Curitiba: Bus Rapid Transit

One of Curitiba's most replicated innovations is Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). BRT takes buses and gives them a few design advantages so that they operate like light rail, but at about 1/20th the construction cost. BRT uses dedicated center lanes to avoid traffic, has signal priority (signals turn green as buses approach to let the buses move faster than cars); at stops, passengers have already walked up a few steps and pre-paid in order to quickly board the bus so it can continue on its way. Finally, the buses look different, use different stations, and special branding, maps, and other information so people know they are different and people think of them as special and better than a normal bus, avoiding the stigma of common buses. In Curitiba, this has worked for the most part. Despite that a lot of the middle and upper class still think of BRT as a bus, and despite that Curitiba has the highest per capita rate of car ownership in Brazil (according to Ariagne dos Santos Reyes, Jaime Lerner Architects), there is still shockingly little congestion, traffic, and per capita VMT (the wonky measure of car use). The City moves smoothly, efficiently, and transportation planners around the world seek to replicate BRT.