On the southern plateau of Brazil one city, Curitiba, has lifted itself outof tough circumstances, by the strength of good design and cohesivepolitical leadership.

Its design mentality treats a wide variety of needs not as competingpriorities to be traded or compromised but rather as interlinkedopportunities.

The results are highly visible and show how to combine a healthyecology, a vibrant economy and a society that nurtures people.

Showing the way:

Curitiba:Citizen City

Office of theParliamentary Commissioner for the Environment—

Te Kaitiaki Taiao a Te Whare Paremata

P.O. Box 10–241, Wellington.

June 2002

www.pce.govt.nz

STUDY TEAM: AUTHORS

Claudia Bell Russell Kenley

David Brash Margaret Lawton

Joel Cayford Wayne McDonald

Jenny Dixon Craig Shearer

Charles Eason Peter Thorby

Kathy Garden Wendy Walker

Sonia Hawea Morgan Williams

Roger Hill Pamela Williams

Dave Hinman Arthur Williamson

Production Editors

Pamela Williams

Russell Kenley

Copy Editor

Pauline Laughesen

Design and pre-press:

Russell Kenley

Ventura Publisher

Cover Design:

Toolbox, Wellington.

Photographs:

Study team

Acknowledgements:

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and all Study Tour members would like tothank the many Curitibans who so generously provided the many insights into their city's challenges,triumphs and operations. We particularly thank Joao Prosdocimo, Liana Vallicelli, Sheyla Santos,Eliel Rosa, Rosane Fontoura for facilitating our many visits in Curitiba and Mr Edgard Telles Ribeiro,Brazilian Ambassador to New Zealand and his staff for assisting with visits and complimentary visasto Brazil.

Bibliographic reference:

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. 2002. Showing the Way: Curitiba: Citizen City,Wellington, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. June 2002.

ISBN 1–877274–06–2

1. ORIGINS OF STUDY TOUR

What led to 20 Kiwis exploring the city ofCuritiba? The visit had its origins in the

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environ-ment’s (PCE) decision in 1997 to focus on theenvironmental component of sustainable devel-opment in New Zealand’s towns and cities. Awideranging study was undertaken, leading to a1998 report The Cities and Their People; NewZealand’s Urban Environment. The report out-lined a number of significant shortcomings inthe way New Zealand’s towns and cities hadbeen developing through the 1980s and 1990s.It also reviewed international trends in urbanevolution and this lead to identifying the Brazil-ian city of Curitiba.

The literature indicated Curitiba had overcomemany obstacles associated with rapid growthand delivered more to its citizens than manymore wealthy cities. A brief visit by the Com-missioner in February 2001 confirmed that itwas a city that had taken a very different devel-opmental path to the New Zealand norm andthat there would be merit in examiningCuritiba more closely.

So the idea of a study tour was born. It was facil-itated by the Commissioner, drawing on con-tacts he established in 2001 and enthusiasticsupport from the Brazilian Embassy in NewZealand. Invitations were sent to over 60 peoplewho had expressed an interest in Curitiba—many from Auckland in local and central gov-ernment, from urban research, university andbusiness spheres. Participants funded theirown way.

The range of organisations visited are listed inAnnex I.

Curitiba 1

The inner city

The tour members

The primary purpose of the tour was to examineCuritiba's strengths in the following areas:

• leadership• urban research• environmental management• governance and delivery• the role of the private sector in delivering

public good outcomes• liveability• cultural and urban design• the provision of infrastructure and manage-

ment of growth.

This report records the main impressions andinsights of the tour group. Members are listed inAnnex II. They had wide-ranging interests, allof which can be grouped broadly under the um-brella of ‘urban sustainability’.

The report is deliberately brief and pictorial. Itis intended to be an introduction to Curitibaand its achievements and a stimulus to encour-age discussion with tour group members aboutpotentially transferable ideas or concepts thatcould be moulded into a Kiwi context. We en-

courage all readers to seek out a group memberor members and find out more about how a sec-ond world city has attracted so much interna-tional attention and what New Zealand citiescan learn from Curitiba's example.

Talking with people who were on the tour iscritical because what this report cannot do is ad-equately articulate the initial difficulty thegroup had in relating to the 'Curitiban way'.This is the focus Curitibans have, for example,on relationships, quality of life, systems think-ing, master plans, long-term visions, smart pub-lic/private partnerships and a bias for action. Itwas difficult to relate to the way Curitibanshave approached their development. As a groupof Kiwis we have had nearly 20 years exposureto a diet heavily laced with process orientatedlegislation and policies (an outputs as opposedto outcomes focus), intense application of com-mercial competition models, separation of poli-cies from delivery functions, effects based envi-ronmental legislation, and the rights of theindividual having supremacy over the collective(community). Initially we were too focused onthe processes, the accountabilities, a mechanis-

Curitiba 2

One quote that stayed in my mind was from Governor Jaime Lerner who said,

"In a city we get not its 7 or 77 wonders; we get the solutions it offers to our problems."

This statement captured the Curitiba way for me, which is about letting the people, and your immediate surroundings, deter-mine your well-being and your future. My strongest impressions came from Curitiba as a people-driven city. This city takesthe simplest approach; deals with an issue where it is and doesn't try to move it off the landscape. For example the footballcourt in the plaza that lets young people be themselves, the hospital buses that bring people to care, the childcare centres onbus routes that create practical solutions to real problems for families.

....Sonia

tic frame of reference. Our challenge was torealise that in many ways they have had a verydifferent set of values driving their evolution.

They value relationships highly, They createlongterm visions of what might be; deliveringresults to all in their society by iterations. Theychampion and grow leaders and are very fo-cused on people and enhancing the quality oftheir lives and maintaining consistent gover-nance. Above all they focus on getting thingsdone in ways that constantly turn every chal-lenge faced into an opportunity somewhere insociety. This very systems thinking approach iswoefully absent in many New Zealand socialand environmental programmes. Translatingthe Curitiban experience into 'a what is relevantto New Zealand story' requires some apprecia-tion of the big differences in cultural context.Our task as a group is to convey the relevance,despite the cultural differences, of some of themost valuable parts of the Curitiban 'lesson'. Wewould like to share this with you.

