Unit 3 Lesson 9: Group Information Sheet

GROUP 2 - Transportation

Curitiba's planners designed its public transit system to be economical. Rather than
building a new train or subway system and pay exorbitant construction costs,
Curitiba's designers worked with existing roadways to create a convenient,
comprehensive and affordable bus system. Its been so successful in Curitiba that
dozens of cities worldwide have adopted the model.
Curitiba's buses make more than 21,000 trips a day, traveling more than 275,000
miles. Riders pay the same fare, no matter how far they're traveling. That one fare
covers an entire trip in the same direction regardless of number of transfers. For the
equivalent of about 60 cents, I could travel a dozen blocks -- one small piece of the
integrated metropolitan transit system -- to a restaurant, and for the same price a
resident of the city's poorer outlying area can commute many miles on several
inbound bus lines to a job in the industrial zone.
Curitiba is able to finance the system through a mix of private and public resources.
Although managed by the city's transit authority, the city contracts out the service to
22 private companies, who operate the buses and taxis and share revenues with the
city to support road maintenance and upkeep of the terminals.
Curitibanos, however, aren't an entirely carless people. In fact, Curitiba has one of
the highest per-capita car ownership rates in Brazil. But the city's gasoline use per
capita is one-third below that of eight comparable Brazilian cities, perhaps indicating
that Curitibanos are less dependent upon the car.
More than 60 percent of overall travel in Curitiba is by bus -- Curitibanos use the
transit system for more than just commuting to and from work. The bus lines of the
expansive transit network are coded by color and organized according to citizens'
daily needs, from accessing health care to shopping. Over a 20-year period,
ridership has increased 400 percent in Curitiba.