Developing traffic control schemes to achieve Low Emission Zones in Bogota

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Project country: Colombia
Sector: Mobility
Expert Partners: Ricardo Energy & Environment

The Environment and Mobility Secretariats of Bogota are looking to implement Zonas Urbanas por un Mejor Aire (ZUMAs), or Clean Air Urban Areas (like ULEZ in London), to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality in areas with high pollution and socioeconomic vulnerability.

This skill-share delivered technical support to define and implement a traffic control scheme for polluting vehicles, one of the key measures to be implemented in the short and medium term to reduce emissions. Through actively working with the Secretariats and sharing experiences from previous international implementations of low emission zones, the expert team developed a screening, measurements and an evaluation tool that actively supports the development of the ZUMA in Bogota. Additionally, an implementation plan was developed, covering planning, design, implementation, and monitoring of the pilot ZUMA in the Bosa area.

Gender, Equity, and Social Inclusion (GESI) were well considered in this skill-share. Having previously supported various projects within Colombia in enhancing their GESI strategy, the experts had a very good understanding of the reality, context and data available for GESI. These insights were reflected throughout the whole skill-share via discussions around gender in overall transport behaviours and preferences, micro mobility, accessibility and security, among other issues.

 
 







 
Counterpart:
Manual uso color SDM-02-1
 
    
 
 

 

 

     Key facts

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  • The ZUMA strategy was triggered by the city's commitment with C40 to implement at least one zero emission area by 2030. Beyond this commitment, the project acts in response to the air pollution challenge, which has a death toll of more than 2300 people every year. The transport sector directly contributes 40% of pm2.5 emissions.
  • Bogota and Medellin are the only cities in Colombia designing and implementing Low Emission Zones (LOZ), and the specific lessons learnt will support the implementation in other cities.
  • Bogota is a city with a fairly large population density, so the spaces for clean air circulation are very few. This makes the implementation of clean air zones both more challenging and more important.

Key achievements

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  • The ZUMA theory of change was defined, strengthening the conceptual framework.
  • A base action plan was created for the development of the ZUMAs at a general level and the structure of each of the ZUMAs to be implemented.
  • A preliminary evaluation matrix was prepared for the measures identified as potential to be implemented in each of the ZUMAs.
  • Different experiences were documented at a global level of measures related to vehicle restrictions, freight logistics management, logistics micro-platforms, pedestrian plans and measures, mobility plans with companies and transport-oriented developments, among others.

About UK PACT

UK PACT (Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions) is a unique capacity-building programme. Jointly governed and funded by the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) through the UK's International Climate Finance, it works in partnership with countries with high emissions reduction potential to support them to implement and increase their ambitions for tackling climate change.

 

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