2. THE SETTING

Curitiba, the Capital of the State of Parana,is situated in Southern Brazil about 400

kilometres south of Sao Paulo, at a longitude of49 degrees. It was originally a crossroads oftrade routes, particularly via the Iguaçu Riverto the sea, also a place for gauchos to stop withtheir cattle and latterly a stopover en-route forthe coffee trade.

Parana has a unique terrain that is divided intothe coast and the first, second and third pla-teaus. Each region is well defined by mountainsor cliffs. Curitiba sits on the first plateau at anelevation of 900 metres, at the top of an escarp-ment along the route from Rio Grande do Sul toSao Paulo. The climate is not significantly dif-ferent from Auckland's although temperaturesare slightly more extreme with moderate rain-fall.

The name Curitiba comes from the local Paranapine tree, araucariae. The word Curii-tybameans a large number of seeds or pine trees.The tree species is reasonably prominentthroughout the city.

Founded by the Portuguese in March 1693,Curitiba has become the home of a diverse eth-nic mix. Inhabitants came in a series of waves

Curitiba 3

Parana pine trees in the urban setting

from Italy, the Ukraine, Poland, Germany andmore latterly, Japan. Despite this ethnic andcultural diversity there seems to be a commonCuritiban identity along with the recognition ofseparate origins.

Today 1.6 million people live in Curitiba, a cityof 432 square kilometres. About one millionpeople also live in the surrounding metropolitandistricts. Growth has been rapid (from 0.5 mil-lion in 1965), a result of successful urban devel-opment, which in return brings further chal-lenges as people pour into the city from theoutlying areas. As a result there are what isknown as 'invasions' where a community estab-lishes subsistence dwellings virtually overnighton the outskirts of the city on public or privateland. These favelas or slums have providedsome of the biggest challenges for the develop-ing city but also some of the opportunities forinnovation.

From the beginnings (in the 1960s) of the cur-rent development phase the city took aproactive approach towards ecological issues,with restrictions on tree felling. Today Curitibahas twelve municipal parks, including two envi-ronmental protection areas totalling 18,680hectares, 10 public preservation woodlands and600 small squares and public gardens. There-fore they boast a relatively high amount ofgreen space per capita, which has earned themthe title of Ecological Capital in Brazil. The ap-proach to the environment, which will be ex-

panded on later, is integrated with social andeconomic needs, as are many facets of this city.While the environment is regarded as impor-tant in its own right, the overriding impressionfor the visitor is that the Curitibans see it as akey component for a good quality of life andhence integral to healthy city living.

As with much of South America, military dicta-torships formed a dominant part of Curitiba'spolitical past. Into that context a mayor waschosen in 1972 by the then State Governor, tooversee Curitiba. That mayor, Jaime Lerner, iscredited with being the key figure behind atransformation from the prevalent model ofsprawling urban development to a well man-aged, comprehensive, socially inclusive and in-tegrated approach, which has led to the city be-ing praised worldwide for its innovations.

Curitiba 4

At first sight of Curitiba driving in from the airport in the dark, nothing special about the city is apparent. Peri-urban industrybusiness sprawl is evident. On closer inspection "in daylight' and with the economic constraints on social programmes inBrazil in mind, then the achievements that have been made are remarkable

....Charlie

High density living

Parts of the historic town remain

In Curitiba, the mayor is a powerful figurewhose influence is seen in many strategic plan-ning and operational matters. He maintains aclose and interactive interest in all the key pro-jects in the city.

3. IMPRESSIONS

The following sections outline general im-pressions and specific examples that stood

out for the group. Impressions are grouped un-der eight headings:

• Leadership and Vision• Values• Strategy/ Planning/ Integration• Urban Form• Transport• Environment• People’s Needs• Policy tools.

3.1 Leadership and Vision

Consistent, cohesive leadership has been akey ingredient of the city's success since the

late 1960s. Those in leadership roles—mayors,councillors, city agencies and departments,business leaders—have strong values. Theycare, they are inspirational, they display genu-ine leadership qualities, working together to de-velop solutions to problems and they appear tohave had fun doing it. They genuinely seem to'live the dream' of the Curitiba they want futuregenerations to inherit.

Mayors over the last 32 years have consistentlyarticulated a vision based on the quality of lifefor all. A clear direction has been established

and a framework set that allows for innovationand flexibility. Risktaking appears to be encour-aged, in line with a philosophy of finding simple,pragmatic solutions and implementing themquickly.

The Curitibans have very deliberately fostereda leadership group, to a large degree fromwithin the central planning organisation for thecity (IPPUC), and thus built capacity in the in-stitutions and community over the last threedecades.

There are several instances of professionalsfrom the planning institute going on to standfor election, or being appointed to head keyagencies. The current mayor, the President ofthe Urban Transport Authority (URBS) and theState Governor all started their careers in

Curitiba 5

Mayor Cassio Taniguchi (right)

“When you don’t take risks, you lose the oppor-tunity to intervene”—Jaime Lerner, Governor, 2002

Jaime Lerner’s ‘thinking tree house’

Jaime Lerner explains the planning

IPPUC. All of this has contributed to the or-ganic feeling of integrated leadership, consis-tency, continuity and integrity.

The fact that the Curitiban vision has beenshared by most senior politicians, over most ofthe past 35 years, has led to consistency of de-velopment.

The city appears to invest a lot of effort in lis-tening to its citizens. The mayor holds regularpublic hearings in the regional offices and thereare an array of webbased resources and hotlines. These have very high user rates becausethey are a means for citizens to convey how theywould like their rates spent in their area orwhere they would like a new bus stop or route.These communication tools are also used for re-porting problems.

Their political structures have helped signifi-cantly (see ANNEX V).

