From Streetfilms come another example of a working BRT implementation, this time from Curitiba in southern Brazil.
Other than the clearly indicated tube stations, the thing that struck me the most in this video is how little congestion there seems to be on the roads the buses drive down. We’ll find out here how well BRT works on super-congested roadways very soon when Community Transit’s Swift opens this year and Metro’s Rapid Ride opens next year.
16 Replies to “BRT in Curitiba”
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Yeah, they have little congestion because they have little car ownership.
Keep an eye out for something: when RapidRide and Swift are often stuck in traffic (less Swift), BRT boosters will say they’re not real BRT.
Well good. Maybe then they’ll push our BRT to be real BRT, complete with dedicated lanes. Any time you can get car supporters to give up a lane is a win in my book.
Only if you can keep that lane.
some BRT “boosters” are careful to describe BRT as a sprectrum of applications, just as LRT is. Both bus and rail modes can be provided at a range of frequency and grade separation and resulting capacity. There is a range of real BRT and LRT. Even ST will provide a range: from Metro-lite, completely grade separated between Northgate and South McClellan Street to the Tacoma streetcar. The Seattle Streetcar SLU Line has even less grade separation.
BRT lines in Latin America are sometimes Metro-type systems with complete grade separation and tight headways. at the other end of the sprectrum are lines in LA and Vancouver with little grade separation. Both applications are effective. The choice depends upon the agency budget and rights-of-way available.
In some cases, an agency may be able to have several lines with little capital.
Not true Ben. Curitiba has the highest automobile ownership rate in Brazil!
They also probably seem to have very little congestion because Curitiba BRT runs in its own right of way. They redesigned streets so that the buses would have exclusive use of bus right-of-way. Here’s a textbook example of what Curitiba BRT looks like: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wei/2087024782/ You can see how the cars run in one-lane one-way corridors on the edges of the road (and they also get on-street parking as part of the deal on the inside hugging the bus lanes) The bus lanes take up the majority of the street, are separated from the street by concrete berms, and they form their own regional roadway network.
Can’t find any street design concepts on Metro’s RapidRide website, but as described it appears as though the initial RapidRide Line A on Pac Hwy S will run in the HOV Lanes and if this http://psrc.org/projects/tip/awards/fedwaypac.htm is any indication we can infer two things: 1, RapidRide will encounter less congestion overall than regular bus service due to something of a dedicated lane and signal prioritization, 2, cars continue to rule the road along this segment.
“Relationship with automobile is like relationship with your mother in law. You need to have a good relationship with her, but you can not let her rule your life. If the only woman in your life is your mother in law, then you have a problem.” – Jaime Lerner
I wouldn’t call myself a BRT “booster” but I’m willing to give the BRT service a chance until we have some evidence on how the system will perform after it’s been in operation. Our regional network of HOV lanes in the Puget Sound does a pretty decent job keeping the buses that use it moving faster than the congested SOV lanes.
The video shows cars running right infront of buses in curitiba.
Only in a few places.
The video shows regular buses running in regular lanes with cars. The double articulated buses run in the double articulated lanes. There’s a section of the video that seems to show a car driving in the dedicated lane and that is unexplained, I think it’s probably a lane jumper. Looks like they have a bigger problem with bikes than with cars in that regard though. They wouldn’t have either problem if they’d built a subway, I’m not arguing that.
And they’re working on building that subway! :)
By the way, great blog, I just saw your post on the legislative mess. I want to add – we funded more than you mentioned in that post. What you mentioend, but also north from Northgate to Lynnwood, and south from Sea-Tac to Federal Way. All part of last year’s package!
I thought RapidRide was going to be cut?
We don’t know yet, but they’ve got some federal funding, so we may see some of it saved!
Everyone here does know that Curitiba is in the process of building rail transit too, right?
Even buses stuffed-to-the-gills operating on exclusive rights-of-way in a highly-economically-fragmented (read low car ownership) country cannot take the place of Rail Transit.
When you look to third-world countries for your transit solutions, you get Weinermobiles stuck in Ballard behind a 1968 Dodge Dart with its left hand turn signal on.
