Over the last five years Santiago has taken big steps to control the pollution levels in a city built against a mountain range. Among the changes made were the expansion of the subway system, new highways, better traffic flow control, and most recently replacing the traditional yellow micro buses that belched pollution with new modern buses. 

Well most of those micros are not simply going to be scrapped. A few have been reconditioned to meet the new pollution requirements in Santiago, but a large portion are slated to be sent to other cities around Chile. Santiago's smog control program is going to pollute the rest of the country. Some cities are implementing similar programs, such as Vina del Mar; however, in the smaller cities of the south the smog belching micro is still very common on the streets and more are on the way.

There is a growing awareness in many of the cities in the south of Chile not to repeat the mistakes of Santiago. The problem is when will the pollution and traffic control problems be fixed? Will they be fixed when the cities are only a few hundred thousand people, or when the cities grow past the million inhabitants.

You can read more about the TranSantiago project at our sister site All Central Chile www.allcentralchile.com