Considerable political will and skill has beenneeded in delivering practical steps to imple-ment the plan in the long term. This has in-cluded a continuous planning cycle and a deter-mined policy of constructive incentives toinduce appropriate land use (see section 4.2Strategy and Planning). But despite the powersof the mayor it has not all been plain sailing.When Jaime Lerner stepped down in the late1970s from one of his three alternating terms ofbeing mayor, his replacement adopted apro-motorway programme. He threw out themaster plan, and attempted to force through anew plan that envisaged a network of motor-ways into the heart of Curitiba. However, insti-tutional inertia and resistance within IPPUCslowed his plans and he left office at the end ofhis four years with little to show for his efforts.Jaime Lerner was voted back in and the masterplan was restored. As Jaime Lerner told us:"Motorways can kill a city."

Curitiba 6

Parks, pavements, public places for encounters, and pedestrian precincts have planning priority over the private motorcar inCuritiba. These hard and courageous decisions taken years ago underpin the emergence of a city that is a delight to walk andlive in.

…Joel

“Our main philosophy is to bring people to-gether to talk, not gossip......but to talk to progress”.—President, Curitiba City Council, 2002

President Joao Derosso

Jaime Lerner:

Lerner is credited with being the visionary leaderwho has made an enormous contribution to the de-velopment of present day Curitiba. As a 33yearoldarchitect, engineer, urban planner and humanist hefirst became mayor in 1971. He is, as the studygroup found, a cheery, informal and intensely prac-tical man. As one of our group members said:

“He might have given the same talk a thousandtimes over, but it was still fresh and captivat-ing. He is a man with a vision and ability tochange the wider community. A thinking per-son who also likes action. The sound bitescame thick and fast—simplicity with commit-ment; be bold; sometimes quick decisions areneeded, not quick and dirty but quick; strategyis a daily balance between needs and poten-tials.”

It is easy to see why he became Brazil’s most popu-lar Mayor and more recently State Governor.

Facilitating economic development is also a ma-jor activity for the City Council. The masterplan called for land to be set aside for industryon the outer edges of the city—in some cases re-quiring private land acquisition. Promotionalmaterial indicates that industry was attractedby the combination of quality infrastructure(especially transport), an educated workforce,quality of life (heritage, parks and public ‘set-tings for encounters’—the description given topedestrian precincts), and the presence of otherindustry. Today Volvo, Bosch and a total ofnearly 500 other international and South Amer-ican companies are located in and aroundCuritiba.

3.2 Values

It was clear to the group that underpinningthe leadership is a set of values that have

grown out of the culture and history of the peo-ple of Curitiba. These values are holistic and in-tegrated and include:

• respect for all people• according dignity to people’s social responsi-

bility• civic pride• solidarity (unity of fellowship arising from

common responsibilities and interests)• passion• focus on the quality of life for all

When Lerner listed his three most important‘key’ to Curitiba's progress they were: quality oflife, qualifications/education and infrastruc-ture/logistics. Notably, the Vice President of theFederation of Industries (Luiz GuilhermePauli) had the same list, with quality of life andeducation as the two priorities to pursue. Getthose right and successful commerce will flow

was his sentiment—and that of the Federation'spromotional literature.

There is a genuine commitment to improvingthe way of life for citizens of Curitiba. Toachieve this there has been major focus on par-ticipation and access: participation in the life ofthe city via provision of good sports and recre-ation places and spaces, and transport to accessthem all; and access to education, health andhousing and employment. The result is thatwhile incomes are low by New Zealand stan-dards, satisfaction with quality of life inCuritiba is high.

3.3 Strategy/ Planning/ Integration

In 1965 the city's population was 450,000 liv-ing in an area of 430 square kilometres

around an old city centre. In contrast theAuckland City isthmus area today has a popula-tion of 380,000 in an area of 130 square kilo-metres. Curitiba now has a population 1.6million. Curitiba was beginning to experiencegrowth pains by 1965 and to encourage an in-flux of new urban planning ideas the City Coun-cil held a competition for the best city planamong local and national professionals. Follow-ing this the Curitiba Research and UrbanPlanning Institute (IPPUC) (see Annex III) wasestablished to analyse and further develop thewinning plan. The resulting master plan's im-plementation began in 1971, when IPPUC'spresident at the time, architect Jaime Lerner,was appointed Mayor of Curitiba.

Land use, transportation planning and roadnetwork definitions were key master plan tools

Curitiba 7

Recreation places—the life of the city

Recreation: skateboard parks

in guiding and coordinating growth. Expansionof the existing city centre as a compact form wasrestricted, and ‘linear centres’ were establishedas an alternative along transport corridors ex-tending toward the outskirts of the city. Thishas led to the development of growth corridorsor radial centres—instead of compact centres orgrowth nodes. Allowable building densities varyin relation to available transportation. Thusland zoning is in the form of varying densitycontours parallel to and along main transportcorridors.

The Curitiba administration recognised the im-portance of developing a long-term vision fortheir city and the need to consistently apply it.In developing this plan they had a good under-standing of the likely pressures and problemsfast growth would bring, and they systemati-cally put in place processes and mechanisms todeal with them. In other words they antici-

pated. The proposed new monorail is a good ex-ample of this (see Annex IV—Monorail).

Once the longterm plan (a city vision) was de-veloped and in place ‘Lerner's men’ decided itsfuture implementation was dependent on adeep understanding of the objectives and oppor-tunities in it. Given that implementation was,as always, a politically dependent process theyslowly promoted themselves to the key politicalpositions and controlled the implementationfrom thereon! Governance consistency was cre-ated by ...promoting the technicians! For over30 years the political implementers have had adeep understanding of the great complexities ofcity evolution and have been able to share thatunderstanding with citizens and investorsalike.

What seems like a genuine enthusiasm accom-panies the adherence to the vision all the waydown to the weekly ‘Thursday meeting’ whenfive key players get together to discuss andagree on the tactical alterations to executions ofthe plan. The obvious systems thinking ap-proach was very impressive to us, perhaps be-cause we expect that type of approach from en-gineers, architects and planners...but not fromthose who usually fill the ranks of local govern-ment politicians in New Zealand.

