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A SUSTAINABLE URBAN TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM:
THE "SURFACE METRO" IN CURITIBA, BRAZIL
By
Jonas Rabinovitch
and
John Hoehn
Working Paper No. 19, 46 pages, May 1995
For more information, contact:
Jonas Rabinovitch
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
One United Nations Plaza, Room FF1044
New York, NY 10017 USA
Tel: (212) 906-5780
Fax: (212) 906-6973
or
John Hoehn
Department of Agricultural Economics
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1039 USA
Tel: (517) 353-6735
Fax: (517) 336-1800
For copies of this publication, contact:
Ellen A. Maurer
Communications Director
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Edited by Ellen A. Maurer
Layout by Sharon Graham and Lesa Langan
* Some figures and/or tables included in the printed version of
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ISSN # 1072-9496
FOREWORD
This Working Paper is a product of the Environmental and Natural
Resources Policy and Training (EPAT) Project funded by the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID). EPAT is
part of USAID's effort to provide environmental policy
information to policymakers and practitioners in developing
countries. The objective is to encourage the adoption of
economic policies for promoting sustainable use of natural
resources and enhancing environmental quality.
EPAT Working Papers are written for development professionals and
policymakers in developing countries who are responsible for
establishing and implementing policies on the sustainable use of
natural resources and for civil servants, project officers, and
researchers who are directly involved in the implementation of
development activities.
This Working Paper deals with a successful, innovative approach
to mass transportation policy in a large Brazilian city (pop. 1.6
million). By taking a systematic, yet pragmatic approach that
recognized both financial and social constraints, Curitiba was
able to develop a system that reduced travel times, increased
convenience, contained automobile congestion, saved fuel costs,
and reduced air pollution. Urban planners in developing
countries may find elements of the approach outlined in this
study to be applicable to their own situations as they try to
solve urban transportation problems.
The contribution of USAID toward writing, printing, and
distributing this document is estimated to be $13,500. The
document is being distributed to more than 2,000 policymakers and
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evaluation sheet is enclosed with each mailing of EPAT
publications for that purpose.
David Hales Twig Johnson
Deputy Assistant Administrator Director
Center for the Environment Office of Environment &
USAID/G/ENV Natural Resources
Washington, D.C. 20523 USAID/G/ENV/ENR
Washington, D.C. 20523
ABSTRACT
This analysis examines an innovative approach to transportation
policy in Curitiba, Brazil. Curitiba is a city of 1.6 million
residents that has grown fourfold in the last 30 years. Unlike
many cities, quality of life and transportation has not been a
casualty of growth. Curitiba's transportation system actively
helps residents obtain the benefits of growth, including access
to jobs, homes, recreation, and other elements of the urban
community.
Curitiba's transportation planning process is practical. It
recognizes financial and social constraints. Curitiba began with
buses because it had buses. It began with a series of small
improvements guided by a long-term plan. It first added a modest
express route system with dedicated bus lanes. It sought out
ways to improve and extend the system. The result is a surface
system that provides the high quality service of well-known
underground systems at a much lower capital cost. These low
costs mean that mass transit is entirely financed by passenger
fares.
The present system provides a range of benefits. The systematic
approach to urban transportation has reduced travel times and
increased convenience. Curitiba's buses now attract more
passengers per operating kilometer than in any other Brazilian
city. This intensive use occurs even though Curitiba also has
one of the highest automobile ownership rates in Brazil. Rider
surveys suggest that at least 20% of these new passengers
previously used automobiles to commute. With less automobile
congestion, the city has replaced several downtown streets with
broad pedestrian malls and shopping areas. Reduced traffic
appears to result in substantial fuel savings as well as reduced
pollutant emissions. Calculations suggest that the reduction in
automobile traffic saves 27 million liters of fuel/year.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors [note 1] thank the following people for generously
contributing their support, time and insights: Jaime Lerner
(former mayor of Curitiba), Rafael Greca de Macedo (present mayor
of Curitiba), Cassio Taniguchi (IPPUC), IPPUC staff, Carlos
Eduardo Ceneviva (URBS), Euclides Rovani (URBS), Luiz Filla
(URBS), Anive Alcantara Soares (URBS), Wilfred Candler
(EPAT/MUCIA and The World Bank), and Diana Crowley (EPAT/MUCIA).
This case study was prepared with funding from the Environmental
and Natural Resources Policy and Training Project (EPAT)
administered by the Midwest Universities Consortium for
International Activities (MUCIA) for the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID).
ACRONYMS
CIC
Cidade Industrial de Curitiba (Curitiba Industrial City)
CONAMA
Conselko Nacional do Meio Ambiente (National Council for the
Environment)
DETRAN
Departamento de Transito - Parana (Traffic Department of Parana
State)
EPAT
The Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Training Project
(USA)
FCC
Fundacao Cultural de Curitiba (Cultural Foundation of Curitiba)
IAP
Instituto Ambiental do Parana (Environment Institute of Parana
State)
IBGE
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia Estatistica (Brazilian
Institute of Geographical Statistics)
IPPUC
Instituto de Pesquisa e Planejamento Urbano de Curitiba (Curitiba
Research and Urban Planning Institute)
ITN
Integrated Transportation Network in Curitiba
MTS
Mass Transit System in Curitiba
MUCIA
Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities
(USA)
PMC
Prefeitura Municipal de Curitiba (Curitiba City Hall)
SANEPAR
Companhia de Saneamento do Parana (Sanitation Company of Parana
State)
SOFRETU
Societe Francaise des Reseaux des Transports Urbains (French
Association for Public Transport)
UNDP
Programa das Nacoes Unidas Para o Desenvolvimento (United Nations
Development Programme)
URBS
Urbanizacao de Curitiba (Urbanization of Curitiba)
CONTENTS
CURITIBA'S EXPERIENCE AND GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Guiding Principles
HISTORY AND DEMOGRAPHICS
CURITIBA'S STRATEGIC APPROACH TO URBAN PLANNING
Planning Principles
Consequences
EVOLUTION OF THE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
Deficiencies in the Mid-Century Transportation System
Integration of Development Planning and Transportation Policy
Hurdles and Lessons
Stages in Route Design
Physical and Fare Integration
Increasing Demand
Method of Paying Fares
Personnel
Revenue Payment System for Private Operators
Monitoring System and Enforcement
Information System
Vehicle Design
THE PRESENT SYSTEM
The System and Its Routes
Express Routes
Direct Routes
Interdistrict Routes
Feeder Routes
Conventional Routes
City Center Routes
Neighborhood Routes
Night Routes
Special Education Routes
Pro-Park Routes
Job Routes
Soup Routes
Management and Operation
Planning
Administration
Operation
Existing Permissions to Operate
Fare Calculation
Cost Apportioned to Kilometers Traveled
Fuel
Lubricants
Tire Depreciation
Maintenance Costs
Personnel
Parts and Accessories
Personnel Costs
Drivers, Conductors, and Porters
Administrative Costs
Capital Costs
Depreciation
Payment
Ridership
Evolution of the ITN and MTS
Present Performance of the ITN and MTS
Performance Comparison with Other Brazilian Cities
Financial Performance
ENVIRONMENTAL AND QUALITY OF LIFE IMPACTS
Pedestrian Areas
Traffic and Circulation
Land Use Controls and Housing Densities
Parks and Green Areas
Employment
Air Quality
Reduced Energy Consumption
Vehicle Design
An Alternative to Automobiles
CONCLUSIONS
ENDNOTES
REFERENCES
ADDITIONAL READING
CURITIBA'S EXPERIENCE AND GUIDING PRINCIPLES
The Curitiba metropolitan area has been one of the fastest
growing urban areas in Brazil during the last 30 years. In 1965,
the population was 400,000, and, by 1990, it surpassed 1.6
million. Unlike many cities in Brazil and around the world,
quality of life and the quality of transportation has not been a
casualty of rapid growth. Curitiba has used its transportation
system to obtain the benefits of growth: access to jobs, to
homes, and to recreation. It has helped control and guide the
direction of growth as well as be a means for moving people.
The present transportation system works in marked contrast to its
predecessors. As late as the 1960s, Curitiba's public
transportation was unreliable and erratic. Areas of the city
that offered low potential revenue went unserved. Travel routes
were set by custom and in delayed reaction to new growth. Most
bus routes began in the city center and fanned outward. The
result was the tendency for a typically congested city center
since most buses and their passengers passed through the center--
even if their origins and destinations were on the outskirts.
For individual bus companies, uncertain investment returns gave
little incentive to improve quality. All buses had truck chassis
that reduced both costs and comfort. Small bus doors and steep
stairs reduced possibility of fare evasion but impeded passenger
access and exit. The results were longer delays at stops and
increased travel times.
Beginning in the late 1960s, Curitiba's city government began to
take a different path. The city began to direct growth to
enhance the quality of urban life. The government viewed land
use, the road network and transportation planning as key tools
for guiding and coordinating growth. Planners designed five
arterial corridors to fan out from the central city. They used
previously existing streets and made only minor physical
modifications. Corridors were to act as high density pathways
for both transportation and settlement growth. Within each
corridor, buses had exclusive use of center lanes.
Within Curitiba's management approach, the transportation system
and land use planning complement each other. Land use controls
limit high density growth within the city center. These density
limits push new growth into the corridors, known in Curitiba as
structural sectors. These structural sectors are also the main
transportation arteries served by high capacity express and
direct buses. This complementary policy eases congestion in the
city center. It has replaced crowded gridlocked streets with
pedestrian malls in central shopping areas.
Transportation and density controls guide development throughout
the city. Before developing the corridors, the city
strategically acquired nearby land and built low income housing.
This allows low income households low cost access to commerce,
jobs, and recreation. With good intra-urban transportation, the
city has encouraged new industries to locate at an industrial
park at the city's edge. In addition, the city activity sought
to recruit low polluting firms. The Curitiba Industrial City now
generates one fifth of all jobs in the city. Finally, planners
strategically set aside green space and parks throughout the
city--smaller parks at the center and larger ones at the
outskirts between the growth corridors. They also linked parks
with the bus system as well as 150 km of special bicycle and
pedestrian paths.
Curitiba's present transportation system is not the one-shot
result of a single, ideal plan. The master plan of the 1960s set
out broad goals for growth. Actual implementation took place in
small steps, sometimes on a trial and error basis, and in concert
with private and public interests. Ten private firms provide the
actual buses, drivers, maintenance, and capital. Through a
city-owned corporation,[note 2] the city provides route planning,
roads, terminals, scheduling, and enforcement of standards. It
also collects all fares, provides public accounting, and
distributes revenues on the basis of negotiated contracts. The
overall system is a partnership of public and private interests.
The city corporation acts as an agent for the community's
interest in effective transportation.
Curitiba's successive improvements in transportation reduced
travel times and increased convenience. They also created new
challenges to address. For instance, direct "interdistrict"
connections between corridors allowed passengers to travel
directly between points without passing through the city center.
These transfers created a problem for sharing revenues between
companies and for transferring passengers without undue delays.
A single fare and dedicated transfer points solved these
problems. The single fare brought the challenge of how to share
revenues between different firms--an issue that led to successive
stages of administrative innovation. The transfer stations were
once so unpleasant that they were known as "pig stalls." They
have now evolved into attractive, covered stations with amenities
such as flower and refreshment stands. Other innovations that
increased convenience and timeliness include high-service
boarding tubes and three-door buses. The government recycles
older buses that are no longer serviceable for continuous
operation into special use transportation and mobile classrooms.
We do not intend to depict Curitiba's approach as a turn-key
model for reproduction elsewhere. Cities are too different in
context and resources for such a wholesale adaptation. The
Curitiba experience, however, does demonstrate that it is
possible to significantly improve systems by increments and at
relatively low cost: both in terms of the direct money costs as
well as the costs of eventual mistakes and opportunities
foregone. The transportation system continues to struggle with
the challenges of growth and change. The difference in Curitiba
is that there is a continual effort to upgrade equipment, to
improve the system, and to offer greater convenience and quality
to passengers. In this regard, Curitiba has had many successes.
