An urban center of great magnitude, but with some planning problems, make that inhabitants of Panama City face any number of difficulties in road traffic.
To solve these obstacles, specific projects have been developed in recent years, in which the MetroBus system and the first Metro line have been implemented.
For example, through financing from the Inter-American Development Bank, a study was contracted for the preparation of the “Integral Plan for Sustainable Urban Mobility for the Metropolitan Area of Panama” (PIMUS), whose main objective is to propose a transportation and urban mobility policy.
On this occasion, “MI Bus“, Panama’s mass transportation company, initiated a pilot public transportation plan in which two new buses of the fleet will use natural gas as fuel.
This pilot project is an alliance between Hyundai, which will supply the units that will use this clean fuel, MI Bus, which will manage the routes, and AES Panama, which will supply the gas.
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Focus
The main objective of the plan is to analyze for 6 months, the performance of these two buses that will run on the 15 routes of Metro Bus.
At the end of the period, the Technological University of Panama will analyze the results, which will be evaluated by senior officials of MI Bus and if feasible, the fleet will be switched to gas fuel.
Natural gas vehicles could be an interesting alternative for Panamanian public transportation in view of the high costs of polluting fossil fuels and the high pollution it produces.
According to data from the Panama News Agency, the use of natural gas vehicles reduces CO2 by 25%, reduces polluting particles by 66% and causes savings of 49% compared to fossil fuels.
Official figures indicate that 98% of public transportation in Panama uses fossil fuels, which pollute the city with both CO2 and noise, with the intention of reducing these gases and protecting the health of Panamanians.
