Major Sporting Events Catalyze Brazilian Cities’ Transport Plans

Posted: 21 Dec 2008

Related to: São Paulo City Center Revitalization, Developing High-Quality, Low-Cost Mass Transit, Brazil
Contributed by: Jonas Hagen, ITDP

Decisionmakers presented their plans for improving urban mobility in Brazilian cities at an event organized jointly by ITDP and UITP (International Union of Public Transport), with support from the Clinton Climate Initiative, on 2 December 2008, in the city of São Paulo.  In preparation for hosting the World Cup in 2014, cities such as Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Curitiba discussed their transportation plans, including bus rapid transit (BRT), metros and bicycles.  Enrique Peñalosa, the former Mayor of Bogota, closed the event as keynote speaker, speaking as a decisionmaker who implemented bold plans in a short time period.



Enrique Penalosa, former mayor of Bogota, closed the event with a keynote speech. Source: Jonas Hagen

Marcos Kassab of the Sao Paulo Metro presented plans to extend the rail-based network from 117 kilometers of “metro quality” transport to 244 kilometers by 2010.  Currently, the city has 61 kilometers of metro and 56 kilometers of commuter rail and transports 25 percent of all public transport users.  Buses transport the remaining 75 percent.  The expansion would increase the metro by 80 kilometers.  The goal, said Kassab, would be increase rail’s usage to be 50 percent of public transport users by 2025. Under the same scenario, car trips would fall from 45 percent of trips to 35 percent, and buses’s share would decrease to 50 percent.

Three new BRT corridors, totaling over 70 kilometers, are being planned for Sao Paulo as well.  Representing SP Trans, the city transport authority, Laurindo Junqueira discussed the BRT plans along the Celso Garcia, Expresso Tiradentes and M’Boi Mirim corridors.

Clodualdo Pinheiro Junior of URBS, the authority that runs the BRT system in Curitiba, showed work being completed on new 18 kilometer BRT corridor, Linha Verde or “Green Line.” This corridor is reclaiming an urban highway and turning it into a BRT boulevard, complete with bike lanes, landscaping, and increased housing density.

Belo Horizonte had just completed a mobility plan that calls for a 55 kilometers of BRT and a 260 kilometer bicycle network, said Ricardo Medanha, President of BH Trans, the city’s transport agency. Guidelines of the plan include prioritizing pedestrians and reducing automobile use, said Medanha. He also showed new bicycle parking that took a parking spot for one car and provided parking for 12 bicycles.

Mario Duran of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) presented on the results of some the projects that it had financed.  A metro in a Brazilian city that the IADB financed only transports 55,000 passengers per day, when a metro should carry the same amount per hour.  It also requires an annual operating subsidy of $55,000 USD.  Tunnels built to help alleviate car congestion in urban areas only created more traffic in the long term.

South African cities are investing heavily in BRT systems to provide first-rate transport systems for the 2010 World Cup, said Wagner Colombini, president of Logit Consultancy.  The World Cup has been an important catalyst to transforming transportation systems in the country.  While Johannesburg will open 63 kilometers in time for the Cup, Phase One will total 122 kilometers.  Cape Town is planning over 30 kilometers of BRT, including an important link to the airport.  These systems will integrate with bicycle networks and provide first-class sidewalks and crossings for pedestrians, said Colombini.

Berlin created a program to bring fans to the games of the 2006 World Cup by bicycle, resulting in a 25 percent increase in cycling and a 5 percent decrease in car use during the Cup, according to a presentation by Jonas Hagen of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. With an existing network of 650 kilometers of cycle paths, Berlin also provided safe parking at the stadium and other fan venues, coupled with an extensive publicity campaigns.  This helped the city succeed in its objective of using the World Cup to capture new cyclists. A survey showed that 20 percent of these cyclists these normally used a car before the Cup, said Hagen.

Because London has an extensive rail network, 80 percent of spectators will use rail-based transport to arrive to the Olympic Park for the 2012 Olympics, said Richard Brown, of the London Olympics Legacy Committee. High quality “green corridors” for pedestrians and cyclists are also being planned to bring spectators to the games in an aesthetically appealing, comfortable and safe environment.

Elaine Felske of the Brazilian Olympic Committee showed the transport plans for Rio de Janeiro’s bid for the 2016 Olympics, which included 72 kilometers of BRT and improving existing metro and commuter rail lines. According to Felske, the high cost-benefit ratio of BRT and the relatively short implementation time led decisionmakers to seek to implement new BRT corridors to meet the transport demands in Rio during and after the Olympic Games.

Enrique Peñalosa, Bogotá’s mayor from 1998 to 2001, closed the event, urging decisionmakers to build urban infrastructure around the needs of the city’s most vulnerable populations, such as the elderly, children, and wheelchair users. “The best thing for a mayor or a planning secretary to do to understand the transport needs of their city is to get into a wheelchair and try to get from one place to another,” said Mr. Peñalosa. He said that in Bogotá, building the 340 km network of cycle lanes was not only important because it provides safety and comfort for the city’s cyclists, but because of the symbolic value: “an excellent bike lane shows that a person riding a bike that costs $1,000 is just as valuable as a person in a car that costs $30,000,” said Peñalosa.