The objective of this working paper is to explore the processes
and events that, over time, created the present system.
Guiding Principles
A set of guiding principles stand out from Curitiba's experience
and achievements. As the transportation system evolved, these
concepts served both as goals and as guides to the solution of
the next set of problems.
* Effective urban transportation does not develop in isolation
from a city's evolving settlement pattern. A transportation
system integrates the individual activities that contribute to
urban change. The integration network--a city's transportation
system--may encourage welcome development or provoke unwelcome
decay.
* Transportation development and land use controls are powerful
tools for guiding the quality and quantity of growth along
desired lines. To use these tools effectively, a city must
collectively know where it is growing to, how, and why.
* Quality transportation places a first priority on an effective
system rather than on a particular mode of transportation. The
key is to transport people, not to encourage the use of private
vehicles. Buses, cars, bicycles, and trams are modes of
transportation, not end goals in themselves. Convenience, travel
time, flexibility, and cost are key features of a user-oriented
transportation system. A user-oriented system combines modes,
routes, transfer terminals, fuel, and management into a system
centered on people's demands for transport.
* Land use controls and the transportation system should
complement each other and promote the easy interchange of people
between their different activities. The objective of land use
control is not to establish strict, rational, and segregated
zoning. It is to provide opportunities and direction for human
settlement and services.
* An explicit hierarchy of city roads and streets support
people's demands for access to services and for residential
quality of life. High volume, arterial routes allow timely and
convenient transportation between residential, commercial, and
recreational activities. Low density collector streets provide a
foundation for quieter residential neighborhoods.
* A sustainable city is one that wastes the least and conserves
the maximum. This is the principle of recycling. For example,
old buses make good mobile schools. Planners looked for locally-
developed innovative technologies and made it work within the
Curitiba system. Most importantly, it means making the existing
system of people and resources work better--rather than throwing
it away and trying to replace it with a single, capital-intensive
project such as a subway or a rail-based system. Curitiba began
with buses because it had buses; it did not have a subway. The
city developed a surface, bus-based system it could afford. At
each step in its evolution, officials viewed problem solving as a
continuing process--not as a one-shot effort leading to a final
fix. They now apply the same practical principle of recycling
and continuous improvement throughout the city--from dealing with
solid wastes to improving social services such as day care and
vocational training.
* Smaller, incremental steps toward an explicit long-term goal
can bring about large changes. Officials view these incremental
steps as experiments that solve an existing problem but may
create new challenges in need of new solutions. For instance,
unpaid transfers between bus routes reduce travel times and fare
collection costs, but they also raise issues regarding transfer
structures and revenue sharing between firms.
* This practical, incremental approach is markedly different than
the conventional transportation planning model. With the
conventional approach, long delays separate the data collection,
analytical, and implementation phases. By the time a project is
implemented, the analysis and its solution may be obsolete. With
Curitiba's incremental approach, analysis, improvement, and
implementation are continuous, interactive processes. Planners
anticipate errors and use them as grist for further progress.
* Creativity, information, and recycling are often substitutes
for financial resources, but sustainable decisions are
financially sound. Officials base them on good technological
choices. They use public institutions for project evaluation,
benefit-cost analysis, and adaptive planning. They monitor
operating costs, revenues, and contracts by strict financial
controls that are open to public scrutiny and auditing.
* A sustainable transportation system is a partnership between
government, the private sector, and citizens. The role of the
city is to formulate and express the community interest in
effective transportation. It does this through planning
processes, by defining routes and service standards, and by
monitoring and enforcement. The role of private firms is to
provide transportation services. They do this by hiring people,
by investing in capital, and by competing with other firms and
with themselves to reduce costs and increase profits while
maintaining enforced standards for convenience, timeliness, and
safety. The role of citizens is to pay the fares to cover the
full cost of the service. Through their use, disuse, praise, and
complaints, citizens are the final judges of a system's worth.
HISTORY AND DEMOGRAPHICS
Figure 1 shows the location of Curitiba in southeastern Brazil.
Curitiba was founded in 1693 and grew due to its strategic
location between the Atuba and Belem rivers. In 1842, Curitiba
was officially declared the capital of the state of Parana. From
mid-1800s through the 1940s, the city enjoyed moderate economic
prosperity, riding a series of economic booms in wood, cattle,
coffee, and "yerba mate," a local kind of tea herb.
Curitiba became a key service center for new economic activities
after World War II. Rapid economic and demographic growth in the
last few decades transformed the city into an important
industrial and commercial nucleus. In addition, it has become a
processing center for agricultural goods exported via the
Paranagua seaport, 70 km away.
Table 1 shows that the population in Curitiba grew at a
relatively slow pace between 1940 and 1950. The city's
population growth rate picked up sharply during the 1960s and
remained high through to the 1980s. In contrast, population
growth in the surrounding state of Parana peaked during the 1960s
at 7% and later declined. During the 1980s, Parana's population
growth was much smaller than that of the capital, remaining at
1%. This contrast between the city and the state implies that in
the state as a whole Curitiba's growth was offset by even larger
population losses in rural areas and smaller cities within the
state. Population growth in Parana remained at little more than
half that of Curitiba through the 1990s (Rabinovitch and Leitman
1993).
Table 1. Demographic Trends in Curitiba and the State of Parana
________________________________________________________________
Curitiba Parana
Growth Rate Growth Rate
in Prior in Prior
Decade Parana Decade
Year Curitiba (%/year) State (%/year)
________________________________________________________________
1940 140,656 1,236,276
1950 180,575 2.5 2,115,547 5.3
1960 361,309 7.0 4,277,763 7.0
1970 609,026 5.2 6,929,868 4.8
1980 1,024,975 5.2 7,629,392 1.0
1990 1,608,151 4.5 9,818,373 2.5
________________________________________________________________
Source: Brazilian Institute of Geographical Statistics 1940,
1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990.
The key economic activities in Curitiba are services,
manufacturing, and commerce. After 1973, the creation of the
Curitiba Industrial City accelerated an on-going shift from
agricultural to industrial service activities. The Industrial
City occupies an area of approximately 40 km squared on the
western edge of the city. Planners created it to limit
industrial activity within the city limits as well as to attract
more industries and employment. As of 1992, the Industrial City
contained 409 industries and businesses. These firms accounted
for one-fifth of the city's total employment.
The cost of living in Curitiba is similar to that of other cities
in southern Brazil. The climate is cooler than in northern
Brazil. The colder climate may raise the cost of housing and
other basic goods. Table 2 shows that 4.9% of Curitiba's
households earn no more than the minimum monthly wage of US$75.
This low income percentage is slightly larger than that of Sao
Paulo but is less than one third that of the entire country.
Curitiba's percentages for middle income households are similar
to Sao Paulo. The percentage of upper middle income households
in Curitiba is slightly greater than in Brazil as a whole.
Curitiba's percentage for the highest income category is similar
to Brazil as a whole but is less than that of Sao Paulo.
Table 2. Household Earnings Distribution in Curitiba, Sao Paulo,
and Brazil
________________________________________________________________
Monthly Curitiba Sao Paulo Brazil
Earnings (% of households) (% of households) (% of households)
(US$)
________________________________________________________________
75 4.9 4.4 18.0
75-225 28.1 29.9 38.5
225-375 25.7 17.6 18.4
375-750 25.6 27.2 14.1
750-1500 11.4 13.6 6.8
1500+ 4.3 7.0 4.0
_______________________________________________________________
Source: Curitiba Research and Urban Planning Institute 1990a,
Brazilian Institute of Geographical Statistics 1990.
CURITIBA'S STRATEGIC APPROACH TO URBAN PLANNING
A French planner, Alfred Agache, developed the first plan to
direct urban growth in Curitiba in 1943. The government did not
implement the plan. Its main legacy was to introduce the concept
of urban planning to Curitiba's citizens and government. This
awareness edged closer to action in 1964 when the city
administration commissioned a Preliminary Urban Plan. To
encourage an influx of new ideas, the city held a competition for
the best plan among local and national professionals. The result
was the Curitiba Master Plan. In 1965, the city created the
Curitiba Research and Urban Planning Institute to implement the
plan and to continue the planning process.
>From 1965 to 1970, the city administration gave the master plan a
low priority. It did, however, provide the Institute with
resources to detail procedures for implementing the plan. In
1971, a new administration began to put the plan into practice
(Curitiba Research and Urban Planning Institute 1965).
Political will and political skill were important factors in
initiating the practical steps to implement the plan. Officials
had to adapt each of the plan's elements and sometimes set them
aside as the two-dimensional planning concepts met a three-
dimensional reality. This interaction between concept and
reality led to a practical, repetitive planning process.
Today, Curitiba's practical planning process is firmly
established. When ideas are proposed, they are tested
conceptually and then in application. These tests generate
feedback that leads to further improvements and applications.
The ongoing process allows Curitiba to fashion solutions that fit
real problems. Rather than being stymied by feedback, it
refreshes and redirects the process along a progressive path.
After two decades of successes, the Urban Planning Institute is
now well established as the local incubator for an urban planning
tradition that emphasizes interplay between planning, analysis,
participatory planning and implementation.
Planning Principles
The implementation of the Curitiba Master Plan addressed
transportation, land use controls, and a hierarchical structure
of the road network. Planners viewed them as complementary tools
for guiding city growth. The plan combines these tools to direct
growth out of the central city and into arterial growth
corridors. Arterial and feeder roadways as well as land use
controls on settlement densities defined these corridors.
The purpose of the five structural growth corridors was to
redirect growth out of the central city and into the corridors.
This displacement of growth more evenly distributes settlement
densities in the city center and in the growth corridors. This
avoids a sharp peak in central city densities and the concomitant
traffic congestion and noise. The more even density distribution
reduces congestion enough to facilitate uncongested travel while
maintaining passenger numbers at high enough levels to allow
public transportation to be financially self-sustaining.
Convenient transportation and more balanced densities also:
* encourage economic development by reducing the costs of
mobility, trade, and exchange within the city;
* reduce the indirect costs of other infrastructure improvements
such as water, sewage, electricity, and communication; and
* assist in preserving historic buildings and areas within the
city center.
Consequences
The gradual development of Curitiba's integrated transportation
system is the most visible result of the city's planning
processes. While this paper focuses on transportation, it is
important to remember that planners in Curitiba do not isolate
transportation as an entity apart from other aspects of urban
life. They do not view streets only as paved surfaces but as
elements in a larger network and hierarchy of roads. A building
is not an isolated box but a traffic/public transport-generating
element in a larger pattern of settlement.
Curitiba analyzes travel as a movement and exchange between
activities. Traditional city planning approaches tend to be
static and oriented toward physical features. Traditional
transportation planning tends to be excessively data-demanding,
equation-based, and technocratic. Curitiba's planning focuses
more on the relationship between space and movement. It
emphasizes the dynamic features of urban activities. It
considers how much should be invested where.
The city uses transportation to heighten the socio-economic
payoff from its planning activities. One example is the city's
role in low income housing. Rather than build isolated, large
scale, and uniform housing projects, the city took advantage of
effective transportation. Curitiba acquired land near some of
the planned structural corridors before developing them. As the
transportation routes were put into place, the city subsidized
low income housing close to these transportation routes and close
to the Curitiba Industrial City. It also located other small
scale, low income, housing developments throughout the city.
These are near the transportation corridors and thus are 'near'
in time and cost to employment and other activities. These small
scale developments blend into the surrounding residential areas.
They integrate rather than isolate low income households into the
economy and culture of the larger city. As a result of this
strategy, the city has built housing for 17,000 families.
The road hierarchy system is another element of Curitiba's
planning system. Each road has a function in relation to its
location and importance. Curitiba uses four basic categories to
define roads by location and function. There are arterial
structural roads that are at the core of five growth corridors.
Priority linkages run between and connect the city center to the
city's outskirts. Collector streets are common urban streets
typically lined with commercial activity and allowing all forms
of traffic. Connector streets link the structural roads to the
industrial city.