Curitiba 8

Curitiba looks and feels as though it is a good place to live and an efficient city to operate in. It oozes connections betweencity and business leaders, places and spaces, institutions, solutions to many needs, the needs of today and the opportunitiesfor tomorrow.

...Morgan

Transport corridor

Section through transport corridor (IPPUC)

Plan of transport corridor (IPPUC)

This systems thinking approach clearly consistsof two elements:

• what do we need to do now?• what must we do for and in the future?

Lerner highlighted how important it was to fo-cus on balancing the ‘needs’ (the now) and the‘opportunities’ (the future). Both must be ad-vanced together, he stressed. Both GovernorLerner and Mayor Tachiguchi have weekly ses-sions, with their state and city ministry and de-partment heads. In the mornings they focus onthe future and in the afternoons on currentneeds.

Underlying the vision and everything they do isgood information. Good information is the life-blood of good decisions, and in Curitiba they putsignificant resources into urban research andmaking the information available.

They well understand the ‘interconnectedness’of the city and the need to take a holistic view ofthe city's growth and development. They knowdecisions made will in some way affect other as-pects of the city, the social, economic and envi-ronmental dimensions, to a greater or lesser ex-tent. For example, they know they need to havean attractive and clean environment if they areto attract businesses to relocate to Curitiba.

Coherence and integration are maintainedthrough the planning agency for the whole city(IPPUC). This has clearly been pivotal in main-taining consistency and commitment throughdifferent administrations and mayors. Compre-hensive and integrated solutions appear to besecond nature to the Curitibans. They think ho-listically and strategically about the relation-ships of plans, implementation and their out-comes.

Curitiba 9

Having experienced some excellent public transport in Curitiba and a couple of other South American cities I decided itmight be educational to try out the much-maligned Auckland train system and to check whether it really is as bad as reported!It was—both educational and unbelievably bad! If asked now which are the 2nd/3rd world cities, in terms of their publictransport—Curitiba or Auckland?, then based on its current train system it is Auckland by a country mile! One can but hopethat Britomart, duplicating the west line, newer rolling stock, more frequent and later services and importantly a change inattitude by operators then the general public will eventually see some change for the better.

...David H

Curitiba’s Industrial City:

In 1972, under the first master plan, an in-dustrial city was planned 10km to the south-west of the city centre. To prevent specula-tion, and provide funding for futuredevelopments, the city purchased 4,200 ha in1975 and set about developing affordablehousing (in partnership with private develop-ers), schools, cultural facilities and bus links,meanwhile protecting nearly 50% of the areaas green space. Over 460 low polluting indus-tries, which have generated 200,000 jobs,have been attracted to the city.

Growth corridors in red (IPPUC)

"Build a scenario, an idea for a project that ev-eryone will understand is desirable and theywill help you make it happen. You need to havea desirable dream, a collective dream."—Jaime Lerner, Governor,2002

They do this in a way that includes public par-ticipation. They have also fostered the need todevelop means of private/public partnerships,in key areas such as transport and housing. Thebusiness community is a key player, workingalongside the council in the development ofCuritiba. Community ratings of the current ad-ministration are high.

The actual implementation of strategy appearsdirective and prescriptive. The council is keento start making a difference, based on the infor-mation they have. Social action programmesstart out as pilot projects, advertised widely tothe community.

There is a continual process of adaptation andrefinement of projects and logical improve-ments are made (without sacrificing the origi-nal direction) in response to ongoing evaluationand consultation with the community. Planningfor Curitiba is based on spatial thinking, and afocus on outcomes and systems, rather than anemphasis on process, legislative framework andoutputs such as narrowly focused reports orprojects. There is a strong degree of integrationacross departments, which encompass func-tions that in New Zealand would span both local

and central government. There is also a strongreliance on relationships, partnerships andco-responsibility and buy-in from the commu-nity.

Funding for infrastructure, urban transportand employment initiatives comes from a mix ofcity, state, federal, World Bank and Develop-ment Bank sources. Following an interactiveprocess with the mayor and council, the plan-ning institute, IPPUC, makes the final decisionon what will be funded each planning periodand to what level.

Curitiba 10

I was most impressed by the emphasis on action, low tech practical solutions, integrating infrastructure and landuse plan-ning getting things done rather than concentrating only on process, law and plans. We need to be smart (like the Curitibans!)and adapt good ideas to our cultural and political landscape.

...Dave B

Central city street

Pedestrians reign supreme:

The master plan focuses on high density develop-ment along the five structural arteries. This helpedreduce traffic movement within the city centrewhile providing easy access via the bus exchanges.Low inner city traffic densities enabled the devel-opment of a pedestrian network covering nearly 50blocks in the downtown area. Although retailerswere initially opposed to the creation of pedestrianstreets they quickly found the pedestrian zone was amore profitable place to trade. More space is nowavailable for customers, rather than cars, and morepeople spend more time in the area because theshopping environment is more pleasant.

Street murals

3.4 Urban Form

Curitiba is designed to accommodate theneeds of people at macro and micro levels.

At the macro level, transport needs are inte-grated with the location of housing, hospitals,schools, childcare and work centres. At the mi-cro level, the city is filled with places and spacesthat enrich encounters between people and of-fer opportunities for recreation, reflection andleisure.

Things that particularly impressed the groupwere:

• central city shopping centres that are full oflife and not dominated by cars

• parks and trees everywhere, many tiled seat-ing areas for ‘people encounters’

• location of parks and recreation spaces inhigh-density areas—skate-board parks, soc-cer pitches, running tracks, basketballcourts at the citizenship centres, and chil-dren's play equipment in pedestrian streets

• creative craters; imaginative use of old quar-ries—now housing an opera house, OpenUniversity for the Environment, outdoorconcert area and parks

• the enormously successful passenger trans-port system

• innovative architecture and design—mosaicfootpaths, opera house, tree house for theState Governor

• knowledge lighthouses, community librariesand now internet centres attached toschools, all highly visible

• heritage buildings and green areas—creat-ing light spaces between tall apartment andoffice blocks

• ethnic parks—celebrating cultural diversity,even a Hansel & Gretel story trail in the‘German Woods’.

