Agreed, but be very wary of pickpockets. It's notorious for them.

Well, Although Transmilenio is not the perfect transportation system, I considered disrespectul to say that Bogotanos have an absurd pride. May be for citizens from luxurious and developed cities, transmilenio is not exciting. But, this system is the hope of 8 million people who want a better way to go to their offices and their home everyday. The system is in a continuous improvement and is the result of sacrifices and efforts of those people for about one decade. Colombia is not a rich country which can build fancy metros like in Europe, USA or Japan. And if there is insanity and pickpockets it is because of the consequence of the social injustice the country is facing, by the way, partly caused by the imperialism of other countries. For the rest of people who wants to enjoy Bogotá with opened mind and without destructive critiques, for sure you will enjoy.

I'd say that it is definitely far closer to overground metro/LRT than bendy bus. It's the same station designs as high-quality metro/LRTs (nice glassed-in fare-paid stations with multi-door loading, platforms level with the bus so people can step in - like a metro). The difference is that rather than a train car on rails, the moving unit is a bus.

So you get all of the benefits of rail minus the costs of installing rails and buying trains. Down the road they can probably even get fuel-cell or hybrid buses to make it even cleaner. I think the station design really makes it something unique. The Transmilenio has also heralded a change in culture in Bogota.. it's ok to use the bus - and in a city with several million private cars, not enough roadspace, and thin air, this starts to matters *alot* for congestion and commercial movement.

Transmilenio easily trumps what meagre pathetic transit 90% of North American cities have. Even when they try to do BRT, they half-ass it and cheap out on stations.

So, Bogotanos have every right to be proud of their very cost-effective and elegant solution. It's efficient and has very few downsides, and crowding can be solved by having additional lines. It's model that cities in developed countries (car-loving americans who with little money for transit) and developing countries (stuck for cash) can draw on.

(Pickpockets are hardly an issue - show me well-used transit system in the world that doesn't have some).