ideas call for rearranging parking lots and adding sidewalk space. 1037501

Felicidad Aguirre’s alarm sounds every morning at 3:15 p.m., four hours before she’s due at work. And it isn’t because she wants to linger over breakfast. Aguirre, like many who commute from the outskirts of the capital, spends much of her day on a bus.

In the event that Aguirre misses the bus, the 25-cent ride each way may cost her upwards of $2.50 to go by taxi from her house in Alcalde Díaz to the downtown area.

Relief for bus riders, however, may be on the horizon. The government’s recently announced the Plan de Movilidad Urbana y Modernización del Transporte, which aims to replace the “diablos rojos” with a fleet of 420 modern buses and reorganize the routes offered riders. According to official data, the plan will affect around 50 percent of capital dwellers who use the bus system as their chief mode of transportation.

Part of the first phase of the government’s plan includes contracting 150 inspectors to monitor the current transportation system, as called for in an update to the law regulating the Transporte Público Masivo. With the presence of independent inspectors, the system would then be eligible for international investment capital.

Although the new plans promise big changes, most of its details are still under wraps. John Bennett, former president of the Asociación Panameña de Ejecutivos de Empresa (Apede), has called the project “a step in the right direction,” but criticized the government’s failure to involve the community in the drafting process.

This oversight, explained Bennett, “begs the question of whether our leaders are aware of the importance and scope of public transport’s role in a community.” Moreover, he said the changes to the transport system “should have taken place long ago.”

Transmóvil officials intend for the plan to reduce congestion in the city’s major arteries, which are traveled by an estimated 367,000 vehicles every day.

To ease traffic, urban planners have contemplated adding more sidewalks and rearranging parking areas. Potential plans also include creating a Gerencia Metropolitana de Transporte to monitor and resolve any traffic problems.

Apede president Juan Carlos Mastellari said he welcomed the project because, in addition to the new buses, people will begin to see a more orderly transportation system.