All these initiatives are evidence of the city fo-cus on amenity values; places and spaces forpeople—important components of the quality oflife in Curitiba. They are examples of intensivedevelopment planning and liveable spaces.

3.5 Transport

Curitiba's public transport system is entirelybased on buses, though there are plans to

introduce a high capacity monorail system inthe near future (see Annex IV). The systememphasises accessibility, mobility and quality oflife and is one of the most heavily used, yetlow-cost, public transport systems in the world.It offers many of the features of an under-ground system, for example, high capacity vehi-

Curitiba 11

“You don’t need all the answers to make astart” and …“Do it – don’t wait to start”—Jaime Lerner, Governor 2002

‘Red’ Volvo bi-articulated buses

Inner city high density accommodation

German Woods—retained historic facade

cles, dedicated lanes, fare collection prior toboarding, quick passenger loading/unloading,efficiency, and reliable service. At the same timethis transport system is above ground, visibleand safe.

There are four main types of bus service—all ofwhich interconnect at terminals. Conventional‘orange’ buses provide feeder services. Articu-lated (bendy) ‘green’ buses provide clockwiseand anti-clockwise services around the city'sthree orbital or loop networks providinginter-district links. Conventional ‘silver’buses—known as ‘speedy’ buses—provide di-rect links without stops between highly trav-elled destinations. All of these run on normalroads—with cars—without priority lanes.

‘Red’ Volvo bi-reticulated buses—each carrying270 passengers—were introduced in 1991.These run on 60 kilometres of dedicated buslanes within city streets planned as growth cor-ridors (the ‘linear centres’) and run north,south, east and west. ‘Tube stations’ are spacedregularly along these bus lanes. Passengers paya flat fare (also called a ‘social fare’ becauseshort haul rides subsidise long haul rides) ofabout NZ$1.35 at the turnstile on entering, andwait less than three minutes for a bus. There isno ticket. We found a hundred people could geton and off the bus in seconds. The fare entitlespassengers to four bus changes if necessary, en-abling people to go two blocks or right across thecity for a single fare. At peak travel times these‘bi-artics’ are shifting 28,000 people an hour—and are at the limit of the system's capacity—hence the monorail development.

The different types of bus service interconnectat integration terminals. These terminals areoften situated by large shopping centres or civicdestinations. There are no parkandridecarparks. We were advised that the aim is to en-sure that everybody, no matter where they live,should be within 500 metres of a bus stop with abus frequency of less than five minutes.

Publicly owned Urbanisation of Curitiba Co.(URBs) is responsible for implementing andmanaging the transportation system. Ten pri-vate operators own and operate their own fleetsof orange, green, silver and red buses. Public in-vestment covers the cost of roads and stations,while the fares cover all bus operation and pur-chase costs. URBs sets the fare level annuallyafter negotiations with operators who get paiddaily according to how many kilometres theirbuses run.

URBs has access to all turnstile and trip data,and varies bus route frequencies on a daily ba-sis. Emphasis is emphatically on the provisionof a reliable city-wide service. There is no dis-tinction made between commercial and subsi-dised routes as in New Zealand. The total in-come is used to provide services across thewhole network.

Curitiba 12

Central city bus interchange

‘Yellow’ bus interchange

Rapid loading is a feature

Transport corridors are fundamental axes forurban growth. Urban growth planning forhigh-density development around the corridorsis integrated with transport planning and traf-fic management. URBS is the single authorityfor transport that plans the network, specifiesroutes, vehicles, timetables, the flat fare, con-tracts operators, and designs branding, commu-nications and public consultation.

The efficiency of the public transport system isimpressive, as is traffic management in general.Using the network is simple, with the singlefare providing citywide access. There is little ev-idence of traffic congestion even at peak times—something that is possibly assisted by the stag-gered starting times of schools, businesses andretail 7.00am, 8.00am and 9.00am respectively.

From 25,000 public transport trips per day in1974 the buses now carry 2.1 million trips aday—75% of all passenger trips. This is despiteCuritiba having a car for every 2.5 persons—thehighest car ownership/capita in Brazil. (Thereare 1.8 persons/car in Auckland.) Parking isprohibited in large parts of the inner city, andwhole streets and other central city areas arenow dedicated pedestrian precincts.

Public transport is not subsidised, in terms ofthe operational costs. However, all infrastruc-ture (roads, tube stations etc) is funded by thecity as is normally the case in New Zealand,while discounted loans (currently 18% per an-num) are available from the Federal Govern-ment Bank for private operators to purchasebuses. This is regarded as a necessary public in-vestment.

3.6 Environment

A core element of the original city vision was forCuritiba to be the ‘Ecological Capital of Brazil’.This vision translated into a huge park acquisi-tion programme, protection of heritage build-ings, prioritisation of pedestrians over cars, theprovision of cycle ways linking the parks, and amassive expansion of the public transport sys-tem. Today, parks and city squares cover 18% ofthe city area, there are 170 kilometres of cycleways linking them, and a transferable develop-ment right incentive scheme is ensuring heri-

tage building preservation so the city ‘does notlose its memory’.

As the master plan has developed and while thecity has changed its slogan from an "Eco" focusto a people focus, "Curitiba-Capital Social", thishas not lessened the emphasis on clean water,clean air, and environmental wealth of the city.In effect its people focus has more greatly em-powered and involved the community in envi-ronmental initiatives.

Curitiba environmental protection and en-hancement programmes are working becausethey have clear goals and programmes thatwork together to enhance environmental qual-ity. The focus is ‘people's needs’ first and thenthe programmes have been developed to meetthose needs. This ensures Curitiba's environ-mental improvement schemes are well sup-ported and integrated. Curitibans ‘walk thetalk’ in terms of implementation of appropriatepathways and initiatives to improve urban envi-ronmental quality.

