12-18 December 2014 #736

Rescue us from our future

ELAINE WANG YIWEI
Micro-buses and three-wheelers cannot address the mass transit needs of a city of 2.5 million people anymore. Kathmandu Valley needs to invest in a new bus network to meet the demand of a population that will hit 15 million in 30 years. A new project hopes to consolidate bus companies and revamp routes. The iconoclastic former mayor of Bogotá, Enrique Penalosa, says Nepal’s advantage ironically is that it is poor, which means it hasn't had the money to make irreversible mistakes. On a recent trip, he told planners a Bus Rapid Transit is not the best solution, it is the only solution for Kathmandu.