I know that’s “elitist” of me, but I would prefer looking at cities where people live like I do; Amsterdam, Berlin, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Portland, OR, thanks!
My understanding is that the subway planned for Curitiba is in planning … not yet funded. As in Seattle, there are likely to be differences of opinion on whether a subway is a worthwhile investment for Curitiba.
There’s a drawing of what is contemplated at http://www.flickr.com/photos/webmotivacom/3254502216/sizes/s/
It appears to be based on a cut cover tunnel under the median busways on the main radial spines of the BRT system in that Brazilian city.
Here’s a news report from last February:
QUOTE
TPI eyes Curitiba subway project – Brazil
Published: Tuesday, February 3, 2009 11:24 (GMT -0400)
By Daniel Bland / Business News Americas
Brazil’s Paraná state capital Curitiba is planning to build a subway line and highway concessionaire Triunfo Participações e Investimentos (TPI) is seriously studying the project, TPI president Carlo Bottarelli told BNamericas.
The subway initiative would be a first for the city and a first for the highway concessionaire.
The city is planning to build a US$1bn, 22km system that will cross the city from south to north, Curitiba business relations secretary Luiz de Carvalho told BNamericas.
“The upcoming World Cup will help drive this project. Curitiba is the only large capital city in Brazil that does not have a subway system. There is a whole network of people calling for the construction of this subway,” Bottarelli said.
TPI has operated highway concessions in the south and southeast of Brazil since 1995. The firm also has investments in companies that provide public services in the highway, port and electricity generation sectors. TPI shares control of Portonave, a company authorized to operate Navegantes port in Santa Catarina state, as well as holding 100% of Rio Verde Energia.
UNQUOTE
That bit about the World Cup reminds me of the justification of British Columbia’s Provincial funding of the new Canada Line subway to the Vancouver Airport in support of the 2010 Olympics over the objections of many city transit leaders in Vancouver, who are now facing underfunded bus service just like King County Metro is now offering Seattle.
Further comment: Some big engineering firms consider the conversion of the heavy BRT systems in Latin America to subway rail systems to be an important business opportunity that goes beyond economic decision making in the target cities. Note the opinionated article on page 26 of the Fall 2006 issue of the magazine “Sustainable Transport” of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, a spin off from Environmental Defense, titled “Rail Interests Target Bogota and Curitiba.” The magazine is full text at http://www.itdp.org/documents/st_magazine/ITDP-st_magazine-18.pdf .
Here’s how the author Oscar Edmundo Diaz begins this piece:
QUOTE
The success of Bogotá’s TransMilenio Bus Rapid Transit system, and the impact it has had on other cities considering mass transit investments, has not gone unnoticed. There are powerful lobbying efforts to build a metro in Bogotá and Curitiba, two cities that have become associated in the public’s mind with Bus Rapid Transit. One country in particular that makes both fine wine and urban rail equipment recently sponsored a public transit conference at the World Bank to promote urban transport technology (read: metro rail systems), and representatives of that same country were in Mexico earlier in the year spreading misinformation about Bogotá’s TransMilenio and Curitiba’s URBS systems. Similar tensions between metro interests (a few specific companies and their national backers) and BRT ‘interests’ (a rabble of NGOs, academics, technical experts, and a few articulate politicians) are today in evidence in many major cities from Dakar, Senegal to Jakarta, Indonesia.
UNQUOTE
Curitiba is actually a quite wealthy city by Latin American standards with a rate of car ownership comparable to many European countries (about 350 per 1000 – whereas in the US it is about 475 per 1000). Ultimately, that is a stupid reason to oppose BRT since it’s basically built on a falsehood (and a mildly classist/racist one, for real). Our transit network would benefit from dedicated bus rights of way representing space taken away from cars. If this blog can drool over a cycletrack (which can just as easily converted back to automobile use as a busway), why not busways?
[Comment Edited, Ad hominem]
I come from Taiwan,a country in Asin.One of the city named “Taichung” in our country want to build MRT this month.I felt it is not necessary to building MRT.Maybe it can building BRT like Curitiba.
In Taiwan,many people felt MRT is better than others transportation system,because they do not think too much about cost,build time..etc.
Sometimes,transportation is building for politics,not for user.