Land use controls target two basic parameters: the land use type
and the density of development. The four basic land use
categories are residential, commercial, industrial, and services.
Allowable densities vary in relation to available transportation.
Along most structural routes, buildings can have a total floor
area of up to six times the plot size. On lower capacity roads
that are well served by public transportation, the city permits
floor space up to four times plot size. The permitted ratio of
floor space to plot size decreases with the distance a land site
is from public transportation.
The land use density controls encourage a shift of development
activity from the central city to and around the structural axes.
This locates high density residential and commercial in the same
areas and matches density to the availability of public
transport. This eases traffic and human congestion in the
central city. Planners converted wide central avenues in the
central city into open air pedestrian malls and walkways. These
malls and walkways reinforce the city center as a pleasant locale
that preserves historic elements and where pedestrians have
priority.
EVOLUTION OF THE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
Public transportation in Curitiba began with the introduction of
horse drawn vehicles in 1887. Shareholders operated and
organized these vehicles under a contract with the city. In
1906, the system had 18 km of routes, a 6000 square miles central
office with two depots and garage for repairs, 20 passenger
vehicles, 15 vehicles for cargo, and 150 horses. In 1912,
electrically powered street cars replaced the horse drawn
vehicles. The city gradually improved and used the street cars
until the early 1950s (Roteiro da Cidade/Documento-Do Bonde de
Mula ao Onibus Expresso 1975).
The first bus company emerged in 1928 as a public subsidiary of
the state electrical company. In 1930, the first private bus
companies began to operate in competition with the public bus
company and with street cars. In 1938, 11 million people rode
the lower fare street cars in contrast to 2.6 million people who
rode buses. As the city grew, the speed and flexibility of buses
proved more advantageous than the lower cost street cars. During
the 1940s, bus routes gradually replaced the street car routes.
Street cars went out of service entirely in 1952. In 1954, the
city administration set up concession contracts with 10 bus
companies operating in eight pre-established areas of the city.
Deficiencies in the Mid-Century Transportation System
As the city evolved, substantial conflict occurred between the
different transportation modes and suppliers. There were
conflicts between owners of horse drawn vehicles and street cars
that later continued between bus and street car owners. There
was competition for passengers between the public and private bus
fleet. There were frequent salary disputes involving drivers,
unions, bus companies, and city governments. Labor disputes
culminated in the great strike of 1960 when a lock-out organized
by the private companies left Curitiba without public transport
for more than a week.
The ebb and flow of these conflicts meant that public
transportation was often unreliable and inconvenient. The
following features characterized transportation in Curitiba at
mid-century:
* The city did not have a transportation system. Rather, it had
a collection of mismatched concessions granted to private
companies.
* There were few guidelines to encourage transportation firms to
provide effective service to the city as a whole. The city
simply assigned each company an exclusive area of operation
within the municipality. Transportation evolved in reaction to
the location of commercial, industrial, and residential
activities rather than in concert with them.
* Transportation companies operated without competition within
their concessions. They ignored districts with medium and low
demographic densities and, when route schedules did exist, did
not enforce them.
* Bus routes merely linked origin and destination pairs within
the city. The city center was typically one element in these
pairs. The confluence of routes in the central city increased
central traffic congestion. Transfer between routes required
payment of a second fare. The necessity of transfers increased
queuing and travel times.
Integration of Development Planning and Transportation Policy
The first attempts to integrate transportation, land use, and
urban development began in 1965 under Mayor Ivo Arzua Pereira and
the technical coordination of the Curitiba Research and Urban
Planning Institute. The administration of Mayor Omar Sabbag
developed a preliminary mass transit plan in 1969. The 1971 mass
transit terminals plan, developed under the first administration
of Mayor Jaime Lerner, further refined this initiative. Mayor
Lerner also renewed the commitment to implement the 1965 master
plan. This paper does not concentrate on the plans themselves
but on their results.
In 1971, Mayor Lerner took the first steps to implement the
city's settlement and transportation plans. As one of the first
steps, Curitiba developed the first pedestrian network in the
country, giving priority to pedestrians in its central area. At
the time, most Brazilian cities favored automobiles over other
forms of transportation and were busy building viaducts and
motorways within their city centers. In contrast, Curitiba
refurbished historical buildings in the city center. These
refurbished buildings played new roles in support of arts,
culture, and local history. The city improved older parks and
set aside green areas and floodplains as undeveloped areas and
parks in the city's outlying districts. A new industrial park
opened on the city's edge to attract non-hazardous industries and
manufacturing activities.
The first significant changes in the transportation system began
in 1974 with implementation of the road hierarchy and land use
control system. Implementation began with the construction of
the first two out of five arterial structural roads. These were
to form the core of the growth corridors.
Figure 2 shows that the structural corridors are triple road
systems with the central road having two restricted lanes
dedicated to express buses. Two local roads flank the central
road. Running parallel to the central roadways but offset one
block on each side are two one-way, high capacity roads for
traffic flowing in and out of the central city.
Figure 2 also shows relative settlement densities within the
growth corridor by building height. The figure shows that
allowable densities decline as one moves away from the center of
a corridor. These declining densities place the greatest number
of people within easy reach of transportation. This placement
also prevents the high volume routes from disrupting the sense of
place within low density, residential neighborhoods.[note 3]
The first two structural roadways ran north and south within the
city. In 1974, express buses on these routes carried about
54,000 passengers/day. By 1982, the city completed five
structural roads and complemented them with interdistrict and
feeder lines. The integrated system carried about 400,000
passengers/day. The system continued improvements in fare
collection and distribution, vehicles, and route extensions. By
1982, it carried about 774,000 passengers/day. Including the
remaining conventional routes and the integrated system, the
transit system within Curitiba today now transports more than one
million individual paying passengers a day, without considering
transfers. This is about 75% of the city's commuters.
There are presently five structural roads in Curitiba. The
dedicated bus lanes at the center of each structural corridor
accommodate express bus routes. "Padron" buses with a capacity
of 110 passengers first served these routes but later
"articulated" buses with a capacity of 170 passengers replaced
them. The articulated buses are so long that turning on city
streets could be impractical--they would jut out into opposing
lanes of traffic as they attempted to turn. This disadvantage in
length is overcome by constructing the buses around an
articulation point--a pivot point at mid-frame that allows them
to bend around corners. This pivoting allows articulated buses
to use standard traffic lanes. Many cities worldwide operate
public transport services with articulated buses. In late 1991,
Curitiba supplemented articulated buses with "bi-articulated"
buses that have a capacity of 270 passengers. These vehicles
were developed in Curitiba and assembled by Volvo at the Curitiba
Industrial City. These latter buses are even longer and contain
two pivot points built into their frames. At the present moment,
there is no information on any other city worldwide regularly
operating "bi-articulated buses" for mass transit purposes.
Hurdles and Lessons
The Curitiba transportation system overcame a number of
significant hurdles as it developed. In operation, there were
problems of route design, fare collection, increases in passenger
loads, and personnel problems to resolve. In administration,
there were difficulties in revenue sharing, in developing a
system of monitoring and enforcement of standards, and in
information processing and scheduling. Finally, the city made
significant efforts to develop improved transportation vehicles.
Stages in Route Design
Curitiba's transit system has three complementary levels of
service. Feeder lines pass through neighborhoods and make the
system easily accessible in lower density areas. Feeder lines
share roads with other vehicles and connect with the express
system along the structural roads. The express system uses
dedicated bus lanes and transports large numbers of passengers in
high density corridors. Interdistrict routes connect the axes of
the express lines without passing through the city center.
An effective integrated system is well coordinated. It has and
meets an accurate schedule. Transfers from feeder to express
require time to transfer passengers from one line to another.
Without careful scheduling, the time savings of an express route
are lost in delays queuing for transfers, waiting for a
connecting bus, and boarding. Thus, as Curitiba's route system
evolved, it required advances in fare payment, refinements in the
transfer system, personnel training, revenue sharing between
firms, and scheduling.
Physical and Fare Integration
An integrated system of feeder and express routes might require
passengers to pay a fare with every transfer. However,
incremental fares result in delays and inconvenience. Even small
delays add up to significant amounts of time when aggregated
across hundreds of thousands of passengers.
To avoid passenger delays due to fare payment at each transfer,
Curitiba's system initially allowed unpaid transfers between
lines and routes. Transfers, however, require a means of
identifying transfer passengers from those who have not yet paid.
When the single fare was first implemented, passengers received a
paper transfer token. The token allowed them to transfer without
having to pay another fare. Six to seven months after starting
this paper token approach, the city discovered major forgery of
the paper tokens and had to abandon the procedure.
To replace the paper tokens, the city set separate fares for
feeder and express buses. This two-fare system did not last long
for operational and social reasons. First, it resulted in delays
as people had to pay and be checked twice. In addition, it
favored those who lived nearer to the structural corridors and
express routes. In particular, it raised costs for lower income
people who used the feeder buses to come in from the periphery of
the city. The city considered it unfair and inappropriate to
impose a higher cost on lower income people.
A year and a half after implementing the two-fare system, the
city dropped the second fare for the feeder buses. Passengers
rode the feeder buses for free and paid only when they entered
the express system. This free feeder option had unforeseen
consequences. A few months after beginning the free feeder
option, no driver wanted to work on the feeder buses. The
vehicles became home for the homeless. They also served as
mobile gathering places for unemployed people. There was no
reported violence but there were many protests from citizens
regarding the conditions on the feeder buses. The city learned
that it cannot offer any free public service and dropped the free
feeder system.
Officials than returned the system to a single fare approach.
Rather than returning to paper tokens, the next solution was a
physical one to separate transferring passengers from those who
have not yet paid their fares. The city built fenced runways at
transfer points between stops for the express and feeder buses.
These runways worked for a limited period of time but, as the
passenger numbers grew, the areas became overcrowded. The
runways also lacked aesthetic appeal. They soon became known as
"pig stalls." Convenience declined and complaints increased.
In 1980, the system began to significantly improve conditions at
the transfer points by constructing enclosed, transfer terminals.
Though the word "terminal" may imply a final destination, in
Curitiba terminal refers to any transfer station. People refer
to middle terminals ("terminal do meio") and to end terminals
("terminal de ponta"). End terminals are larger in order to cope
with inter-municipal transfers.
The post-1980 terminals follow the same basic design, working
like subway stations on the surface. Flowers, trees, shops,
glass walls, and a pleasing architecture make them as lively and
transparent as possible. Passengers are free to walk inside the
terminals, shop, chat, make phone calls, buy newspapers, and
change from one bus route to another without having to pay
another fare. People who live in the neighborhood pay their fare
when they enter the terminal through turnstiles. These transfer
stations allow people to switch from one route to another with as
little delay and inconvenience as possible.
Increasing Demand
A balance between supply and demand is crucial to the profitable
operation of any transportation system. Soon after the
introduction of the express buses in 1974, the city realized
there was something wrong. The popularity of the express buses
resulted in overcrowding and delays. The city planners at the
time did not anticipate that, in parallel with the evident demand
for a certain route, there was also a "repressed potential
demand" (Curitiba Research and Urban Planning Institute
1991/1992). It mainly consisted of new passengers attracted to
the system, many of whom used private cars before the express
buses became available. Overcrowding caused delays in boarding
at stops and terminals. To compensate for the delays, drivers
would exceed the maximum speed allowed and occasionally cause
accidents. As a stopgap measure, the city strictly controlled
speed limits and required buses to operate with their lights on
in order to improve their visibility to other drivers and
pedestrians. Officials gradually solved the problem of
increasing demand with improvements in bus design, high service
boarding tubes, and other measures explained below.
Method of Paying Fares
>From 1974 to 1980, passengers paid their bus fares in cash as
they entered the system. To reduce the time needed for fare
payment on buses, the city introduced automatic ticketing in
1980. Passengers now pay either with money or a metal token.
The token is available for sale in shops, newsstands, and bus
terminals. In 1990, there were 37 million tokens in circulation.
