21st Century (2000–present)

Buenos Aires MobiPlan & Green Corridors

2013– · Argentina · Latin America · Transit-oriented urbanism and corridor planning · Planned by GCBA
Map of the Metrobus BRT corridors of the City of Buenos Aires (2016), part of the MobiPlan sustainable-mobility network.
Map of the Metrobus BRT corridors of the City of Buenos Aires (2016), part of the MobiPlan sustainable-mobility network. · CC BY 2.5 AR

Core idea

Bus priority, cycling, greenery

Why it matters

Mode shift in a congested metropolis

Description

From 2013 the Government of the City of Buenos Aires (GCBA) pursued a sustainable mobility plan for the Argentine capital combining bus priority, cycling infrastructure and greened public space. Its centrepiece was the Metrobus network of dedicated bus corridors, most dramatically the conversion of the exceptionally wide Avenida 9 de Julio to a central busway, together with a rapidly expanded protected cycle network and Ecobici public bike share, pedestrianisation of large parts of the microcentro, and green corridor improvements. The programme retrofitted sustainable mobility onto a dense, congested metropolis.

Significance

Buenos Aires became one of Latin America's most cited examples of rapid mode-shift retrofitting, notable for applying BRT-style priority not as a new system but as a reorganisation of existing bus services on iconic avenues. The 9 de Julio Metrobus in particular is used internationally to illustrate the reallocation of motorway-scale road space to public transport. The programme won international sustainable transport recognition and influenced corridor retrofits across the region.

What shaped it

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.