Struggles for Sustainable Urban Development in Cochabamba, Bolivia

illegal increments in mass transit is indeed a major reason behind transport problems in the
city. The situation is similar to other Bolivian cities. In La Paz, public transport has illegally
increased 70 per cent, says the newspaper La Razón (February 19, 2002).
Distortions in supply and demand
Often there has been demand for increasing the number of public transport vehicles or
altering the routes. City neighbourhoods have sometimes expressed demands for a better
transport service. For example, in May 2002 a conflict emerged between public transport
drivers and the Pampa Grande neighbourhood. Residents of the neighbourhood had asked
one of the mass transit routes to extend its service to their area. It was not because they
weren’t served by mass transit, but because the current routes visiting their area provided
poor service and didn’t pick up school children because of their discounted tariff. This
ultimately led into a conflict where drivers of the ‘official’ routes blocked the extended route
and started throwing rocks at the vehicles that had extended their route. The people of the
neighbourhood came out on the streets to deter the rock-throwing drivers. (Los Tiempos
May 9, 2002)
Although it would be easy to criticise the drivers for breaking the rules and being
responsible for the chaos, there are grounds for criticism towards the planning authorities as
well. Perhaps the municipal government has not kept up with transport demand by assigning
new routes and vehicles. As Armstrong-Wright (1993) explains, excessive bus operation
licensing conditions result in inhibition of necessary expansion of the service or regulations
being disregarded under market pressure. The latter is what seems to be occurring in
Cochabamba. However it is also important to keep in mind that the dire economic situation
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