The result is a small improvement that results in significant
time savings across the system as a whole. Buses circulate more
rapidly to provide more frequent service with the same number of
vehicles.
Personnel
The development of Curitiba's integrated system was the first
time in Brazil that a local government had set operational
standards and timetables for a metropolitan bus system. The city
accomplished resulting improvements without specialized
transportation planners or transport engineers to outline the
final system. Planners, architects, and engineers from Curitiba
Research and Planning Institute (IPPUC) and Urbanizacao de
Curitiba (URBS) knew the city well and developed their own
solutions. The experience gained in designing and implementing
these solutions gradually grew into a systematic and practical
body of knowledge. This knowledge places special emphasis on
personnel training and flexibility. It recognizes that personnel
and technology need to work together if the overall system is to
function smoothly.
Bus drivers are a key part of the system and received special
training from the outset of the integrated system. When the
system opened, it used buses designed from the bottom up as
buses. This new design placed the engine in the rear of the
vehicle to reduce the weight and noise. Until this time, all
Brazilian cities had used buses built on truck chassis. These
chassis placed the engine at the front of the vehicle and drivers
changed gears by listening to the engine. Hence, a first task
was to train drivers to shift gears without the assistance of
noise from the engine. Drivers also had to learn how to drive on
dedicated bus lanes and to learn procedures for operating in
crowded terminals. When the city introduced high service
boarding tubes, express drivers had to learn to approach and park
buses in proper relationship to the boarding entrances.
Revenue Payment System for Private Operators
During the last 40 years, transportation costs have been paid
through several different revenue collection systems. From the
1950s to the 1970s, the city granted bus companies concessions to
eight non-overlapping areas. Within these areas they charged a
fare previously negotiated with the city administration. Their
revenue corresponded to the number of paid passengers that they
transported within those areas.
The interdistrict routes begun in 1979 cut across the territorial
concessions to connect the five express routes. These
interdistrict routes weakened the space monopolies of the
concessions. Bus operating firms put up substantial resistance
to the interdistrict routes, but the city remained committed to
them. These lines connected routes operated by different
companies. Since a single fare covered the entire integrated
system, passengers would commonly pay to enter a route operated
by one company and then transfer to another line run by another
company. To maintain the solvency of the cooperating companies,
some form of revenue sharing was necessary. Without revenue
sharing, a company would incur an unpaid cost in proportion to
the number of transfers accepted from other companies.
To solve the revenue sharing problem, the city developed a
revenue compensation mechanism based on operating and capital
costs. Surveys helped estimate operating costs and the number of
passengers transported by each company. This gave the city
detailed data about the revenue and costs of each company. Over
several years, the city tried various formulas for distributing
revenues across firms.
In 1987, the city settled on a revenue sharing formula based on
the number of kilometers traveled by vehicle type for a given
company. Each company has a given number of route kilometers and
a given timetable. It obtains maximum revenues by meeting its
scheduled route. The formula makes no adjustment in revenue for
the number of passengers transported by a company. Each company
competes only with the schedule, subject to specified quality
standards.
All fares go into a common bank account that is audited and open
to public scrutiny. The city also monitors the performance of
individuals companies. The monitoring system is funded by the
collected revenues. There are routine checks on the number of
kilometers covered by each company.
Monitoring System and Enforcement
The relationship between the city and entrepreneurs has traversed
a long, occasionally tortuous, path. The transition from small
independent lines to a large integrated system run in partnership
with private companies required practicable mechanisms to monitor
the performance of individual companies and ensure the operation
of the overall system. The monitoring and enforcement system
includes the following elements:
* Buses use tachographs that record speed and travel time,
including maximum speeds and stops.
* Buses have turnstiles, also located in boarding tubes, that
record the number of paying passengers. People over 65, school
children in uniform, police officers, fire fighters, and mail
carriers in uniform ride free.
* Garage surveys systematically determine the number of buses in
circulation.
* Random surveys also determine the total number of passengers
for certain trips on specific routes.
* Supervisors trained and employed by Urbanizacao de Curitiba
work in all bus terminals.
* Occasional terminal surveys determine the number of people
using the transfer terminals.
Information System
Curitiba began to computerize routing and schedules soon after it
implemented express routes in 1974. Before this a time-consuming
manual process controlled routing and scheduling. After two
years of work, Urbanizacao de Curitiba developed special custom
software for bus timetables. This program, later named NETBUS,
is still in use, and the city continues to refine it. It has
also been successfully transferred from Curitiba to other
Brazilian capitals, such as Vitoria (state of Espirito Santo) and
Aracaju (state of Alagoas). The Curitiba Industrial City also
houses the Curitiba Software Pole, which commercializes NETBUS
and various other software products.
Vehicle Design
When Curitiba began to develop its integrated system, buses in
Brazil had truck chassis. Assembly companies would install a
standard bus body over a truck chassis and call it a bus. These
buses had small doors, steep and narrow stairways, vertical
exhaust pipes, and were bumpy, noisy, and uncomfortable.
The Brazilian subsidiary at Cummins, in northeast Brazil
manufactured the first Brazilian bus chassis. When Cummins
stopped manufacturing vehicles, Curitiba had to buy buses from
Mercedes Benz, which refused to manufacture the bus chassis.
This forced the city to operate buses with truck chassis until
Volvo installed a bus assembly plant in the Curitiba Industrial
City.
A second problem was the bus body design. Afraid of fare
evasion, bus companies wanted doors as small as possible. They
also insisted on buses with only two doors. People would board
the bus through the rear door, pay at the turnstile located
toward the back of the bus, and exit through the front door at
their desired stop. At peak times, those riding for a short
distance found it difficult to reach the exit door on time. This
internal bus layout was not convenient for high capacity
vehicles.
To improve the two-door bus, Curitiba worked with bus
manufacturers in Brazil to assemble a three-door bus: two doors
for exiting and a front door for boarding. This vehicle
permitted a better internal distribution of passengers during
peak times. At first, some manufacturers argued that a bus with
three doors was not structurally sound. Today, buses have
advanced beyond three doors. All major assembly groups now
operating in Brazil manufacture urban buses with turbo engines,
lower floor levels, wider doors, and a convenient design for mass
transit. As a ready buyer of improved vehicles, Curitiba has
helped develop the market and the standards for Brazilian mass
transit buses.
Curitiba's most significant innovation is the system of direct
route buses that operate in parallel with the dedicated bus lanes
of the structural corridors. These direct routes make use of
high service boarding tubes and high capacity buses. The direct
route system combines vehicles, routes, and high service boarding
tubes to reduce travel times and increase convenience, comfort,
and passenger capacity. The main features of the system are:
* The vehicle uses a conventional bus modified so that the doors
open directly onto a patented boarding tube station. The floor
from bus to boarding tube is level. Without stairs to climb or
having to step onto uneven pavement, passengers embark and
disembark quickly.
* At each direct route stop, passengers enter the route system
via a stationary aluminum and glass boarding tube that lies
parallel to the roadway. Embarking passengers enter one end and
disembarking passengers exit the other after a bus has stopped.
Embarking passengers pass a turnstile and pay their fare to a
conductor in charge of the boarding tube. The entry point
contains a full color map of direct route system painted on the
exterior glass. Passengers can verify that they are at the
correct embarking point before they pay a fare and enter the
tube.
* Passengers wait for the next bus on an elevated platform at the
same floor level as the bus. Passengers wait in comfort and
security and board swiftly when the bus arrives.
* When a direct route bus aligns itself with the boarding tube,
the bus driver opens the doors of bus and tube using a remote
control system. Disembarking passengers exit one set of doors
and embarking passengers enter immediately afterwards, as if in a
subway system. Entry and exit is rapid. With the passengers
secure, the doors close and the driver pulls away into the
dedicated bus lane. Swift boarding times reduce route times and
increase the peak capacity of the system.
* The direct system makes route information easily available to
potential and actual passengers. In addition to the color-coded
map painted on the boarding tube near the entry door, both buses
and boarding tubes conveniently display stylized route maps.
Moreover, the name of each bus stop is printed on both the color
coded and stylized maps. The exterior of the boarding tubes
display bus stop names in bold letters so that bus passengers can
easily identify their location on a route.
* The tubes' level access easily accommodates disabled
passengers, strollers, and passengers with bags and parcels. In
addition, a small lift beside the entrance of the tube, makes
access for these passengers almost immediate.
Bi-articulated 270-passenger buses that also use the boarding
tubes have further extended the capacity of the system. Curitiba
has 33 bi-articulated buses operated primarily in the high
demand, lower income district on the southeast periphery of the
city.
The next innovation may be to incorporate an electric tramway
into the system. To increase capacity, the city has prepared a
plan for an electric tramway that will circulate in the central
lanes of the structural corridors. The road network and land use
legislation would remain basically the same. The mode would
change from bus to tramway with a capacity for 400 passengers,
with only minor modification of existing roadways.
THE PRESENT SYSTEM
The System and Its Routes
The Curitiba Integrated Transportation Network (ITN) is the core
system composed of transfer terminals, express routes, direct
routes using boarding tubes, feeder routes, and interdistrict
routes. The main ITN system is supplemented by center city
routes, neighborhood routes, night routes, special education
routes for disabled people, and the pro-park routes.
Conventional routes complement the ITN and are largely the
remnant of the territorial concessions that pre-dated the ITN.
The system as a whole--the ITN and its complements--is referred
to as the Curitiba Mass Transit System (MTS).
Figure 3 shows the design of the ITN as a trunk and branch
system. The trunks of the system are the high volume direct and
express routes running along the structural corridors. At
terminals along these corridors, the high volume routes connect
with the lower volume feeder routes. The feeder routes fan out
into lower density neighborhoods to give residents convenient
access to the overall system. Interdistrict routes also connect
to the terminals. The interdistrict routes run from corridor to
corridor--trunk to trunk. The interdistrict routes allow
passengers to travel between outlying points within the city
without traveling through the city center.
This integrated trunk and branch system makes the ITN function
very much like a metropolitan subway. Passengers pay one fare to
get into the system. Scheduled connections within the system
provide consistent service and convenience. The integrated,
trunk and branch system offers several important advantages over
conventional, non-integrated lines. First, compared to
underground systems, the capital costs of the surface bus system
are low. Routes use ordinary city streets; there are no large
scale excavations and no tunnels to maintain. The city maintains
bus speeds by setting aside dedicated bus lanes along some
downtown city streets and along the structural corridors.
Second, the integrated trunk and branch system offers convenience
and timeliness to passengers. Transferred passengers pay their
fares once, rather than paying for each leg of a journey. This
means that passengers do not have to line up to pay a fare at a
transfer point. Without lines, passengers can complete a
multiple-stage journey in less time. Shorter transport times
increase the capacity of the overall system and reduce peak hour
congestion.
A third advantage is that the city can adapt the bus fleet
profile to fit demand volumes along different types of routes.
It buys large, high volume buses for the high volume routes and
smaller buses for the lower volume, feeder routes. This tailors
the system's capacity to meet the demands of specific routes.
The system operates with minimum excess capacity. This reduces
the number of largely empty buses in circulation to waste energy,
labor, and capital.
The reduction in excess capacity leads to a fourth advantage--the
system uses fewer resources to transport a given number of
people. This means that there are fewer empty buses in
circulation. The reduction in empty buses reduces capital costs
and wastes less fuel and labor per passenger carried. Fewer
buses mean less traffic congestion because there is a better
relationship between bus routes and passenger destinations.
Passengers and buses do not have to pass through the city center
in order to travel between two outlying points. With passengers
and buses traveling fewer miles, there are fewer unnecessary
buses on the road--thus reducing the potential for congestion.
Reduced congestion means that buses operate at lower resource
costs, but the efficiency of private vehicles is also improved.
Fewer cars sit idling at congested intersections. Average speed
increases. This in turn saves fuel and time for both the bus
system and operators of private vehicles.
