WHY MERIDA WANTS TROLLEYBUSES (BUT DOESN’T KNOW IT YET).
Writen by Allen Morrison.
The population of the planet keeps increasing. Its size does not. The
Ejido-Mérida conurbation lies on a narrow strip 20 km long and 2 km
wide, squeezed between two rivers which are squeezed between two
mountain ranges. Mérideños can: (1) move the rivers and mountain ranges
farther apart, or (2) build taller buildings and increase the transport
capacity of its streets.
Even the smallest bus transports more people than several automobiles. An articulated (double) bus carries many more. A train or metro carries hundreds of times as many. Everybody likes his car, but when the choice is between a 2-hour journey by private car and a 20-minute trip by bus or train traveling in segregated lanes, the choice is not difficult. And a patron of public transport can read his morning newspaper and arrive better informed at work.
Choice of bus or tram or train depends on population density. Caracas is densely populated, so needs metro trains running on rails underground. The cost is enormous. Valencia is also building a metro underground. Its population density is less, but is increasing fast. Maracaibo is building a “light metro” that will operate short trains on the surface. Maracaibo is at sea level and cannot build easily underground. Also, it is flat, so population is spread out. Population density is lower in Mérida than in those cities, so a vehicle speeding along a “busway” (canaleta) is appropriate. It will be a sort of metro, and will be almost as efficient, but will be much easier and less expensive to build.
Why electric buses or trolleybuses? Yes, the technology is old. So is the technology of the wheel. Trolleybuses have been around since the 1920s and hundreds of new ones are built every day for systems in cities all over the world. Vancouver (Canada), San Francisco (USA), São Paulo (Brazil) and Mexico City have huge modern trolleybus systems. One of the world’s most successful and celebrated trolleybus lines opened in 1995 in Quito, Ecuador. It was the first electric bus line constructed in canaletas and transport planners still come from everywhere to see it. The geography, population density and other physical aspects of Quito and Mérida are similar, and the trolleybus system under construction in Mérida is modeled on Quito’s.
During the 1990s trolleybus systems closed in a few places such as
Montevideo and Bogotá, either because of power costs or the
mismanagement of public funds. Bogotá purchased 180 new trolleybuses
from Romania in 1982-1985, then changed its mind, pulled down its wires
and allowed hundreds of new, unused vehicles to rot in a field. Tram
and trolleybus systems in the United States were purchased by a General
Motors affiliate that replaced all electric vehicles with General
motors buses that burned fossil fuel. So much for free enterprise.
Large “busway” systems that consume gasoline have opened recently in
Bogotá, Lima, Santiago and other cities in South America, largely
sponsored by the bus industry in Brazil. (São Paulo still has the
continent’s largest trolleybus network.) A new invention is the
“hybrid” bus that uses an electric motor powered by a diesel engine. It
is cheaper than a trolleybus to build, but more expensive to operate
and maintain and, despite claims, is underpowered, smells bad and
pollutes the air. Hybrid buses are popular in several South American
cities, but not in other parts of the world.
Trolleybuses consume zero gasoline, produce zero pollution, emit no odors or noise, glide smoothly, and can accelerate and climb hills as well as most automobiles. And Trolmérida has purchased the best, with German technology and bodies built by Hispano Carrocera in Spain. Trolleybuses are an elegant, prestigious and “fun” form of transportation that most adults and all children in Venezuela will want to experience. (Mérida will be the first city to have them; Barquisimeto is also building a line.) Tourists will love Mérida’s trolleybuses and every guide and guidebook will recommend them. I guarantee it.
The Trolmérida system will function in a manner similar to the metro in
Caracas. Passengers pay their fare upon entering an “estación” on the
line. When the trolleybus arrives, the doors on the sides of both the
station and the vehicle will open, and the passengers that have
collected in the station will quickly board. Like a metro train, the
trolleybus does not have to wait while passengers queue up to pay their
fares. It stops for only a few seconds, then quickly continues on its
way.
Motorists will dislike the trolleybus system at first, since the
canaletas steal space from the road. But if allowed to succeed the
system will eventually remove cars from the road and improve transport
for everybody. Trolleybuses require overhead wires. But the Trolmérida
design appears minimally obtrusive and overhead wires do not bother
residents of hundreds of other cities in the world. In every case where
a city has installed trolleybus wires, residents complain at first,
then realize that the streets already have telephone wires and, strange
as it seems, some think that overhead wires have a positive
psychological effect! Wires and canaletas and trolleybus stations
establish a feeling of permanence and stability. You know exactly where
the trolleybus will stop and you can board it. It is trapped in that
path for your convenience. Suburban residents acquire a new feeling of
community and “connection” with downtown.
Remember: the alternative is relocating those rivers and mountains.
Allen Morrinson, July 30th, 2006