Notable environmental initiatives in Curitibainclude the following:

• Environmental education focus is across thepopulation through Unilivre, with the ‘OpenUniversity for the Environment’. As well asthe programmes one might expect for stu-dents, community groups and industrygroups this centre targets workers across thecommunity, for example, taxi drivers—agroup that talks to many citizens in any city.

• Wasteland and quarries are reclaimed. Thereclaimed quarries previously derelict arenow centres of education, cultural and tour-ist attractions

Curitiba 13

Riverside park, cycleway and grazers!

• There is a focus on clean water, air and soillinked to recycling and reuse. Extensiveprogrammes involve the poor in recyclingwith a ‘garbage that is not garbage’programme.

• Water care programmes, involving studentsand community to protect and restore riversand streams, are incrementally spreading

Curitiba 14

There seemed to be a genuine commitment to improving the quality of life for citizens of Curitiba. This orientation, given thepoor and disadvantaged in the city, colours a lot of thinking at City Hall and beyond. I think it drove decisions on parks, greenexchange, many FAS programmes, COHAB policies etc.

...Roger

Unilivre: Open University for the Environment.

Unilivre was born out of the belief that the qualityof life in the 21st century will be directly propor-tional to people's understanding of their relation-ship to the environment. It is an independent cul-tural and educational organisation, undertakingresearch and outreach learning on all dimensions ofenvironmental management and sustainable devel-opment. The building itself (see photo) is located ina revegetated quarry, complete with lake and bushtracks and is an example of innovative and appro-priate design, using recycled materials, used powerpoles and colours that reflect its purpose.

Courses are provided for everyone: school pupils,shopkeepers, building managers, journalists, teach-ers, homemakers and even taxi drivers (a compul-sory course!). Unilivre is funded from public andprivate sources, employing a small number of edu-cators and an organisational group, contracting inmany of the course deliverers and charging fees formost of its work.

Three views of Unilivre: Open University for the Environment

across the city lead by the EnvironmentalSecretariate of the City Council.

• Environmental research is at all levels.• Environmental planning is through IPPUC.• Environmental monitoring is through the

Environmental Secretariat.• Fundamental research is through the

Curitiba "Environmental Centre of Excel-lence".

• Heritage parks—reserves with lakes, water-falls, board-walks and paths—are developedwith cultural awareness.

The overriding impression about environmen-tal management in Curitiba is that managingenvironmental effects per se has not been thedriving determinant of development. Rather ithas been the extensive integration of develop-ment goals, including very clear environmentalones, which have delivered many highly visibleenvironmental benefits. Only in the area of wa-ter/waste water management (which is understate not city control) have environmental qual-ities not lived up to the vision. But that too isnow changing.

3.7 Peoples needs; education,health, welfare and employment

Many programmes in Curitiba support its pres-ent claim of ‘Curitiba—Capital Social.’ Thiscity's social programmes are a source of pride,achieved in a country that includes many as-pects that are identified as ‘third world’. Thepopulation of the city ranges from the very rich,who can be seen in Curitiba's Crystal Palaceshopping mall, which is more elegant than any-thing in Auckland—to the very poor living infavelas (slums). However, programmes to meetthe education, housing, and employment aspi-rations of the majority of Curitibans are impres-sive. A sample of the programmes:

• Children receive free primary and ‘funda-mental’ education, up to the age of 14. Somemunicipal schools provide three free meals aday for the children—to prevent nutritionalissues affecting learning. There are plans toimprove the opportunities for education for15–17 year olds. Literacy in Curitiba is abovethe national average for Brazil; currently97%.

Curitiba 15

"So you don't know what to do with an old scarredquarry site? Design and build an architecturallystunning opera house at one end, flood the quarryfloor with clean water and fill it with fish and tur-tles... simple! Don't procrastinate, don't wait for theperfect solution, but do something!!" This JaimeLerner-style thinking has driven many clever ap-propriate projects, designs and initiatives all overthe city, as shown on the following pages.

Children at lunch

Curitiba 16

Curitiba 17

• Free health clinics are available throughoutthe city. These are well attended. Maternityand neo-natal care in particular wereclaimed as success stories at the clinics, witha reduction in infant mortality rates sincetheir inception. There are health profession-als who work in the community, visitinghomes to ensure people are accessing thehelp they need. The clinics also maintainclose links with all families in their area, viaschools. Specific community health initia-tives, for example, Parkinsons disease test-ing, operate in the pedestrian streets.

• The city provides a start-up businessprogramme via a series of incubators, whichgenerate on-the-job training and employ-ment for small business operators.

• Those selected for the incubator programmefirst undergo a compulsory business man-agement programme. They may then borrowmoney to establish their own businesses.Some employ and train their own staff, forexample, in glass cabinetry, sewing, fittingand turning. Start-up loans must be repaid,regardless of business success; in itself, aperformance incentive.

• Worker support: food vouchers are offeredby employers (public and private) to all em-ployees, as a supplement to income. For ex-ample, low-paid workers at the city recyclingcentre are given lunch, take-home food, buspasses and financial assistance for their chil-dren's school stationery supplies and fares.

Curitiba 18

Back on the bus to the city centre…we pass petrol stations displaying prices of 3 grades of fuel; alcohol, alcohol-petrol blendand petrol. Walk back through the quiet grove, passing cardboard collectors with their hand carts piled high with cardboardcollected from the stores and destined for recycling depots, short cut through the enclosed ‘24 hour street’ with shops andrestaurants open all day and night, to the hotel.

...Arthur

Managing ‘invasions’

One major problem for the city has been the influxof unskilled workers, locally called ‘invasions’ intounofficial, but highly organised ‘favelas’. These arenew subdivisions established on private propertyalmost overnight without official sanction or en-gagement. Rather than attempt to evict, or other-wise move on, the problem, the city has chosen toabsorb these developments once established. Civicinfrastructure, such as water, drainage and power,as well as city services such as education and healthare provided. This results in a community that issometimes hard to separate from surrounding offi-cial developments.

Business incubator

Given the opportunity for creating a business

Higher paid workers in the private sector getvouchers—redeemable at supermarkets-with their monthly salary.