In addition to lower social costs, lower resource costs allow the
Network to offer a high level of service at reasonable passenger
fares. Reasonable fares are a certain savings for middle income
passengers. They are a substantial savings for lower income
households that tend to live on the periphery in Brazilian
cities. The standard fare in the Curitiba Public Transport
System is US$.30. This single fare gives all households access
to the entire city for purchases, employment, or other economic
opportunities.
Several specialized routes, described below, supplement the ITN
system of express, direct, interdistrict, and feeder routes.
Express Routes
The dedicated express routes circulate within the structural
cores forming the core structure of the Curitiba Mass Transit
System. The express buses circulate independently from
automobile traffic. This frees the core system from traffic jams
at peak times and provides greater comfort, safety, and
timeliness. The 13 express lines use higher capacity buses.
Express routes going through the higher density district of
Boqueirao use the higher capacity bi-articulated buses with
boarding tubes.
Direct Routes
Direct routes run in parallel with the structural corridors and
in other high demand routes, providing fast, high capacity
service. All direct routes use the high service boarding tubes,
located at all direct route stops and in the transfer terminals.
The transfer terminals link the direct routes to other levels of
service. There are currently 10 direct routes using padron buses
and boarding tubes equipped with a special lift for wheelchairs,
strollers, elderly people, and other people with special needs.
Interdistrict Routes
Interdistrict route buses make orbital trips between the
structural express and direct routes. They link various
districts without ever going to the city center. There are 6
interdistrict routes that allow transfers to the express, direct,
and feeder routes. The routes use green padron buses.
Feeder Routes
Feeder routes circulate within residential zones, linking them to
the various terminals. There are 111 feeder routes using orange
simple and padron buses that allow transfers to express,
interdistrict, and direct routes.
Conventional Routes
Conventional routes are the legacy of the bus routes that pre-
dated the ITN. Conventional routes run from the city center to
four terminals in districts located away from the structural
routes. These districts are Bairro Alto, Barreirinha,
Fazendinha, Santa Felicidade. The four terminals are also linked
by feeder, interdistrict, and direct routes. There are 6
conventional routes serviced by yellow simple and padron buses.
In addition, there are 86 "traditional" conventional routes that
are not integrated with other routes. These traditional lines,
serviced by yellow simple and padron buses, go from specific
districts to the city center and occasionally cross it.
City Center Routes
The city center routes use white 40-passenger mini-buses
circulating only around the city center. The reduced fare and
clockwise and counter-clockwise routes help shoppers and people
who need short trips within Curitiba's central area. The mini-
bus interiors are designed for short trips: instead of seats, the
vehicles have side cushions, so that passengers just lean against
them while in transit.
Neighborhood Routes
The neighborhood routes serve specific neighborhoods where there
is sufficient intra-neighborhood traffic. The Portao
neighborhood route has a circular configuration and the Xaxim
neighborhood route has a radial configuration. The vehicles are
mini-buses, painted white, with a capacity of 40 passengers.
Night Routes
Night routes operate from 1 to 5 a.m., with a one hour interval
between each bus. There are 17 routes, designed to be not more
than 1 km apart. There are express, feeder, and conventional
night routes.
Special Education Routes
Special education routes serve some 2,200 physically or mentally
disabled students. There are 27 routes operated by specially-
converted simple buses, equipped with seat belts and lifts for
wheelchairs. The buses pick up students in their neighborhoods
and take them to a special terminal where they transfer to other
buses that take them to special schools. At the end of the day,
buses follow the same procedure from the schools to the students'
homes. Trained helpers, paid for by the students' parents,
assist the students. The route, subsidized by the ITN, includes
a special terminal with added features to give comfort and safety
to users.
Pro-Park Routes
Pro-park routes operate only on Sundays and holidays, connecting
the city center to the main parks. The three routes use special
buses which resemble old street cars with wooden seats, imitating
park benches. The design of the bodies of these buses allows
maximum transparency, with broad, arch-shaped windows.
Job Routes
Job routes are not part of the transportation system but perform
an educational function. Curitiba uses a bus for public
transportation for 10 years. After that time, it recycles the
buses into mobile training offices for carpentry, word
processing, handcrafts, metal works, electricity studies, and
other courses. The buses, with locally-recruited instructors,
park in different low-income neighborhoods on scheduled days of
the week. This jobs training program, in operation since 1991,
has graduated more than 17,000 students.
Soup Routes
Although soup routes are not part of the public transport system,
they use recycled buses as restaurants. They serve free soup and
bread during the evenings to low-income population.
Management and Operation
Urbanizacao de Curitiba (URBS), a publically administrated,
privately funded (parastatal) company founded in 1963, monitors
the routine operation of the ITN and the MTS. Responsibility for
both the extension of the Curitiba master plan and for planning
extensions of the ITN and MTS lies with the Curitiba Research and
Urban Planning Institute (IPPUC). These agencies work closely
together to ensure that long-term planning is carefully linked to
the system's present condition. The IPPUC shapes transportation
and land use initiatives to complement each other.
URBS acts as the property manager for the publicly-owned
transportation infrastructure and as liaison with private
companies. URBS administers the city's bus terminals, monitors
the performance of the ITN and MTS, collects and distributes
revenues, and negotiates with concessionaires to provide terminal
services such as newsstands and flower stands. Its most
important role is to negotiate contracts with private buses
companies and ensure that these companies provide service that
meets the system's standards.
URBS currently operates under parameters established by a
municipal decree in 1987. The decree cancelled the territorial
concessions let to private bus companies. In place of
concessions, the decree established a system of permissions.
Under Brazilian law, permissions are simpler to execute and to
terminate when its conditions are not met. There is no fixed
contract period for a permission, and the city may cancel them
for due cause at any time. As presently written, the permissions
reimburse bus companies subject to the number of scheduled
kilometers that they actually travel. Municipal Law #7556 of
1990 and Municipal Decree #210 of 1991 (Prefeitura Municipal de
Curitaba 1990) establish URBS as the sole agent allowed to sign
transportation contracts for the permissions and grants URBS the
sole responsibility to plan and manage the ITN and MTS. Specific
responsibilities for URBS include those listed below:
Planning
In collaboration with the Curitiba Research and Urban Planning
Institute (IPPUC), URBS undertakes the following planning
responsibilities:
* Analyze organizational, technological and space options for
transportation in Curitiba. Pursue this analysis in
collaboration with IPPUC and following the general urban planning
guidelines for the city.
* Propose new routes, services, and terminals to meet the
system's demands for growth.
* Monitor the level and quality of existing services.
* Study and propose the development of information systems for
operational purposes.
* Manage the level and quality of information for users of the
system.
Administration
URBS also has administrative/financial responsibilities
summarized as follows:
* Organize, implement, and supervise the mass transit system.
* Manage the finances of the ITN including the collection and
distribution of revenues.
* Set, monitor, and enforce performance standards for private bus
companies. Determine and enforce penalties for violations of
standards.
* Establish technical agreements with universities and other
institutions for the improvement of the system.
* Establish collaborative agreements for mass transit purposes
with other municipalities within Curitiba Metropolitan Region.
Operation
The operational duties of URBS are well known and visible. The
accumulation of such responsibilities under a single institution
contribute to the effective management of Curitiba's Public
Transport System. The duties include:
* Establish timetables and operational parameters.
* Establish standards for comfort, safety, and regularity in bus
services.
* Establish locations of bus stops, terminals, and routes.
* Implement and change bus routes and scheduling to meet shifting
passenger demands.
* Carry out data collection for statistical control of the bus
system.
* Establish technical parameters and specifications for buses.
Register and inspect the buses in
operation.
* Monitor the level of service and adherence to timetables.
Penalize violations with fines or, in the worst cases, revoke a
company's permission to operate.
* Establish procedures for setting fares. Monitoring adherence
to the agreed upon fare schedules. Update the data needed for
calculating the fare schedules.
Existing Permissions to Operate
There are currently 10 bus companies with permission to operate
specified routes in Curitiba: Marechal, Gloria, Luz, Cristo Rei,
Carmo, Redentor, Agua Verde, Curitiba, Merces, and Cidade
Sorriso. A simple two page document sets out the basic legal
framework and standard form for all permissions.
Certain companies tend to concentrate their routes in certain
areas of the city. There are some shared routes, however. These
include central area routes, interdistrict routes, direct routes,
and certain express and feeder routes that serve more than one
area of the city.
Classification of companies and consequent assignment of routes
depends on the size of bus fleets. Carmo with 209 buses, Cidade
Sorriso with 205 buses, and Gloria with 203 buses are large
companies. Mediumsize companies are Cristo Rei with 138 buses,
Luz with 126 buses, Agua Verde with 119 buses, and Marechal with
117 buses. Curitiba with 96 buses and Merces with 61 buses are
small companies.
Fare Calculation
Fares in Curitiba are set by a calculation schedule based on the
costs experienced by URBS and by the private firms. The schedule
includes factors related to operating costs such as those that
depend on kilometers traveled, maintenance costs, personnel
costs, administrative costs, and capital costs. Costs dependent
on kilometers traveled include those for fuel, lubricants, and
depreciation. Maintenance costs include items for parts,
accessories, and maintenance personnel. Personnel costs include
uniform costs and wages for drivers, conductors, supervisors, and
porters. Administrative costs include administrative wages,
supplies, equipment depreciation, and depreciation of buildings
and physical assets. Capital costs include depreciation and a
fixed return on investment. Each of these cost categories is
detailed below.
Cost Apportioned to Kilometers Traveled
Fuel
Companies are divided into two groups that represent operational
and urban physical characteristics that affect fuel consumption.
For example, companies that operate in hilly areas, or areas with
heavier traffic near the Curitiba Central Area, would have higher
fuel costs. After the companies are divided, ongoing surveys
determine the average fuel consumption for each type of bus in
liters per kilometer. Table 3 shows fuel consumption estimates.
Table 3. Fuel Consumption Indexes (liters/km)
_________________________________________________________________
Vehicle Simple "Padron" Articulated BiArticulated Microbus
Bus Bus Bus Bus
_________________________________________________________________
Group 1 0.3502 0.4667 0.6449 0.7464 0.2265
Group 2 0.3799 0.4797 0.6482 0.7464 0.1859
_________________________________________________________________
Source: Urbanizacao de Curitiba 1992a.
Lubricants
Survey data, dating from 1987 and 1988, help estimate lubricant
consumption indexes. Table 4 lists the lubricant consumption
estimates in liters of lubricant per kilometer.
Table 4. Lubricants Consumption Indexes (liters/km)
Lubricant Index
_____________________________________________________________
Carter Oil 0.0077891
Gear Box Oil 0.0004211
Brakes, Oil 0.0002034
Grease 0.0002034
_____________________________________________________________
Source: Urbanizacao de Curitiba 1992a.
Tire Depreciation
A survey conducted from January 1988 to December 1988 established
depreciation parameters for tires. The number of kilometers
traveled during this period established technical averages.
Table 5 lists these depreciation estimates in terms of the
proportion of useful life exhausted in one kilometer of travel.
Table 5. Depreciation Indexes
_______________________________________________________________
Component Depreciation Index
Diagonal Tires 0.0000194
Radial Tires 0.0000351
Protecting Caps 0.0000961
Inside Tire (air compartment) 0.0001034
New Rubber Layer 0.0000787
________________________________________________________________
Source: Urbanizacao de Curitiba 1983.
Maintenance Costs
Personnel
URBS estimated the cost of maintenance personnel for each company
according to the company's fleet characteristics. URBS issues a
monthly table to update the amounts allocated for each company's
maintenance personnel.
Parts and Accessories
URBS developed a preventive maintenance plan for all transit
vehicles used in Curitiba. Survey data established maintenance
cost as a percentage of a vehicle's value. Buses receive routine
maintenance at 5, 10, 25, 50, 75, 150, 300, and 600 thousand
kilometers.
Personnel Costs
Drivers, Conductors, and Porters
URBS sets a 36 hour average work week for transit employees. This
includes a time of 30 minutes for drivers and conductors to check
the condition of their vehicle and turn in revenue. Personnel
work in shifts of 6.5 hours per day. These wage and working
conditions surpass those found in most other cities in Brazil.
