Curitiba, Brazil

[mulad]

I see that Google Maps now has good imagery of Curitiba, Brazil, including Street View. Curitiba is known among transit folks since that's where bus rapid transit was fully fleshed out for the first time. It's interesting to me to look at the dimensions of the system -- some of the routes go down avenues with rights-of-way (including sidewalks) ranging from about 80 to 100 feet, though Av. Pres. Wenceslau Braz is more like 200 feet.

The typical stop spacing appears to around 1500 feet, so a bit over 1/4 mile (1320 feet), and a bit less than 1/2 kilometer (1640 feet). I'm a bit surprised at the size of city blocks in Curitiba -- they seem bigger than what I'd expect, but I think most of the city is pretty young, and it has grown rapidly. The population pressure was high enough that they needed to do something transformational.

Here's a Google Maps view of one street with an integrated busway using a right-of-way around 100 feet wide. From the outside in, there are sidewalks, two travel lanes in each direction (though they seem to be narrow, and there aren't lane markings between them), a parking lane in each direction (yes, near the center rather than the outer curb), and then the busway. It looks like there's a narrow median between the busway and the parking lane which can be used to access stops/stations, but if it's a walkway, it's pretty narrow -- only about 4 feet.



Here's a shot from Wikipedia that shows the same sort of layout a bit more clearly:

800px-Curitiba_04_2006_01_RIT.jpg

Anyway, just thought some folks would like to poke at that and see how it all fits together.

[mattaudio]

I'll take some photos next month

[mattaudio]

Just got back from Curitiba, stayed for a couple weeks with friends who lived half a block from the GMap and photo you included. Very interesting for an urbanist/transportationist.

Honestly, I was very underwhelmed by the BRT system which seems to have suffered from chronic disinvestment and is far from matching demand. Car culture is prominent... every mid/highrise you see in those maps has a parking garage under it, and the streets are wide with car lanes. The buses run so infrequently that the bus lanes are used for leisurely walks and bicycling (the rest of the streets are dangerous, with cars traveling 40 MPH and no right of way for pedestrians).

Blocks are very large, and there's not a consistent form addressing the street. Sidewalks are inconsistent and missing in places, likely due to adding lanes for vehicular traffic. Stringent zoning requires high-rises in a small corridor along the BRT routes, but the nicest apartment towers are along the outer edge of these bands (they have unobstructed views thanks to a zoning map). Anyways, it was a fascinating dynamic.