Skip to main content

Buenos Aires integrated urban renewal project wins global transport award

An inner-city renewal initiative in Buenos Aires. Argentina has been awarded the International Transport Forum's Transport Achievement Award, which will be presented during the ITF summit on 1 June in Leipzig, Germany.
May 31, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
An inner-city renewal initiative in Buenos Aires. Argentina has been awarded the International Transport Forum's Transport Achievement Award, which will be presented during the ITF summit on 1 June in Leipzig, Germany.


In an effort to improve traffic and pedestrian access  in the downtown area of Buenos Aires known as Microcentro, the Transport Authority of Buenos Aires in cooperation with the national government of Argentina and local stakeholders implemented Argentina's 6635 first comprehensive urban renewal programme.

This included a pedestrian priority area complemented by a new metrobus corridor. A total of 86 blocks in the Microcentro are now restricted for cars and equipped with licence plate recognition technologies. Sidewalks were extended to create shared spaces, additional bicycle lanes and 29 new bicycle sharing stations were built.
 
At the same time, a new metrobus corridor was created on the Avenida 9 de Julio, the major north-south thoroughfare adjoining the Microcentro. The bus rapid transit provides high-capacity public transport as an alternative to car travel into the city centre.
 
As a result, the number of cars entering the Microcentro has reduced by almost 86 per cent, from more than 15,000 to just over 2,121 every day. The metrobus 9 de Julio, used by 11 bus lines carrying 255,000 people every day, cuts average travel time along the three-kilometre corridor by 50 per cent in peak hours.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • TransCore receives National Recognition Award
    June 3, 2013
    TransCore’s work for the Delaware Department of Transportation (DELDOT) to convert the I-95 Newark toll plaza to open road tolling has received a National Recognition Award for exceptional achievement in engineering. TransCore served as the lead integrator on DELDOT’s conversion of the Newark Toll Plaza on I-95, adding two new electronic highway speed lanes on both the north and south bound plazas that successfully reduced congestion in a busy corridor for motorists and commercial freight carriers. Plaza th
  • Cities’ quandary over air quality
    October 20, 2014
    Transportation professionals have always made the safety of drivers, other road users and pedestrians their top priority with congestion and other considerations further down the wish list. Now, however, it is not enough to prevent motorists, cyclists and pedestrians being injured in traffic accidents as it appears transport professionals’ responsibilities must go much wider – to the public in general. The OECD has calculated that road traffic related air pollution kills more than three million people per y
  • Traffic flow information substantiates benefits of new route
    August 20, 2012
    The number of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) travelling through Carlisle’s city centre in the north east of England is estimated to have been reduced by more than a third since the US$276.5 million Carlisle Northern Development Route opened in February 2012. Information gathered from a network of 20 permanent and temporary traffic counters dotted around the city showing ‘before and after’ CNDR road usage is starting to build a more meaningful picture of the benefits the new road has brought to Carlisle.
  • Alternative fuel buses gaining significant traction
    April 25, 2012
    According to a recent report from Pike Research, the trend toward cleaner transit buses will continue over the next several years, and by 2015 the cleantech market intelligence firm forecasts that alternative fuel vehicles will represent more than 50 per cent of the 64,000 total transit buses that will be delivered worldwide during that year, up from 28 per cent of total bus deliveries in 2010.