Colombia: Salsa Song Criticizes Bus Rapid Transport System · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

A salsa song and video documents the suffering that travelling in the Transmilenio public transportation system of Bogota represents for its users.
With humor and precise lyrics and accompanied by images of overcrowding and abuses users suffer daily, the salsa song “What we don't have are seats” its making its rounds on the web. Although no artist is credited for it, it was uploaded by YouTube user emmamikor with a Creative Commons Attribution license. On the Colombian forum of Skyscrapercity where they discuss transportation infrastructure, transmillen3mundista already transcribed the lyrics, which describe the experience of getting into a full Transmilenio.
Incómodo voy en Transmilenio, que incómodo voy,
cuidado con las lozas rotas, pilas con los huecos.
Una vieja se subió, de muy mal genio y con mala cara
¿Qué es lo que pasa aquí, que hay tantas damas paradas?
¿Quién me cede un asiento? ¡aquí parece que no hay caballeros!
y yo me sentí indignado, pero con mucho respeto le dije:
Aquí hay caballeros señora, lo que no hay son asientos.
Aquí hay caballeros señora, lo que no hay son asientos. ¡Lo siento!
Next is the video with Spanish and English subtitles:
Although Bogota's transportation system Transmilenio has been used as an example of positive urban development for years, it seems the city has outgrown the system. For example, take this video made by Streetfilms which calls Transmilenio “the world's most advanced bus rapid transit system”. In the video, the team is taken around by the former mayor's brother and shown the system by those who work in it, and it certainly looks like a completely different system than the one shown in “What we don't have are seats”. At the end, they do mention that they did notice the crowding throughout the day, and by the looks of it, none of it was recorded during rush hours…
The passengers aren't the only ones suffering the torment of transmilenio: when the news channel Caracol sent a journalist to cover the struggles passengers face when traveling on Transmilenio… his wallet was stolen. Insecurity isn't the only issue, as YouTube user Punkie54 expressed through the remix combining images and footage of travelling in the transmilenio with the reggaeton song “Making love with Clothes On”:
Finally, transmillen3mundista wraps up what the problem with the Transmilenio system seems to be: it hasn't evolved.
La ciudad cambia continuamente, todo evoluciona. En 12 años seguimos con lo mismo de años atras, los mismos puentes, las mismas estaciones, el espacio publico. Han habido pocos cambios como el remplazo del piso de las estaciones y puentes por lozas de concreto, y otros detalles menores.
Los cambios son necesarios o caemos en la rutina, por otra parte no falta los que digan que si hacemos algo nuevo son mas costos.
El transmilenio se lleno todo de ese gris maluco; las lozas, estaciones, puentes, portales, humo, etc. Seria bueno un cambio que disminuya tanto gris, como integrando cubiertas verdes, pero ademas con un cambio profundo en el diseño de las dichosas troncales en pro de las zonas verdes…