Smart City Dispatch · Daily Signal · Smart Cities
Three Medellín mobility projects advance to scaling phase
Smart City Dispatch ·
Summary
Three projects addressing wheelchair access on steep hills, barriers on local routes and accessible-bus trip planning completed pilots and are moving into an eight-month phase of further development and real-world testing, supported by Ruta N and the Toyota Mobility Foundation.
Detailed Explanation
Getting around Medellín can mean navigating steep hillside streets or finding an accessible route to a bus. Three projects in the city’s Mobility for All strategy have completed pilot stages and are entering an eight-month phase to further develop their proposals and test them under real-world conditions.
The projects tackle different gaps: Brazo Amigo is a device that attaches to a manual wheelchair to assist movement on steep hills; Pendiente Cero addresses barriers along first- and last-mile routes and plans to expand across the Aranjuez district; and MOBI is developing an app to help people with reduced mobility plan journeys using information about accessible buses. Each will continue developing its own minimum viable product, with targets based on assessments and pilot evidence.
Ruta N, Medellín’s innovation agency, and the Toyota Mobility Foundation are supporting the phase, which has an estimated funding pool of up to COP 500 million (Colombian pesos) for all three projects combined. The next step is not a citywide rollout: the projects are still developing their solutions. Their progress will show whether distinct tools for mobility assistance, route accessibility and travel information can become workable services in the city.
What changed
All three Mobility for All projects completed their pilot stage and advanced to an eight-month phase focused on further development and real-world testing. The combined estimated funding pool is up to COP 500 million.
Why it matters
If the projects prove usable and sustainable in the next phase, they could address different obstacles to getting around Medellín, from steep hills to inaccessible routes and limited bus information. The available evidence describes development and testing, not citywide availability or measured outcomes.
What to watch
- Whether Brazo Amigo establishes the planned loan-and-user-support fleet model for wheelchair users.
- Whether Pendiente Cero expands operations across Aranjuez and what barriers its work addresses.
- What accessible-bus information MOBI provides as its app develops, and whether the next phase reports user or pilot outcomes.