Administrative Costs
These include personnel, expenses, equipment depreciation,
depreciation of buildings, supplies, and remuneration equipment
and building costs. After long term surveys, URBS set average
values that are proportional to the bus fleet of each company.
Total administrative costs average 13% of operational costs.
Capital Costs
Depreciation
URBS reimburses depreciation based on linear schedules of 8, 10,
or 12 years depending upon the anticipated level of use.
Depreciation is a proportion of the initial purchase price. At
the end of its schedule, the value of a bus is 10% of its initial
purchase price, adjusted for inflation. The city receives 90% of
a vehicle's resale value after the scheduled number of years in
service. The city often recycles depreciated vehicles for the
pro-park, job, and soup routes.
Payment
The city pays companies for a return on investment capital at 1%
per month, updated according to inflation indexes used by the
federal government.
Ridership
Evolution of the ITN and MTS
Table 6 shows how MTS and ITN ridership has evolved during the
last 20 years. In 1974, the first year of the ITN, the MTS as a
whole carried an average of 677,000 passengers per day.
Conventional lines carried 623,000, and the ITN lines carried
54,000. At this time, the ITN had only two of its arterial
corridors in place and a total of 19.9 km of express routes. The
express routes connected to neighborhoods with 45 km of feeder
routes.
Table 6. Evolution of Curitiba's Integrated Transit Network and
Passenger Load
________________________________________________________________
Passengers Carried Per Day Extent of ITN by Route Type
Year (thousands) (kilometers)
________________________________________________________________
Total Conventional ITN Express Feeder Interdistrict
1974 677 623 54 19.9 45 0
1978 728 497 231 31.0 119 0
1979 730 481 249 31.6 119 44
1980 748 467 281 49.3 188 82
1982 730 372 358 54.0 242 122
1989 1,056 486 570 54.0 270 185
1992 1,028 398 630 80.0 266 166
________________________________________________________________
Source: Urbanizacao de Curitiba 1994.
MTS ridership grew by 53% from 677,000 to more than 1 million
passengers per day from 1974 to 1992. This is an average annual
growth rate of 2.36%, about half of Curitiba's 1970 to 1990
population growth rate of 4.9% per year. As overall MTS
ridership grew during this period, the number of conventional
lines contracted. This contraction and the growth of the ITN led
to a reduction in ridership on conventional routes of 37% from
1974 to 1992. During the same period, the ITN grew in both
extent and in the number of passengers carried. From 1974 to
1992, ITN ridership grew an average rate of 14% per year from
54,000 to 641,000. In 18 years, market share of the ITN grew
from 8% in 1974 to 64% in 1992.
The last three columns in table 6 give some insight into the
relative contribution to ridership of the express, feeder, and
interdistrict lines. Between 1974 and 1980, the number of
kilometers in express lines grew only slightly less quickly than
the feeder lines. In 1974, express lines were approximately
30% of the system, dropping to 26% in 1980. The interdistrict
routes grew from zero kilometers in 1974 to 82 kilometers in
1980. Ridership grew at an average annual rate of 27% with this
even growth in the extent of the express, feeder, and
interdistrict routes.
>From 1980 to 1989, growth in the express system slowed to a mere
9%less than 1% per year. ITN ridership, however, grew by 86%
during this same period or by about 7% per year. The source of
this growth in ridership appears to be growth in the feeder
lines, up by 44%, and interdistrict lines, up by 125%. This
apparently shows the importance of convenient access to the core
express lines. For people who live in the higher density growth
corridors, access to the express lines is no problem. The feeder
and interdistrict lines are essential for easy access to people
who live in outlying neighborhoods. Extension of these lines
apparently reduced the time costs of access for people in
outlying neighborhoods. This reduction in travel time cost
contributed to almost a doubling of ITN ridership between 1980
and 1989.
The data may also indicate the success of the direct lines served
by boarding tubes, introduced in 1989. The kilometers covered by
the direct lines are included in the express column. From 1989
to 1992, express and direct lines increased in extent by 48%.
The extent of the feeder and interdistrict routes contracted
during this same period slightly diminished. Ridership on the
ITN, however, increased by 23%apparently due only to the increase
in express and direct routes.
The ITN ridership and route statistics suggest that high volume
express and direct routes and the lower volume feeder and
interdistrict routes are strong complements. The high volume
routes offer fast, convenient service to those who live in the
high density neighborhoods near the high volume lines. High
volume routes do not realize their full potential without feeder
and interdistrict lines. Lower volume lines link the high volume
routes into low density neighborhoods and with each other. The
lower volume routes provide convenient, low time cost access for
people who live further from the express and direct routes. The
integrated system balances the convenience of local access with
the high volume speed of arterial routes.
Present Performance of the ITN and MTS
Table 7 shows the number and performance of different MTS routes
for May, 1993. The first five rows of table 7 describe ITN
routes. The next three rows describe the conventional and
special routes. The last row describes the overall MTS
characteristics.
Table 7. Ridership Characteristics for May, 1993
_________________________________________________________________
Route Number Kilometers Paid Passengers
Type of Routes Traveled Fares/Bus Carried/Bus
by Type per Weekday Average Average
(thousands) per Weekday per Weekday
_________________________________________________________________
Express 13 58 1,283 2,039
Direct 10 41 532 1,563
Interdistrict 6 34 789 1,446
Feeder 111 74 615 1,138
Total ITN 140 207 839 1,533
Conventional 93 90 879 879
Special Ed. 27 2.8 0 481
Neighborhood 3 1.8 481 481
& City Center
Total MTS 263 301.6 829 1,309
________________________________________________________________
Source: Urbanizacao de Curitiba 1993.
In the ITN, there are 13 express routes, 10 direct routes, 6
interdistrict routes, and 111 feeder routes. On a typical
weekday, buses on the express routes travel 58,000 kilometers.
Buses on the feeder routes travel 74,000 kilometers. This is
4,460 kilometers per express route and only 670 kilometers per
feeder routes. The large distances covered on the express routes
reflect both the number and speed of buses on these routes. ITN
routes account for more than half the number of routes within the
MTS. Conventional routes compose about 35% of the total route
system.
URBS estimates the number of fares paid to enter a particular
route type within the system. Table 7 lists these paid fares on
a per bus basis in the fourth column. The number of paid fares
is lowest on the direct routes. In contrast, the number of
passengers carried per bus is second highest on the direct
routes.
The discrepancy between fares paid to enter the direct routes
versus the number of passengers carried is due to the passengers
who transfer between lines. People may enter the ITN through an
express line, direct route, feeder line, or interdistrict line.
At their first entry point, they pay fares which are credited to
that line. Many passengers take the line that they board to a
terminal. At the terminal, they may transfer to another type of
route. For instance, a passenger may initially board a feeder
line at a neighborhood stop and then transfer to a direct line
for a quick transfer to the central city. These transfers do not
pay an additional fare, but they do count as a passenger carried.
These transfers are the hallmark of the integrated system and
they account for the discrepancy between fares credited to a
particular type of line and the actual number of passengers
carried by that route type [note 4].
The average number of paid fares per bus is slightly higher for
the conventional routes than for the average of the ITN routes.
However, the number of passengers carried per ITN bus is almost
74% greater. Thus, the ITN collects a slightly smaller number of
fares per bus but apparently uses its capacity to a fuller extent
than the conventional routes.
There are 27 special education routes. Each bus carries about
481 passengers per day. These routes are entirely funded through
revenues of the ITN.
There are three neighborhood and city center routes. No
transfers are necessary from these routes to the ITN. The number
of fares collected and the number of passengers carried both
equal 481 per day.
Performance Comparison with Other Brazilian Cities
The relative effectiveness of transportation in different cities
is difficult to quantitatively compare. Cities differ in their
geography and in settlement densities. Some cities are
mountainous and others are on flat plains. These geographic
features mean that transit performance varies even when the
planning, financial resources, and technology are the same.
These differences warn us against any comparison since unmeasured
differences in context make it difficult to assess how different
cities are responding to their transportation needs. Despite
these concerns, it is useful to compare Curitiba with other
cities if only to form rough hypotheses as to how its
transportation system really differs from those found in other
Brazilian cities.
Table 8 compares the features of Curitiba's transit system with
those of six other Brazilian cities. Curitiba is one of the
moderate sized cities listed in the table. Sao Paulo stands out
as the largest city with a population of 16 million. Belo
Horizonte and Porto Alegre are the next largest cities with 3.8
and 2.7 million people, respectively, within the boundaries of
their metropolitan transit systems. Curitiba, Fortaleza, and
Brasilia all have populations of 1.6 million. Santos is the
smallest city listed with a population of 600,000.
Urban residents are likely to use a system more often when it
offers convenience, timeliness, and good value for a given fare.
In terms of available statistics, the desire to use mass transit
is best represented by annual per capita use the annual number of
trips taken in a city divided by a city's population. In this
respect, Belo Horizonte and Curitiba appear to offer their
residents a high quality and value. Belo Horizonte and Curitiba
have the highest per capita use of their transit systems. In
Belo Horizonte, residents take 208 trips per capita per year. In
Curitiba, residents take 202 trips per capita per year. These
per capita statistics are about 10% higher than the next highest
city, Fortaleza, and almost 30% higher than Sao Paulo. They are
almost 60% higher than the per capita use statistics for Brasilia
and Porto Alegre.
Table 8. Mass Transit Performance in Brazilian Cities [note a]
_________________________________________________________________
City Population Passenger Fleet Route
(millions) Journeys Buses/1,000 km/1,000
per Capita Inhabitants per Capita
_________________________________________________________________
Curitiba 1.6 202 0.97 0.76
Belo Horizonte 3.8 208 0.98 2.47
Brasilia 1.6 129 1.15 na
Fortaleza 1.6 184 0.61 0.96
Porto Alegre 2.7 120 0.58 na
Sao Paulo 16.0 158 0.66 4.09
Santos 0.6 140 0.47 1.76
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
City Kilometers Traveled Kilometers Passengers/km
per Capita Traveled/km Traveled
Routed (1,000 km)
_________________________________________________________________
Curitiba 56 74 3.59
Belo Horizonte 75 30 2.77
Brasilia 53 na 2.42
Fortaleza 52 53 3.58
Porto Alegre na na na
Sao Paulo na na na
Santos na na na
_________________________________________________________________
[Note a] Three Brazilian cities are listed in Bushell (1993) but
not in this table: Recife extensively uses minibuses and its data
is approximate. Rio de Janeiro has a unique system that includes
railways and mountainous terrain. Salvador is not included
because of its approximate data.
[Note b] Population is the city or metropolitan area population
depending upon whether the described system serves the city or
the metropolitan area.
[Note c] Using Bushell (1993) data, the estimate of Curitiba's
passenger journeys/capita is about 15% less than the estimate
obtained using official URBS data. In this table, however, we
use the Bushell data in order to maintain consistency in data
definitions across all Brazilian cities. In addition, Bushell
does not present data for the same year for all cities. The
years by city are: Curitiba, 1991; Belo Horizonte, 1990;
Brasilia, 1988; Fortaleza, 1986; Porto Alegre, year not reported;
Sao Paulo, 1991; and Santos, 1991.
Source: Bushell 1993
Horizonte and Curitiba attain high per capita use with almost
identical numbers of buses per capita. Each has approximately
one bus in its system for every thousand residents. These are
not the highest bus per capita figures, but a high number of
buses per capita does appear correlated with high per capita use.
Four of the other five cities with lower per capita use also have
lower bus per capita figures 0.66 per thousand inhabitants in Sao
Paulo and only 0.47 per 1000 inhabitants in Santos. Brasilia is
the only exception with a bus per capita statistic of 1.15 and
per capita use of only 129.
Belo Horizonte and Curitiba are quite different in other features
of their transportation systems. Belo Horizonte's route system
is much larger than Curitiba's on a per capita basis. Belo
Horizonte has 2.47 kilometers of routes for every 1000
inhabitants. Curitiba has only 0.76 kilometers of routes.
