As a very natural and humane ecological city, Curitiba is one of the first five “The Most Livable Cities” named by the United Nations in the world, equally famous as Paris, Rome, Sydney and Vancouver. Its ecological construction is world-renowned and praised by the World Bank and the World Health Organization. Garbage collection project won the top prize of the United Nations Environmental Program, and energy conservation project won Project award of International Energy Conservation Association in 1999. Meanwhile, it has won a prize because of its innovation achievement of public transit-oriented transportation system.
Curitiba, provincial capital of Parana in the south of Brazil, is the fifth largest city and one of the fastest growing cities of Brazil. It is 450 km away from Sao Paulo and 900 km away from Rio de Janeiro. It is the area of 432 km2, with the population of 1.6 million. In 2002, its per capita GDP reached 7,560 dollars with an average annual GDP growth of 6.5% in the 25 years before 2002.
As the small city with a population of 150,000 expanded rapidly in the 1950s, the social service of Curitiba nearly collapsed, and the economic model serving agriculture of Parana Province failed to meet the needs of industrial development. In such a situation, a group of young architects with ideals persuaded the mayor to solicit public opinions on future urban planning and first suggested San Paolo architect Jorge Wihelm take charge of overall planning of Curitiba.
At this phase, Curitiba needs to face the following challenges: first, in order to implement the overall planning, it needed to thoroughly change economy, infrastructure and habit of residents in Curitiba; secondly, urbanization in surrounding rural areas accelerated. Meanwhile, development of Curitiba also had favorable conditions, namely in the wave of industrialization in developing countries, the authorities could be clearly aware of the importance of environmental protection, and the strong desire of the public drove the authorities to restrict highly polluting manufacturing plants through legislation. Therefore, Curitiba has taken the following measures: carried out urban construction in steps, especially public transport; established non-profit Curitiba Development Company operated as a private enterprise to take charge of economy, technology and tourism industries; set up industrial development zone covering an area of 43 km2 in 1973, attracting the first group of key settlers including New Holland and Siemens.
In the 1990s, Curitiba needed to create more job opportunities to solve the local problem of employment and further promote urban integration. To this end, Curitiba took the following series of measures, including: Elect businessman Cassio Taniguchi that organized establishment of industrial development zone earlier mayor; attract investment of foreign enterprises, such as automakers, etc.; provide various skill trainings for low-income groups and encourage all orders of society to contribute ideas to solve economic, social and environmental problems in a democratic way.
Combine land use and transportation. Consideration must be first given to transportation in land use to develop bus routes towards urban periphery along main routes, and integrate high-density mixed land use planning with the existing traffic corridor planning. To build houses in any place downtown, transportation demand must be first considered. Anyone that hopes to obtain or extend business license must provide expected effect of building project on transportation and demand for parking place.
High-density linear development along five traffic axes; transformation of the inner city; people-oriented, rather than car-oriented. And established the principle of giving priority to the development of public transportation: increase the area and improve the public transportation. Apparently it is the early foresight that enables Curitiba to take the development path of low-cost (economic and environmental costs) means of transportation and eco-city with man and nature in the greatest harmony, deviating from the development stereotype where most cities in Brazil depend on cars.
Partition all land use and development density with roads of urban bus routes at the center. The plot ratio of four of the five axial roads is 6, while that of service area of other bus routes is 4. The farther from bus routes, the lower the plot ratio. High-density development is only encouraged for two blocks near bus routes in the city, and land development two blocks beyond bus routes is strictly restricted.
Successful combination of land use with transportation, and application of bus rapid transit technology ensure that 2/3 of citizens in the city use buses, and bus service needs no fiscal subsidies. Researchers estimate that 27 million times of traveling by cars are reduced. The high accessibility provided by integrated road system promotes development along traffic corridors, and land use planning method also intensifies such development. Axial development enables the broad traffic corridor to have enough space for road dedicated to bus rapid transit. These policies effectively guarantee bus service level of urban built-up area and new development zone.