Curitiba, Brazil

Curitiba, the capital city of the Paraná state in southeastern Brazil, has become a global model for urban development, environment preservation and transit. This book releases Curitiba's odyssey through pioneering and developing Bus Rapid Transit 'pari-passu' with urban and metropolitan planning, bringing valuable experiences to cities worldwide. Similarly, this book contrasts Curitiba's design as a Transit Oriented Development (TOD) with Brasilia's (Brazil's capital city and most iconic Brazilian city) design as a Design Oriented to Traffic (DOT). Beginning with former Mayor and Architect Jaime Lerner's plans in the 1960s, Curitiba grew fast to almost 2 million inhabitants with quality of life as main achievement. The 1965, 1975, 1991, 2000 and 2004 Master Plans, as well as the controversial 1943 Agache's Plan, were revisited to extract lessons and parameters for such development. These plans' lessons greatly influenced the planning directions in some South American cities such as Bogotá, Santiago and Lima, and also important North American cities like Portland, OR; San Francisco and Los Angeles, CA. FOREWORDS: JAIME LERNER AND ALLAN JACOBS.