Curitiba

One of my other classes this semester is history and culture of Latin America. Today in class we were discussing a city in Southern Brazil and I found some of the information very interesting and thought it would pertain to this class as well. Curitiba is a city of two million people, and with growing transportation problems they established one of the best public transportation systems in the world. This system relies on a bus rapid transport system. There are lanes in the cities on which only the buses and a person can ride the bus system for one fare no matter how far they are going. This makes the bus rapid transport system fast efficient and affordable for Curitiba citizens. In fact 85 percent of Curitiba citizens rely on public transportation. In addition to this incredible public transportation system Curitiba also has established many public parks. The city has 580 square feet of green space per Curitiba resident. Today the city of Curitiba is looked upon as a model for other cities trying to develop more efficient public transportation systems. In 2007 Curitiba ranked 3rd on a list of “green” cities. I find it really interesting that a country like Brazil with a somewhat unstable economy and political and social unrest boasts one of the cleanest well organized cities in the world.