Sustainability pays
Curitiba - a model for sustainable development

While the United States has followed 19th century wisdom about how to create a livable urban environment, this Brazilian city has quietly followed a different route that we’re now trying to figure out how to emulate.

by John Holtzclaw

The city has grown to 1.6 million, (with 2.7 million in the metropolitan area). It has one of the highest per capita incomes in Brazil, and a poverty level below 8%, well under the national average. Key to their success was their affordable and sustainable public transit system. But the story is much broader. And instructive.

They developed a comprehensive plan: coordinating transportation with land use, recycling, open space, schools, city services and improvements to low income neighborhoods

Recycling

The city picks up recyclables locally separated into four categories: glass, plastic, paper and metals. Old buses have been recycled into classrooms to teach trades.

Green Exchange

In low income neighborhoods where narrow streets prohibit recycling truck access, local residents are paid to bring separated recycles out in hand-trucks. The pay is in improved local schools, city services and food grown in city vegetable gardens.

Citizenship Streets

Eight Citizenship Streets bring city government to local neighborhoods. These are colorful, block long buildings with city offices serving the local area, economic services, one-stop permitting, social and athletic facilities, and public transit centers.

Transportation

Biking. The city has 120 km of bikeways. Some are curbside on wide sidewalks, identified as bike lanes by surface color and texture. They continue across intersections with dashed lines.

Public Transportation

Curitiba is justifiably proud of its public transportation, and the invention of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). The city has five main types of bus services.

Red-orange biarticulated Expressas (BRT) buses. BRT operates in five corridors, radiating out from the Centro. The buses are boarded at the same-level-floor from tube stations and the terminals. Passengers pay an attendant on entering the tube station so they can quickly board the bus through the central doors, while others depart through the end doors. The tube stations allow easy weather-protected transfers. The stations are 1⁄2 km or more apart, reducing stopping and boarding time. In most areas, the buses operate on separated bus-only lanes or streets.

A set of BRT lanes (one in either direction) occupies one side or the center of wide avenues, separated by barriers from mixed flow lanes. The pavement on the bus-only BRT lanes is well maintained, giving a smooth ride. The tube stations are located on wide sidewalks or islands alongside the BRT lanes. Blocks along BRT avenues tend to be long and intersections far apart.

Grey cross-region fast Ligeirinhos buses. These are standard length high-floor vehicles, using the terminals along with some “tube stations.” The services operate on regular city streets, freeways and BRT lanes, being faster because they have very few stops.

Yellow local Alimentadoras buses. These are standard 3-step high-floor vehicles, with fares paid to an on-board conductor. They connect with BRT lines and terminals to distribute passengers locally.

White Troncias downtown circulation microbuses. These are standard 3-step high-floor vehicles, with fares paid to an on-board conductor.

Colorful Linea Tourista buses circulate on a 2 1⁄2 hour round trip to 25 major city attractions – urban centers, museums, monuments, parks and architecture, allowing passengers to get off and on at five stops.. These are standard 3-step high-floor vehicles, with the fixed one-day pass bought from the on-board conductor. There are also special buses connecting hospitals, connecting nine neighborhoods, and for handicapped students.

Fares can be paid with smart cards or cash. However, with the exception of Linea Toruista, the system has no discounted daily, weekly or monthly passes like the Paris Metro’s Carte Orange or San Francisco Muni’s Fast Pass. Employers are required to provide monthly transit passes - and lunch tickets - to employees.

Success factors

Successful public transit depends upon a number of symbiotic factors, including:

• A wealth of pedestrians. With few exceptions, once a person gets into her car, even if only for a loaf of bread, you’ve lost them to public transit. Where people walk for many trips, they are likely to hop into public transit for those longer ones. What does it take to get people walking?
• Many nearby destinations, or short trips. That means high density. With scant parking since it can easily cut the density in half, and attract traffic congestion, with its pollution and threats to pedestrians.
• Mixed uses. Markets, restaurants, services and parks in residential areas.
• Broad sidewalks, short-block, fine-grain street grid, and slow, safer traffic.
• All within easy walking distance of transit stations.
• Fast trips. Public transit that gives fast trips between major centers, yet has good connectivity to adjoining areas. Fast trips on trunkline routes require:
  • Local services to convenient, frequent stations.
  • Express services for commuters with longer distances between stops to keep speeds up.
  • Quick boarding - pre-paid boarding area, wide doors and no steps up or down to board.
  • Dedicated rights-of-ways that translate into fast transit vehicle speeds i.e. not impeded by auto, truck or pedestrian traffic, streetlights, etc.
  • User convenience - cheap or no fares, multi-ride fare cards, easy connectivity (transfers), transparent system operations and good information on where routes go.

Curitiba’s affordable solution has been:

• Mixed-use, high density neighborhoods along major transit corridors.
• Fast, high-capacity BRT along major transit corridors, connecting to fast cross-region buses, and to local buses.
• Smart fare cards and monthly employee passes.
• BRT works well because:
• Tube stations are located along high density, high pedestrian corridors.
• Passengers step up onto the tube station boarding platform and pay the attendant to enter the boarding area.
• The high-capacity buses are frequent and have wide entry doors.
• The buses operate on their own right-of-ways with few intersections.

Zoning and Development

From the 1960s, Curitiba planners recognized that public transit success depends upon a wealth of destinations and pedestrians along the routes. This requires high density development, so they planned accordingly.

The BRT corridors are zoned for 10 to 20 story buildings on either side of the BRT avenues, with 4 to 7 story buildings on adjacent blocks. These linear high-rise corridors spike the city’s skyline. Canadian and U.S. Transit Oriented Development takes another approach: high-rises within 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 mile (0.4 to 0.8 km) of the transit station, providing much broader high-density areas near stations.

There was some neighborhood resistance to up-zoning early on. But it was alleviated by mutual discussion and government consultation. Curitiba develops plans with specific clear rules and zoning for an area, which must be adopted by the City Council before implementation. People have confidence in the process.

Open spaces and parks

The city has an abundance of dedicated public open spaces, and a general leafy, campus-like, ambiance. Broad green corridors line the rivers that border the city on the east and west sides. Smaller green spaces border the two smaller rivers running north-south within the city. In order to protect these areas from development, and to create new open spaces, landowners can exchange development rights for height increases elsewhere (Exchange of Builders Rights in Curitiba, or Transfer of Development Rights in the US). Similarly, large landowners can use EBRs to cluster development and increase open space. Or use EBRs to preserve buildings of historical, cultural or architectural value. In a show of neighborliness, Curitiba offered EBRs to suburban land owners to preserve land along the other side of the rivers, but no suburban government has allowed it. EBRs can also be sold to provide low income housing funds. The city has 1 acre for each 73 people.

John Holtzclaw is an active Sierra Club member who does research in building cities to facilitate and encourage walking, biking, public transit, and the related energy and pollution savings.