• Numerous city parks provide sites for lei-sure. Of particular interest are the parksrepresenting various ethnic groups living inthe city, for example, Ukraine, German, Jap-anese, Polish. These parks are created andmaintained as joint operations by the partic-ular community and the city. This schemevisibly acknowledges the diversity of the citypopulation, and provides various sectors ofthe community with a sense of ownershipand belonging.

• The city shopping precincts are safe and welllit at night. Precinct lighting levels appearedto be about double the New Zealand normand were of a soft warm golden light. Innercity street life does not include the numbers

of vagrants and beggars one sees elsewherein Brazil (eg. Rio de Janeiro).

• Citizenship streets are located alongside spe-cific bus interchanges in the different sub-urbs of the city, and provide all essential so-cial services under one roof (literally).

• Runaway young people who arrive inCuritiba are offered a safe shelter, food, as-sistance with finding employment, or a busticket home. This is a particular Curitiba in-novation. Abandoned street children havebeen adopted by various businesses and in-dustries, including the city council, and aregiven safe shelter, food and a small income inreturn for part-time light work, includingtending city gardens.

• Green exchange: families in favela areas areencouraged to collect street rubbish, for fur-ther recycling. This rubbish is weighed in ex-change for seasonal, fresh vegetables andfruit.

Curitiba 19

Despite the problems facing Curitiba, such as water, I believe the Auckland Region could learn a lot from Curitiba's experi-ence, particularly from the development of its public transport ...far more regional governance control is required over pub-lic transport operators if we are ever to provide a comprehensive and integrated passenger transport service.

...Joel

Citizenship Streets:

These are architecturally innovative creations lo-cated next to transport terminals. They are borneout of the city council's philosophy that all citizensshould have easy access to service providers suchas power and water utilities, city, state and federalagencies and in addition, leisure, education and cul-tural activities at one convenient location. There arenow eight citizen streets with two more to be built.Each has its own design features and they are land-marks of the suburban landscape.

Parts being made in a new business

A new candle making business

Delivering waste at the Green Exchange

• City Recycling centre: this centre whichtakes waste from Curitiba and some adjoin-ing regions is built from recycled materialsand provides labour intensive employment.Non-organic material is sorted and recycledand organic waste is made into compost,then used in medicinal herb gardens, along-side the recycling centre. A purpose built ed-ucation unit at the centre teaches about en-vironmental issues and teaches children tomake paper and other crafts using discardedmaterials. In Curitiba, two-thirds of garbageis recycled, internationally a very high rate.

• Housing for low-income people. The city hasvarious innovative schemes for dealing withthe problems of housing for low-income fam-ilies. Eligibility for COHAB (City HousingAgency) assistance is measured and assessedin terms of the family income in multiples(0—4) of the minimum wage. Support forlow-income housing comes through offeringland and finance for a minimum sized landsection and a minimum sized house (40square metres), built to a special Class D per-mit standard, by the owners, using sweat eq-uity. A renttobuy programme is also avail-able for some people. Housing schemes aredominated by partnerships formed withowners and with housing companies as thecity does not provide rental housing. Citysupport further extends to partnershipswith private companies, who are able to usetransferable building rights payments to fi-nance subdivisions for sweat-equity housingor high density accommodation buildings.

Curitiba 20

There is much for us to reflect upon in relation to the notion of integration and its implementation. In particular, whether the"fit" of institutional arrangements and governance that has been created, and are forthcoming with local government reform,are capable of delivering the sustainable environments we seek. Addition of some of the Curitiban vision, commitment andcapacity-building would go a long way to enhance our system of planning and decision-making.

...Jenny

Garbage museum at city recycling centre

Minimum sized houses—40 square metres

Building and expanding with sweat-equity

Receiving food at the Green Exchange

• Industry training via State Federation of In-dustries (see below).

In Curitiba, the city council is responsible fordelivering health and education services whichare funded from the state payroll tax. A signifi-cant part of city planning is to integrate the pro-vision of those services with access to transpor-tation, and in relation to density and quality ofhousing. IPPUC planners and policy analystsuse GIS mapping systems extensively for all as-pects of city planning. For example GIS mapsfor the whole city are used to gather data on thequality of life indicator: ‘risk of domestic vio-lence’. Planners told us they needed informa-tion to guide location of further social services.

Curitiba 21

Most of what they do in Curitiba is not new to us in New Zealand. The intriguing thing is that they are actually doing it,whereas we are still in the early stages of debate and development. Most of what they do is ‘second nature’ to them, it is sim-ply part of the culture they have developed over the past 35 years

...Craig

Illegal favela housing can be substantial

Low cost housing built in partnership with COHAB

The FIEP System: The Federation of Industriesof the State of Parana

The FIEP was created in 1944 to coordinate andrepresent the many diverse industries of the state ofParana. It consists of five entities that serve the in-terests of both employers and employees. All enti-ties are privately funded per an employee capitationfee paid to the state government and then trans-ferred to the FIEP group. The current budget isR$70 million (NZ$70 m). A large part of the FIEP'seffort is directed to training that is done on the Fed-erations own campuses. In the last eight years over10,000 staff have been trained for the automobileindustry. One of the training centres is a Braziliancentre of excellence in environmental teaching.

Vice President Luiz Guilherme Pauli

Development housing for low income families

3.8 Policy Tools

One of the strongest impressions the groupformed, after realising the extent and durabilityof the city leadership, was how a whole suite ofpolicy tools were used in both an innovative andintegrated manner. Few tools were totally origi-nal, but the way they were interwoven was im-pressive.

These tools included:

• a single master plan for the city's develop-ment, constantly innovated and kept oncourse by the Urban Planning and ResearchInstitute

• incentives of various kinds, for example, toprotect and restore heritage buildings

• transferable development rights for exam-ple, of building rights that then generate in-come to fund low cost housing

• public-private partnerships and other formsof co-responsibility—highly developed forpublic transport and housing

• community education/information aboutpublic projects and programmes, contribut-ing to sensitisation of the community to-wards an ethos of sustainability

• community participation for example, in awater quality monitoring programme calledthe Olhod Agua Project, that involves thou-sands of children

• multipliers (cascading networks of mes-sage-spreaders)

• business training/incubators to stimulatesmall business innovation

• green exchange programme and other solidwaste programmes (although incomplete interms of a minimisation approach)

• a pragmatic approach to keeping costs low,using affordable technology and looking forways to enhance employment opportunities

• compulsory voting, for those over 18 and un-der 66. Those aged 16–18 may vote.