Indeed, Curitiba's is the smallest route system on a per capita
basis of any of five cities for which data is available.
Curitiba's small system and high use may reflect another
advantage of an integrated, carefully planned system: it
provides maximum access and convenience for the smallest number
of route kilometers. It avoids route duplication and spaces
routes to meet real transportation demands.
Fewer route kilometers mean that a given number of vehicles may
provide more frequent service even if the number of kilometers
traveled by buses declines. The sixth column of table 8 shows
that the number of kilometers traveled by vehicles is 25% smaller
in Curitiba than in Belo Horizonte. In Curitiba, buses travel
about 56 km/year/capita while they travel about 75 km/year/capita
in Belo Horizonte. Curitiba's statistic of 56 km/capita is about
equal to that of Fortaleza and Brasilia. These figures may mean
the Belo Horizonte's buses simply have to travel further because
of a larger route system or that, perhaps in addition, they
provide more frequent service.
The next column shows that Curitiba's integrated system provides
more than double the frequency of service relative to Belo
Horizonte's system. Curitiba's vehicles travel approximately
74,000 km/route km while Belo Horizonte's vehicles travel
approximately 30,000 km/route km. This suggests that Curitiba's
integrated system allows it to provide more frequent, better
value service while travelling fewer kilometers per capita.
Fewer kilometers per capita mean, in turn, fewer financial and
physical resources spent on transportation. At the same time,
Curitiba's system high per capita use suggests a high degree of
service and value. Taken together, the two imply Curitiba
provides a high level of service that makes the most use out of
limited resources. This is a desirable feature from both a
financial and environmental perspective. Use of fewer resources
means that a system is more likely to at least break even, a
desirable feature for long term sustainability. It also means
that the system is producing less waste such as used up fuels,
materials, and machines. With less material passing through the
system, it is likely to produce less air, water, and solid waste
pollution.
The financial sustainability aspect is further borne out by the
last column in table 8. This column lists the number of
passengers carried per kilometer (PKM) traveled by vehicles
within a system. Curitiba's statistic is the highest of the
those for the four systems for which data is available.
Curitiba's statistic of 3.59 paying passengers/km traveled is
about 30% larger than Belo Horizonte's figure of 2.77 paying
passengers/km traveled. The passenger/km ratio is closely linked
to financial sustainability since the number of paying passengers
reflects revenues and kilometers traveled reflects costs. For
the same costs, a higher passenger/km ratio implies a greater
financial return and a greater chance of financially maintaining
a given level of service.
Despite its high performance, the data in table 8 may understate
the service and financial quality of Curitiba's system. The
downward bias comes from the way Curitiba counts passenger
journeys and short trips compared to how other Brazilian cities
count them. Curitiba's ITN is an integrated system of routes. A
passenger enters the Curitiba system using one route and may
switch to another route at a transfer terminal without paying an
additional fare. This means that passenger journeys within the
Curitiba system typically involve multiple trip segments. Other
cities in Brazil do not have Curitiba's system of integrated
routes and unpaid transfers. In networks without transfers,
other cities count each trip segment as a separate journey, paid
for separately with each involving a different bus route.
URBS's passenger survey data indicates that the number of trip
segments, including transfers, is about 1.4 times greater than
the number of passenger journeys. That is, the average Curitiba
passenger makes 1.4 transfers during a journey within the system.
This implies that the number of passenger trips per capita is
about 1.4 times greater than the number of passenger journeys per
capita in Curitiba. Similarly, the number of passenger trips per
kilometer traveled by ITN vehicles is 1.4 times greater than
Curitiba's passenger/km statistic listed in table 8. This
adjustment for trips versus journeys clearly underscores
Curitiba's strong performance compared to other transit systems
in Brazil.
Financial Performance
Both the ITN and MTS operate without any direct financial subsidy
from the city. The municipal government provides the physical
and administrative infrastructure such as paved roads, lighting,
bus stops, terminals, planning, and system management. It also
monitors the bus companies, through inspections and surveys, to
see that they are providing the service agreed to by contract,
including the number of kilometers that they are paid to
traverse.
In buses and terminals, the city collects fares daily and
deposits them in a municipal transport fund. Ten days later, the
city pays companies according to the number of kilometers served
as specified in the route permissions. Law requires the city to
use the fund's resources only to pay the costs of the companies
participating in the ITN.
As stated above, the monthly rate of return to the private bus
companies is 1% of the capital invested in the bus fleet. This
return is approximately 11% of the revenues collected in fares.
A secure 12% annual rate of return gives companies a strong
incentive to invest in the renovation of the bus fleet. This
incentive means that Curitiba has the newest bus fleet in Brazil,
with an average of 3.5 years of use. Another element of the
companies' profits is a 3% return on administrative costs for
equipment and infrastructure, representing 0.39% of the fare.
The total return to bus companies is therefore approximately
11.39% of the revenues from fares.
Brazil has experienced high rates of inflation. In February,
1994, the monthly inflation rate was approximately 40%. Under
such circumstances, the city constantly has to increase fares to
cope with rising costs caused by inflation. The city does not
index these inflation adjustments directly to inflation rates,
otherwise they would have to readjust fares practically every
day. Rather, they negotiate the fare readjustments, which are
subject to technical data about inflation rates, political skill
in handling negotiations, and citizens' opinions. The bus
companies naturally pressure to have fares increased as often as
possible whereas riders demand constant or lower fares. The city
has to contend with the interplay of these political forces and
arrive at negotiated bus fare increases that are affordable to
the public and profitable for the private sector.
Interviews with bus company owners reveal general owner
satisfaction, but there are conflicts. An owner and former
president of the organization that represents bus companies says:
"I do not need money. I need credit. The bank is as important
a partner as the city. If I am investing US$140,000 in a padron
bus or US$450,000 in a biarticulated bus, the loan officer
and his bank have to trust what I am doing. The only
transportation system that the banks I know invest in is
Curitiba's. This is because there are enforced standards and
because the permissions to operate buses can be revoked anytime.
This procedure eliminates the bad entrepreneur. The bank knows
that public transportation in Curitiba is taken seriously"
(Rabinovitch 1993).
The same entrepreneur had the following complaints:
"The problem here [in Curitiba] is that we have a first world
public transport system with a third world fare. The cost of new
buses went up 30% and the depreciation that the city pays went up
only 15%. I also think the city should diminish the number of
nonpaying passengers by reducing the number of allowed
transfers."
It would be important as well to have the names of the retailers
from which the city obtains updated prices for the fare
calculation table. The city should be more open about the price
surveys since the prices I find are always higher than those
surveyed" (Rabinovitch 1993).
These latter comments illustrate the conflicting pressures
experienced by the city and its agent URBS. The city does not
release the names of retailers to avoid pressure from bus
entrepreneurs or formation of a cartel. Reducing transfers may
increase revenues to the municipal transportation fund and allow
larger revenue distributions to the bus companies. However,
effective fares would also increase and citizens would receive
less convenient service for a higher price. The overall revenue
of the system may increase but with negative and undesirable
social consequences.
ENVIRONMENTAL AND QUALITY OF LIFE IMPACTS
The ITN has brought direct and indirect improvements to the
environment and quality of life in Curitiba. These impacts are
an important reason for the city's active involvement in
transportation planning and administration. Transportation has
proven to be a very useful tool to deal with urban development
issues, particularly in a fast growing urban setting. However,
improved transportation is only one element contributing to some
of these impacts. Indeed, it is best to view urban
transportation as one key element in a set of tools that include
land use controls, road network planning, housing, and commercial
development. The following sections consider some results from
these tools (United Nations Development Programme 1992).
Pedestrian Areas
Curitiba developed its first central pedestrian mall in 1972,
before the beginning of ITN. Growth of the ITN reduced
automobile congestion in the city center and complemented the
development of a network of downtown pedestrian malls.
Approximately 49 downtown blocks now exclusively use pedestrian
streets which link squares and bus terminals in the central area.
These streets have special lighting, kiosks, newsstands,
landscaping, and other amenities. The malls also connect with
conventional parks and green areas in the downtown area. One
North American planner, Richard Kahn, Urban Assembly, New York,
remarked that Curitiba is one of the few large cities he knows
where, "despite its scale, one can see and hear native birds in
the downtown area."
The city has also encouraged the development and maintenance of
residential housing in the downtown area. With parking limited,
access to public transportation by downtown residents is
fundamental to maintain the residential use in balance with
services and commerce. Downtown residences, in turn, support a
mix of residential services in the downtown area such as
restaurants, bakeries, pharmacies, supermarkets. These give a 24
hour a day vitality to the downtown area. This vitality
contrasts sharply with the after hours silence found in other
cities' downtown areas that serve primarily as commercial
employment centers.
Traffic and Circulation
The ITN and MTS partially absorb the demand for automobile
traffic in the city. One recent survey suggests that 25% of
commuters who once used their cars for commuting have now
switched to using the direct route buses. In addition, 75% of
Curitiba's commuters use either the ITN or MTS. The ridership
figures demonstrate a high level of per capita use. Curitiba has
one of the highest bus system use rates in Brazil.
Land Use Controls and Housing Densities
Land use controls in Curitiba have encouraged a pattern of
settlement that both complements and is complemented by the
metropolitan transportation system. Transportation is more
effective if the most densely populated areas are near high
volume transportation routes. This reduces the need for low
volume, higher average cost feeder routes. Effective
transportation complements urban settlement. Effective
transportation also provides urban residents with access to the
services, jobs, and relationships that are the fundamental reason
for urban settlements to exist.
Curitiba's land use controls encourage the most dense populations
along the high volume structural corridors. While this
settlement pattern might evolve even in the absence of controls,
it has three distinguishing features. First, it integrates with
the transportation system as the city plans and develops land use
and transportation jointly. This reduces uncertainty for urban
developers and discourages false speculation on undeveloped
lands. Second, the city develops land use and transportation
plans in advance of actual settlement. This avoids the costly
problem of a transportation system always attempting to catch up
with a population just beyond its reach. Third, the controls
place both a floor and a ceiling on densities within the
structural corridors. The density ceiling in the urban center
pushes growth out of the city center and into the structural
corridors. This reduces congestion at the city center. Reduced
congestion and low densities, in turn, facilitate pedestrian
malls and landscaping that improve access and quality of life.
The land use controls encourage a declining pattern of density as
one moves away from the structural corridors. Controls allow the
highest residential densities within the structural corridors and
the residential area surrounding them. Planners call these areas
the Structural Sector and Residential Zone 4. Medium density
surrounds the high density areas and includes Residential Zone 3.
The lowest densities occur farthest from the structural corridors
and include Residential Zones 2 and 1.
Table 9 gives area and population statistics for the five primary
residential zones in Curitiba. The statistics are for 1985, 14
years after the introduction of Curitiba's Master Plan. The
first column lists the five residential zones as well as a
category that includes all five zones. The five zones together
encompassed about 41% of Curitiba's land area of 43,422 hectares
and about 75% of its population of 1.276 million. The average
population density of the five zones was 54.1 persons per
hectare, almost double Curitiba's average density of 29.4 persons
per hectare. The overall population growth rate in the five
zones was 25.7% between 1980 and 1985, just 1.2% larger than the
Curitiba's average rate of 24.5%.
Table 9. Five Primary Residential Zones: Area, Density, and
Population Growth Rates, 1985
_________________________________________________________________
Primary Area Population Density Population
Residential (% of city (% of city (persons Growth
Zones total) total) /ha) (% 1980-85)
_________________________________________________________________
All Five 40.8 74.8 54.1 25.7
Zones
Structural 1.6 5.7 105.1 98
Corridor
Zone 4 4.5 13.8 89.9 29.4
Zone 3 10.2 19.7 56.8 14.5
Zone 2 21.1 32.8 46.0 25.3
Zone 1 3.4 2.8 24.2 9.5
_________________________________________________________________
Note: In 1985, Curitiba's total population was 1.276 million.
Its area was 43,422 hectares. Its population density was 29.4
persons/hectare. And its population growth rate for 198085 was
24.5%.
