By: Andrea Jaramillo.

The traffic in Barranquilla. Many causes said and few solutions proposed.

Traffic is a word to describe a situation that does not allow means of transport as
cars, buses or motorbikes to do the correct flow by slowing the speed of vehicles
then it will be able to get a congestion. Particularly in Barranquilla, this situation
has many causes. Among them, there are excessive number of vehicles, poor
mobility program, mishandling of social events with the transport mobility,
constructions impeding roads, geography of the city that it is involved with famous
arroyos and any vehicular accident that occurs. These causes make an
unmanageable problem, which feeds the stressful state of mind of the
Barranquilleros who develop their lives in this small and difficult city. We will
discuss the causes with some solutions below in the text.
As a law of life, every cause has its result, and we could be smart individuals
involved in the issue who give some suggestions. By the number of vehicles, there
is nothing to do, because if population grows, this number will increase, so park
and drive is a good policy solution for traffic congestion mitigation in this way. In
addition, for the poor mobility program, there are many red points, they should be
improved as the collapse of Transmetro route design, congestion on main roads
during peak hours and the absence of a public transport system fully integrated.
Moreover, those aspects form an unpredictable vehicular traffic in Barranquilla,
which involve some effects on the quality of drivers and passengers lives for delays
in schedules and wasting time. Then my solution could be to unify public transport,
which would increase the flow and decrease wasting time. Anyway, one general
advice for citizens is not move in the city with precise time because you never
know what can happen.
Additionally, other causes as mishandling of social events with the transport
mobility will be able to be solved by good communication media of alternate routes
and decisive action of the road patrol/traffic officer. It is usual that constructions
block roads and I think the solution is the same as for the previous case. On the
other hand, the geography of the city is affected by famous arroyos; a solution I
propose is that they might be channeled or built bridges that go over in critical
areas because it is a meteorological problem it is not yet predicted. However, for
any vehicular accident that occurs, It does not exist a real solution, just alert drivers
who should be careful everytime.
In general, Barranquilla has many problems about traffic jam; they can be solved
by taking actions such policies, public transport system integrated in the entire city,
good communication media that shows alternate routes by any reason streets are

blocked. Then citizens, pedestrians and drivers could improve their quality of life
with fewer changes in their schedules and better use of time.