During a recent visit to South America I had the pleasure of meeting the guru behind the innovation in Curitiba, Jaime Lerner. The unique public transport system in this city is well worth seeing and using.
I was fortunate to have a contact in the city courtesy of an Adelaide social planner friend Laura Trujillo and although I had made no prior arrangements I managed to track Jaime down in his office and arranged a meeting with an hour’s notice. I was very priviledged to meet him and spend an hour chatting about this innovative city and the rapid bus transit system in particular.
He has very fond memories of Adelaide, which is the only city in Australia he has visited and would be very interested in coming back if invited. He was impressed with the caliber of planning and design professionals in the city. The Lord Mayor Michael Harbison hosted him when the Capital City Committee arranged for his visit several years ago.
In the hour I had before our meeting I thought I would add to my limited knowledge of the city and googled it to find a very informative article on Wikipedia. It is the capital of the Brazilian state of Parana and has a relatively high standard of living compared with other cities in Brazil. In 2006 it had a population of 1.8 million in the wider state of 3.5 million people. It is situated on a plateau at over 900 metres and is approximately 100 km from the east coast of the country.
It was the first city in Brazil to have a University, which was founded in 1913 and considers itself an important cultural, political and economic centre.
Most urban planners know if for its innovative and well planned public transport system based around buses. However, it has a history of innovation in city planning as a whole with a focus on green spaces. In the 1960s when the population had grown rapidly, Jaime Lerner, an Architect and later Mayor, was commissioned to undertake an Urban Design Plan for the city with strict controls on urban growth, a reduction in traffic in the central business district, preservation of the historic centre and a convenient and addordable public transport system. He led a team from teh University of Parana to introduce strict controls on urban sprawl adn a reduction in traffice.
This Master Plan was adopted in 1968 and bosted a Trinary Road System (see Jaime Sketch below). It uses two one-way streets moving in oppositve directions adjoining either side of a smaller two-laned carriageway where express buses have exclusive lanes. Five of these roads form a star that converges on the city centre.
Jaime believes that the city had some of the first examples of TODs which line these routes where high density housing and mixed uses are focused on the unique bus stations/stops. At each focal point is also a range of community facilities. Between these lines of TODs are lower density developments all of which are within convenient walking distance of the bus routes.
In summary the bus rapid transit system (BRT) has:
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comprises long, bi-articulated buses
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fast boarding at unique enclosed bus stations/stops in tubular form
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staffed paying stations within the structures where passengers purchase a one price ticket before boarding, no matter the length of the journey
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same level boarding with provision for people with disabilities
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regular services as frequent as 40 second intervals in peak hour
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priority at traffic lights
When I queried Jaime about the lessons learned from this system he responded that it had a lower capital and operating cost than rail or trams and can carry more people than a subway which has a much higher capital cost.
He considers that such as system requires ongoing improvement and as it reaches capacity, new laneways should be developed, frequency increased, and opposition from some motorists about priority at traffic lights resisted. In summary, constant reviews and improvements are required to keep the system effective.
The most important features of this BRT in his view are the dedicated lanes, fast boarding, paying before entry, same level access and high frequency. The system benefits from a high quality of technology, with all the components produced in Brazil. My partner and I found the system very easy to use and very fast in reaching our destinations.
Most importantly Jaime stressed that the BRT is part of an overall concept for the city, it uses existing streets, it has excellent feeder lines and pays for itself unlike most other major public transport systems. The system comprises public infrastructure and a private fleet of buses.
On more general urban issues Jaime considers that the most important elements in an urban area are:
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lower car use
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separating and recycling garbage
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working closer to home.
The city is also gradually developing a network of cycle routes which are located where possible through parks, planned within the main urban structure, along rail lines and close to the BRT lanes. Interestingly, cyclists were seen using the BRT system on the weekends when there is a lower frequency of services.
The city also has other features such as a major pedestrian street which was closed to vehicles as part of the Master Plan.