Case Study- Curitiba
Curitiba is
the capital of the state of Parana in Brazil. The city has in the region of 1.8
million inhabitants. It has the fourth highest national GDP in Brazil at $61
billion. Curitiba has a few transport systems that reduce congestion within it.
The main
system used in Curitiba though is buses. Curitiba has one of he best transport
systems in the world, the Bus Rapid Transit systems is incredibly inventive and
very effective. Bus systems provide a very versatile form of public transport
with a vast flexibility to serve a variety of access needs in an unlimited
range of locations throughout the urban environment. Yet despite the obvious
advantages of a bus service, buses inching their way through congested streets
don’t gain any favour. The essence of a Bus Rapid Transit scheme is to improve
bus operating speed and reliability on arterial streets by reducing the
possibility of delay.
The bus system
in Curitiba plays a large role in making this city a liveable place. The buses
run very frequently some as often as 90 seconds and are incredibly reliable.
The stations and stops are comfortable, practical and attractive and thus
Curitiba has one of the most heavily used, yet cost effective, systems in the
world. So much so it has been compared by many to a subway system, it has bus
movements completely unimpeded by traffic lights and congestion, fares are
collected before boarding thus making passenger loading and unloading
incredibly fast. All this is done above ground visible to the eye. Around 70%
of Curitiba’s commuters use the BRT to get to work lowering the levels of cars
on the road creating congestion free streets and unpolluted air for the
inhabitants of Curitiba.
Thirty years
ago, Curitiba’s planners integrated public transport very heavily into their
urban plan. They decided to initiate a plan that met the needs of every
commuter and traveller and not those using cars. They also avoided large scale
expensive projects in favour of hundreds of smaller initiatives. A previous
plan for Curitiba had been drawn up in 1943 which had envisioned growth in the
use of the car and thus wide boulevards emanating from the centre were built to
accommodate this. Then in 1965, prompted by fears that Curitiba’s rapid growth
would create congested streets, they created a new Master Plan. Downtown
Curitiba would no longer be the destination for travel but would become the
transport hub. Public transport would replace the car as the primary means of
transport within the city. The wide boulevards developed in the earlier plan
would provide the space for exclusive bus lanes in which the BRT operates.
Curitiba’s bus service is composed of a hierarchical system
of services. Minibuses run in residential areas which feed passengers to
conventional buses on circumferential routes around the centre and the inner
districts, with the backbone of the system being the BRT which operates on the
five main roads into the centre (CBD) of the city. Buses running on the
dedicated lanes stop at cylindrical, clear-walled stations/stops with
turnstiles, steps and wheelchair lifts. Passengers pay their fares as they
enter the station and they wait for the bus on raised platforms within the
station. The buses don’t have steps instead ramps extend out from the bus to
the station when the doors open. The stations are very effective as they serve
the dual purpose of providing shelter from the elements and allowing the
simultaneous loading and unloading of passengers rapidly. This system of same
level bus-boarding, plus pre-boarding fare payment means that there is a
typical dwell time at each stop of no more than 19 seconds per stop.
Passengers
pay a single of fare of 40 cents for travel through the whole system with
unlimited transfers. Transfers occur within the pre-paid areas of stations so
transfer tickets are not required saving time and money for the passenger.
Business has also been encouraged within the larger terminals with small retail
shops and newspaper stands locating in them.
Ten private
bus companies run the services with them being paid by the amount of distance
covered not the number of passengers carried, which allows a fair distribution
of routes amongst them. All companies earn operating profits and after the buses
fall out of use they are given over to the government who use them for school
runs.
To make people use the buses very limited parking is
available in the business districts and most employers offer transport
subsidies to low-paid employees. The popularity of the BRT saw a massive change
from car use to bus use. Based on a 1991 survey the BRT saved about 27 million
auto trips a year, saving 27 million litres of fuel annually. 28% of BRT users
previously travelled by car and compared to eight other Brazilian cities of its
size, Curitiba uses 30$ less fuel per capita, resulting in one of the lowest pollution levels in the country. Today about 1100 buses make
12,500 trips every day, serving more than 1.3 million passengers. 80% of travellers
use the bus routes and Curitibanos only spend 10% of their income on travel,
well below the national average. It is defiantly a massively successful system.
Costing only $200,000 per kilometre for construction it was much cheaper than
all the other options debated in 1965.
