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

  • Bombardier wins contracts for the first monorails in Thailand
    August 14, 2017
    Bombardier Transportation has been awarded two contracts for its Bombardier Innovia Monorail 300 system for two mass rapid transit lines in Bangkok. The contracts are with Northern Bangkok Monorail (NBM) and the Eastern Bangkok Monorail (EBM), responsible for the turnkey construction and 30-year concession of the new, elevated lines. Bombardier will design and supply the mechanical and electrical elements for the two monorail lines and deliver a combined total of 72 four-car Innovia Monorail 300 trains equi
  • Walk | Don’t Walk – actually, just Don’t Walk
    March 17, 2025
    In 1925 a traffic ordinance was introduced in Los Angeles. The 100-year anniversary is significant because, transportation historian Peter Norton suggests, the law in effect set the blueprint for car-dependency across the US. Adam Hill asks him how…
  • Maintaining momentum: learning lessons from the London Olympics
    November 15, 2013
    Japan will not only host this year’s ITS World Congress but has been selected for the 2020 Olympics. So what can Japan, and indeed Brazil, learn from the traffic management for London 2012 - Geoff Hadwick finds out. It was a key moment when Olympic boss Jacques Rogge signed off London 2012, calling the Games “happy and glorious.” Scarred by the logistical disaster of Atlanta 1996 and the last-minute building panic for Athens 2008, Rogge clearly thought London 2012 was an object lesson in how to plan and
  • TransCore wins new Doha airport access control system
    November 19, 2012
    US-headquartered ITS specialist TransCore is to design, implement, and maintain a state-of-the-art, radio frequency identification (RFID)-based parking and car/bus terminal access control system for authorised staff personnel of the New Doha International Airport Authority. The company was selected by Amana-Walbridge Joint Venture to install the system that will be operational during the second quarter 2013.