Will we continue to expand roads or rethink the city itself? Without comprehensive planning, every solution will be temporary, and citizens will continue to pay the daily price for urban chaos. Two key parks — Omar and Metropolitano — show that the majority arrive by car, not on foot or by public transport. Even the expansion of the Metro, with two lines in operation and another coming on the west, has not been enough to reverse this trend. While the city expanded eastward — with new residential, logistics, and commercial projects — no one seemed to ask if the road infrastructure could sustain that pace. The city keeps growing its back on an integrated transport system. What is experienced today on the South Corridor is not an accident or a specific failure: it is the result of years of urban growth without planning. Because the problem is not just the South Corridor or West Panama. The result is evident: a traffic jam that has stopped being episodic to become a daily routine for thousands of Panamanians. The announced expansion, with an investment of around $300 million, is too late. It may alleviate the problem in the short term, but it does not solve the structural cause: a development model that prioritizes construction over mobility and quality of life.
