The city of Curitiba, in southern Brazil, is famous among urban planners for its innovation and rational development, with a reputation for being highly livable and very sustainable. It was one of the first cities to market itself as “green” in a 1980s advertising campaign. In 2010 it won the Globe Sustainable City Award and its transportation system could in many ways justify a claim as a model of excellence. Subsequent events over recent years highlight how easily this can be lost.
Integrated Transport System
The development of Curitiba’s world-renowned transportation system began in the late 1960s, early 1970s. Unlike other Latin American cities, Curitiba’s planners decided to address the process of transportation as an integrative approach that can assist in the development of the city. In Curitiba’s case, its planners recognized that transportation systems can serve as the backbone for the development and growth of the city in the future.
Its system uses only buses and was initiated by a visionary mayor in response to lobbying from a group of young architects who were not impressed by the urban fashion of borrowing money for big highways, massive buildings, shopping malls and other showy projects.
Jaime Lerner was one of these architects. In 1971 he was appointed mayor by the military government of Brazil. At the time Lerner was confronted with severe financial constraints so his approach had to be small scale, very cheap and participatory.
Concentric circles of local bus lines connect to five lines that radiate from the centre of the city in a spider web pattern. On the radial lines, triple-compartment buses in their own traffic lanes carry three hundred passengers each. They could go as fast as subway (metro) cars, but at one eighth of the construction cost.
The buses stop at Plexiglas tube stations are designed by Lerner. Passengers pay their fares, enter through the tube and exit from the other end. This system eliminates paying on board and allows faster loading and unloading, less idling and air pollution and a shelter place for waiting, though the system was so efficient that there was not much waiting.
After implementation average bus speeds increased from 5/6 kph to 18/20 – more than three times as fast. Additionally, to avoid congestion in central areas, various streets in the city centre were pedestrianised. This measure initially received negative feedback from local shop-owners, but is now internationally admired. Bike lanes also run throughout the entire city.
Curitiba’s early success provide valuable lessons, but so do its recent failings.
Many Brazilians were attracted to Curitiba’s reputation as a functional, humane city. Its population has grown from 350,000 in the 1960s, when aggressive planning began, to 1.7 million today, with more than 3 million in the greater metropolitan area. Shades of killing the goose that laid golden eggs. The New York Times reported last year that Curitiba recycling rates were down and, as the city sprawls, its famous bus system has had trouble keeping pace. If you ask someone how to go by bus, the answer is very often: “Take a taxicab.”
Worse, the development of Curitiba has led to dramatic deforestation: ninety-nine percent in the state of Parana, of which Curitiba is the largest city. This and other challenges demand continual vigilance by a city known for its innovation — and also a shift from past authoritarian planning styles to a more democratic approach that involves civil society and mobilizes private property interests. So, despite the success of aggressive urban planning measures undertaken forty years ago, Curitiba must continue to update its initiatives and adapt to the times.