Source: Curitiba Research and Planning Institute 1985.
The Structural Corridor and Zone 4 residential areas encompass
less than 7% of the land area but provide residences for almost
20% of the population. Thus, consistent with the land use
controls, population densities in these zone are about three
times larger than Curitiba's average rate. Population densities
in Zones 3 and 4 are about double the average density and that in
Zone 1 is slightly less than Curitiba's average density.
The growth rates listed in the last column of table 9 indicate
that Curitiba is having success in using land use controls and
transportation to direct residential growth to the higher density
zones. Between 1980 and 1985, the resident population in the
Structural Corridor increased by a striking 98%. Zone 4
population grew by 29.5%well above Curitiba's average population
growth rate of 24.5%. Growth in Zone 3 was 14.5% and in Zone 2
it was 25.3%. The growth rate in Zone 1 was well below
Curitiba's average rate at only 9.5% (Curitiba Research and
Planning Institute 1992).
Parks and Green Areas
In 1970, Curitiba had 0.5 square meters of green area per capita.
In 1992, the rate was 50 square meters per capita. This increase
is a result of a conscious policy of protecting floodplains,
public acquisition of private land, and a concerted effort to
develop parks and public gardens (Curitiba Research and Urban
Planning Institute 1983).
The transportation system's function has been to take a very
explicit and proactive role in guiding the spatial direction of
development. Transportation development is the concrete action
to back up and reinforce land use planning. This combination
prevented green and low density areas from being purchased and
held in speculation for future development. The direction of
development was clear and public and discouraged further land
speculation. By reducing speculation, the city reduced the
consequent political pressures to develop transportation solely
to make land investments prosper.
Development of bike paths that serve both pedestrians and
bicycles encourage use of the parks and green areas. These
cycleways have signs, a visible route, maps, and lighting. Where
possible, the city developed cycleways on the banks surrounding
small streams and surface water drains and away from motor
vehicle roads. The combined length of these cycleways is nearly
150 kilometers. They not only connect to the parks but also to
residential and commercial areas including the industrial city
and the city center. People increasingly view bicycles as a
potentially important transportation option (Curitiba Research
and Urban Planning Institute 1980).
Employment
The MTS provides an average of 1 trip per inhabitant on a typical
workday. The system places any inhabitant within easy reach of
any location in the city for a single low fare. This low cost
and extensive network gives even low income households access to
employment and service opportunities regardless of their location
in the city. In addition, the system itself employs 5,000
people. It also stimulates additional employment through the
purchase of equipment and services.
Air Quality
The state agency, Instituto Ambiental do Parana (IAP), is
responsible for environmental monitoring and control for Curitiba
as well as within the entire state of Parana. The IAP monitors
three kinds of air pollutants: sulphur dioxide, particulates,
and ammonia as required by the National Council for the
Environment (CONAMA) under Federal Law #03/1990 (National Council
for the Environment 1990).
The last report of the IAP (Environment Institute of Parana 1993)
showed that air quality in Curitiba is acceptable and the annual
average is within all limits established by the law. In this
last report (June 1993) the IAP also concluded that the high
levels of particulates (dust) came from renovation of the Santa
Casa building. The monitoring station is located on the Santa
Casa grounds and is also opposite to the largest bus terminal in
Curitiba on Rui Barbosa square. The Rui Barbosa terminal serves
as the central city terminal for all express buses and for
various conventional routes.
The Santa Casa station is the IAP's only air quality monitoring
site in Curitiba. Table 10 lists average monthly measurements for
the last seven years. The smoke and dust measurements show a good
deal of variability and probably relate to local conditions such
as the renovation of the Santa Casa building.
Table 10. Air Quality in Curitiba (Micrograms/cubic meter)
_________________________________________________________________
Dust Smoke Sulphur Dioxide Ammonia
_________________________________________________________________
June 1987 120 161 77 68
1988 139 68 62 6
1989 75 -- 81 3
1990 111 133 89 9
1991 -- 73 57 4
1992 105 57 50 12
1993 146 56 39 7
_________________________________________________________________
Source: Environment Institute of Parana 1993.
Sulfur dioxide shows a good deal of variability as well but
appears to be declining in recent years. The reason for this
decline is not clear. One possibility is an improvement in the
quality of diesel fuel or improved maintenance of bus and truck
engines.
The measurements for ammonia show less variability overall but
they include a sharp upward spike in 1992 followed by a higher
than average reading in 1993. Reasons for these readings need
investigation, but they may relate to the shift to greater use of
gasoline rather than alcohol fuels for automobile transportation.
Overall, there is little evidence to suggest a trend due to
impacts of the MTS. The major observation is that air quality in
central Curitiba meets and certainly does not exceed national
standards, perhaps due in part to the MTS and in spite of the
comparatively high level of automobile ownership in Curitiba.
Reduced Energy Consumption
The MTS contributes to reduced fuel consumption in Curitiba
through vehicle design and by attracting high levels of
ridership.
Vehicle Design
The goal of the ITN is to match the capacity of a bus to the trip
quantities demanded on different routes to match the available
space in buses to the number of passengers desiring to board.
The goal is to use smaller conventional and "padron" buses in low
density areas and higher capacity articulated and biarticulated
buses on structural, high density routes. This places bus
capacity on the routes where it obtains the highest use. It also
ensures the lowest quantity of energy used per passenger
traveled. The smaller buses have the lowest absolute levels of
fuel use. Hence, for a small number of passengers, the small
buses have a lower fuel consumption per passenger. As passenger
demand increases, the larger buses have a lower average fuel
consumption provided the number of passengers increases
sufficiently to offset an additional fuel use.
Table 11 illustrates the relationship between capacity and fuel
use. The shift from conventional to "padron" bus increases
capacity by 38% and increases absolute fuel consumption by 21%.
A shift from "padron" to an articulated bus increases capacity
by 55% and fuel consumption by 39%. Finally, the switch from
articulated to a biarticulated bus increase capacity by 59% and
fuel consumption by 16%. These figures underscore the importance
of matching capacity to trips demanded. Unused capacity wastes
fuel while matching high use with high capacity promises real
fuel savings. This is precisely the goal of the ITN to match
route capacity with route use.
An Alternative to Automobiles
Public transportation draws passengers from those who would not
travel if it were not available and from those who would use
another transportation mode if the public option were not
available or available in a less convenient or lower quality
form. Private car drivers are part of the latter group. Private
car drivers are part of the latter group. A survey performed by
the Parana based Bonilha Institute in 1991 with direct route
users showed that 28% of them would use their cars to commute if
the direct routes were unavailable. These survey data are
consistent with Curitiba's per capita use of public
transportation. In Curitiba, the average annual number of trips
per inhabitant is 202 trips. A more typical use level for
Brazilian cities is Sao Paulo's 158 trips per inhabitant per
year. These use levels suggest that the convenience, timeliness,
and cost of Curitiba's system may increase transit use by as much
as 28%, with a large proportion of this likely to come from other
transportation modes.
Table 11. Fuel Consumption by Bus Type
_________________________________________________________________
Vehicle Passenger Capacity Diesel Consumption
(liters/km)
_________________________________________________________________
Conventional 80 0.38
"Padron" 110 0.46
Articulated 170 0.64
BiArticulated 270 0.74
_________________________________________________________________
Source: Urbanizacao de Curitiba 1993.
Using the survey and per capita use statistics as rough
estimates, it may be that the shift from automobile passengers to
transit passengers may result in a 20 to 25% increase in transit
ridership and a concomitant decline in automobile traffic. A 20%
increase in ridership represents approximately 54 million trips
per year in Curitiba. Supposing that there are 2 people per
automobile, this implies a reduction of 27 million trips by
automobile. If the average trip is 7.5 kilometers and average
fuel consumption is 1 liter per 7.5 kilometers, the reduction in
automobile traffic would save 27 million liters of fuel per year.
CONCLUSIONS
Curitiba's experience in developing a sound transportation system
suggests a number of principles that may be applicable elsewhere.
One of the most important is an understanding of how
transportation is tied to the success or failure of other urban
policies. When used in concert with other urban policies,
transportation policy can become a strong inducement for
beneficial growth. Transportation, land use, housing, and
economic development policies are all elements in a package of
tools that can guide urban growth and improve quality of life.
To realize the benefits of growth, the city adopted an unorthodox
approach to mass transit planning and practice. It viewed
transportation as an integrated system, a system that linked
housing, land use, the road network, commercial development, and
recreational investments such as parks, green spaces, and
preservation of historic sites. Curitiba set off with a small
set of long term goals. These goals then served as guides for 30
years of incremental, practical change.
Curitiba's approach placed a priority on effective transportation
rather than a particular mode of transportation. It recognized
that the goal was to transport people between places where they
wanted to go rather than to encourage the use of a particular
type of vehicle. Rather than view transportation as the only
adjustable variable, however, Curitiba's planning process
recognized that there are three sets of variables to work with:
origins, destinations, and transportation routes and modes. It
therefore used land use planning, economic development policy,
and transportation to coordinate the locations of homes, work,
recreation, and transportation.
>From the outset, the planning process was practical. It
recognized financial and social constraints. Curitiba began with
buses because it had buses. Rather than replace its bus system
with a one step, grand plan using a subway or rail system,
Curitiba began with a series of small improvements. It first
added a modest express route system with dedicated bus lanes.
During the 20 next years, it sought out ways to improve and
extend the system. The result is a surface system that provides
the high quality service of well known underground systems at a
much lower capital cost. These low costs mean that passenger
fares entirely finance the mass transit system.
Curitiba is using its experience in transportation to improve
other areas of urban policy. As in Sh-transportation, the
approach in these other areas is repetitive and practical. It
uses long term planning but is also aware that a plan must change
as a city's reality changes. This approach views the city not as
a provider of services but as a means of coordinating and voicing
private interests. Final services are provided in partnership
with private firms. The city sets standards and enforces
standards. Private firms provide the capital, labor, and
management to provide the service.
The city has successfully extended this approach into other areas
of urban policy, housing, solid waste disposal, solid waste
recycling, jobs training, and park and greenspace development.
Practicality and recycling are core principles using real
problems and practical solutions. The approach recognizes that
solutions are temporary that they bring subsequent problems as
the system adapts. The city is therefore prepared to deal with
the next round of problems. Recycling is key since the approach
begins with existing resources and finds ways to improve them
rather than replace them. The result is a series of small
improvements that add up to dramatic change over time
(Rabinovitch 1992).
ENDNOTES
1. Jonas Rabinovitch began to work for the Curitiba Research and
Urban Planning Institute (IPPUC) in 1981. An architect and urban
planner with a master's degree in Economics in Urban Development
Planning (University College, London) he served as Chief of
Cabinet of IPPUC and later as Curitiba's Director of
International Relations and Adviser to Mayor Jaime Lerner. Apart
from Curitiba, Rabinovitch has worked as a consultant with the
planning effort to develop the integrated urban transport system
in Rio de Janeiro and several other cities worldwide. He is
currently a senior urban development adviser within the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York City, New
York.
John P. Hoehn is an environmental economist and associate
professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.
He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky in 1983.
He held research appointments at the University of Kentucky and
the University of Chicago before joining Michigan State
University. He did research on environmental policy in the
United States and several countries in Latin America. He is
presently working with the Environmental Policy and Training
Project (EPAT) managed by the Midwest University Consortium for
International Activities for the U.S. Agency for International
Development.
2. The corporation is technically a mixed capital, municipal
parastatal (publically administrated, privately funded) entity.
3. Curitiba's complementary pattern of roads, densities, and
human uses is similar to the organic pattern of pre-nineteenth
century growth in many cities. It contrasts sharply with the
grid pattern used in many planned cities of North America. Grid
cities tend to have more street area per square foot of private
property than the organic, hierarchical forms (Moudon and
Untermann 1991).
4. A small fraction of the difference between paid fares and
passengers carried comes from passengers who pay no fare. This
no fare group includes students, the elderly, uniformed postal
workers, and police officers.
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