Bogotá pilot ‘ParceGo’ shows promising results
The way cities manage congestion could soon change, with a pilot showing promising results for a smartphone app to optimize congestion pricing.
Bogotá, Colombia — The Bogotá Mobility Secretariat (SDM) in partnership with ClearRoad and Cornell Tech ran the ParceGo pilot from March 28-July 1, 2022, with the aim of testing the feasibility of a phone-based application to measure congestion, manage traffic, and provide data for congestion pricing.
Utilizing a phone-based application to offer a more flexible and affordable solution, the pilot was rolled out quickly and easily to 225 initial users aged between 18 to 70 years old to provide useful insights into the future of the product and the city’s congestion management strategy.
The pilot was designed to identify trips done between the city’s central business district and its 14 main corridors. During the pilot, the app recorded 40,623 trips and processed over 600 trips per day, showing promising results in providing the City of Bogotá with useful congestion information and a feasible replacement for the antiquated implementation of its Pico y Placa Solidario system. Out of the total trips made, nearly 60% were done by car, highlighting a significant shift from pre-pandemic trends and the increasing need for a solution. Of these car trips, 22,276, or 95% of trips were done inside the pilot area and 20,808, or 88% of trips were made in at least one of the 14 main corridors. This demonstrates ParceGo’s ability to differentiate trips done within a city and along different corridors. Accordingly, it can assist governments in monitoring congestion in different parts of the city and allow them to have different pricing per area or corridor/road of the city.
To understand the experience of pilot participants, two identical surveys were conducted at the beginning and end of the pilot. The results of the survey showed that 97% of users had a positive evaluation and experience of the service and felt comfortable sharing their personal information and GPS data with ParceGo–a significant breakthrough for future implementation of the solution to a wide range of users.
Over 75% of users agreed that they now have more awareness of how many kilometers they drive as a result of the pilot. This figure is a positive result of both the program and phone-based app, where it is hoped that increased awareness of vehicle miles traveled will lead to more deliberate travel choices and a modal shift towards other forms of transportation.
In 2022, the City of Bogotá was ranked as the 6th most congested city in the world according to the Inrix index, with drivers spending around 122 hours lost in traffic per year. The implementation of an effective and innovative solution to manage traffic and congestion is crucial for a city that faces new challenges and trends in transportation as it grows.
ParceGo is an easy-to-use, market-ready, and low-cost solution that cities can implement quickly in the face of congestion. The pilot in Bogotá reveals that not only is the solution widely accepted by users, but it also provides critical information about mobility patterns that cities can utilize to make more informed choices and responsive policies to improve their transportation and serve their citizens.
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