CURITIBA, BRAZIL-Curitiba's "busway" system-which has won worldwide acclaim for expanding a high speed modem bus system into the capacity range of a metropolitan railway-is cited by Federal Transit Administrator Gordon Linton in an interview in this issue of International Focus.
What makes Curitiba tick? On the well-documented assumption that a picture is worth a thousand words, we are pleased to share with our readers a few photos taken in Curitiba recently, along with some brief explanations.
Curitiba, capital of the state of Parana in southern Brazil, was visited by a delegation from Los Angeles that was joined by Linton for a firsthand look. The city, which has also won renown for its environmental solutions and the integration of its land use, planning, transit, and social policies, will be visited next spring by a Transit Cooperative Research Program international transit study mission. Watch this space for updates based on the mission's findings.
The transit environment in Curitiba is characterized by five express busways, flanked one block away on either side by high-capacity one-way streets heading into and out of the inner city. Land use legislation over the past quarter century has encouraged high density mixed use development in the areas adjacent to the busways. The system is totally integrated with inter-district and feeder buses that make it a snap to transfer from express to local buses and vice versa.
Large, fully equipped bus terminals where people can transfer to and from feeder and inter-district buses are located at the terminal stops of each of the five busways, while medium-sized bus terminals are sited just over a mile (two kilometers) apart along the main axes. These also include newspaper kiosks, snack stands, telephones, postal counters, and small shops, and they offer the possibility to transfer from and to feeder and inter-district bus lines.
The entire system is color-coded: red for express buses, yellow for the suburban feeder buses, and green for the inter-district buses that link the concentric suburbs.
The entire system is contracted out to 10 private operators who are paid by the number of miles they tally up rather than the number of passengers they carry: in the words of a system spokesman, "allowing for a balanced distribution of bus routes and eliminating destructive competition." Passengers pay a single fare to get into the system, and except for the high speed dedicated central busway lanes, routes run along ordinary city streets and do not require excavations or tunnels. The city enforces bus speeds in the key express lanes and bus operators on the main routes can pre-empt the traffic signals.
Perhaps the most innovative feature of the Curitiba network, which has allowed it to reach metrorail capacities, are the tubular boarding stations on the main routes-see photo. Fares are paid at a turnstile in the tube before boarding the bus over a nearly level ramp. Passengers board at the front and exit at the rear, which has reduced stopping time and increased peak capacity. The largest double-articulated Volvo buses in the 2,000-vehicle fleet have five lateral doors and hold 270 passengers each, among the largest bus capacities anywhere.
The proof of the pudding: Although there is about one private car per three city residents, one of the highest per capita ownership rates in Brazil, three quarters of all commuters-more than 1.3 million passengers a day-take the bus. Farebox recovery is reported to be in the range of 100 percent, even though those over 65 ride free.
As a side benefit, Curitiba has one of the lowest atmospheric pollution rates in the country, and the cost-effectiveness of the system allows the city to keep its fleet on average only about three years old.
The city administration pays the private operators I percent of the value of a bus per month and, after 10 years, takes possession of the retired vehicles, refurbishes them, and makes them available for human services uses including neighborhood day care centers, shelters, and mobile classrooms.
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