Curitiba 22

Health clinics, schools, environmental education centres all appeared to have high levels of integration—working together toprovide education, health and employment opportunities for all ages, socio-economic groups and cultures. Moreover, theymanaged this with less money and more cooperation than is apparent in NZ. All the people we talked to took integrated plan-ning as a ‘given’ and were openly proud of how their programmes make a difference for Curitibans.

...Pam

Knowledge lighthouse for community education

Development rights for restoring heritage buildings

4 WHAT SHOULD WE BECONSIDERING—FOR NEWZEALAND?

Despite the fact that Curitiba has the prob-lems inherent in any city with a rapidly in-

creasing population and limited resources,there are certain aspects of Curitiban city lead-ership, planning and programmes that we couldlearn from to help us improve the ‘liveabilityquotient’ for all New Zealanders.

Curitiba does not present itself as a turnkeymodel for literal replication, for no two cities arealike enough for copying to work. Rather,Lerner calls his city "not a model but a refer-ence" (Hawkens et al.1999).

4.1 Leadership and Vision

The ability of Curitiban civic and business lead-ers to hold to a common vision for the city's de-velopment against a national backdrop of tran-sition from a military dictatorship to ademocracy and wild fluctuations in the nationsfinancial fortunes, is awe inspiring. What arepotentially transferable elements of the leader-ship itself, and things they did or created, thatcould be crafted to meet New Zealand's needs?The Commissioner has two thoughts:

• The first—on leadership: How do we encour-age people, with complex systems based ex-perience, into local government politics?Such people can come from many profes-sional backgrounds but the Curitiban storyindicates they must be able to weave to-gether, in a synergistic way, a very complexmatrix of human and technical needs andalso be able to enthuse others with opportu-nities when spotted.

• The second—how leadership and vision issupported. The most significant institu-tional element of the Curitiban story is theurban research institute IPPUC, which hasgenerated ideas and solutions to support the

city since 1965. If New Zealand's develop-ment potentials are to be realised, then amajor expansion of urban research capacity,tied into local government responsibilities isabsolutely essential.

It is essential to develop a strategic approach tourban planning in New Zealand, and to ensureproper understanding of the relationship be-tween urban growth and transport. A critical is-sue will be to ensure that new council plans pre-pared under the Local Government Act andthose prepared under the Resource Manage-ment Act are integrated.

Our current urban research capacity is dis-persed, under-resourced and utterly incapableof delivering the breadth and depth of city de-sign (social and infrastructural) that hasemerged from IPPUC for 30 years. New Zealandhas the building blocks for a greatly enhancedurban research capability but they need a lot ofmortar to hold them together plus policy and/orlegislative instruments to tie them into our ur-ban/town planning regimes.

4.2 Strategy and Planning

THE CURITIBAN FUNDAMENTALS

The most fundamental part of the Curitibanstory is that city leaders, in the mid 1960s, real-ised (as did some New Zealand civic leaders ofthe same period) that a strategy to deal withrapid growth was needed. The key component ofthat strategy was a master plan for shaping thephysical elements within a cultural/human con-text. The plan's basic principles were simple—movement and land use must be inextricablyinterlinked. The corridors along which peopleand goods move shape a city. Locating people,businesses, health services etc. in appropriateproximity to the access was therefore the under-lying guiding principle. Thus Curitiba sortedout the basics in the late 1960s and since then

Curitiba 23

My first impression of the city was of cleanliness and colour, buildings, buses and pavements.

The bus system was the most obvious was the most obvious indication that the city was well organized and our subsequent vis-its revealed a very clever synthesis of planning by IPPUC, management by URBS and the performance of individual bus op-erating companies. The system whereby URBS organizes the routes, and timetables and the collection of fares and the com-panies provide the buses on a mileage basis seems to achieve most of the desirable aims of a public transport system. Thissystem has aspects that can probably be adapted to NZ, particularly in Auckland.

...Arthur

has focused on making it happen, depending onneeds and available finance. This approach suc-ceeded by combining farsighted and pragmaticleadership with an integrated design process,strong public and business participation and awidely shared public vision that appears to havetranscended partisanship.

Regular round table meetings with successivemayors and major players in the city have as-sisted in sorting out problems as they arise. Wecould not of course readily determine the extentof consultation with non-governmental groupsor the political opposition, or the extent of polit-ical tradeoffs that might occur. Nonetheless thecity demonstrated some very effective outcomesof a managed approach to growth.

THE NEW ZEALAND WAY

The Curitiban approach, based on ‘gettingthings done’, following clear articulation of alongerterm vision, contrasts directly with ourstyle of legal formalism in New Zealand. Partlyin response to the system we have created, agrowing complexity of statutory and non-statu-tory planning instruments is being produced byvarious agencies to manage different compo-nents of our environment. The complexity ofour approach can easily become counter produc-tive in terms of achieving desired outcomes, andcan undermine intentions for integration.There is much for us to reflect upon in relationto the notion of integration and its implementa-tion. In particular we need to ask whether the‘fit’ of institutional arrangements and gover-nance that has been created—and is forthcom-ing with local government reform—is capable ofdelivering the sustainable environments weseek. In addition, some of the Curitiban vision,focus on integrated solutions, commitment andcapacity-building would go a long way to en-hance our planning and decision making.

There is clearly room for improvement in thealignment and implementation of urban devel-opment strategies to achieve desired outcomesin New Zealand. Ideas to improve realisation ofour potential ‘liveability quotient’ include:

• shifting the balance away from an over-em-phasis on process and consultation, particu-larly at the individual consents stage, to-

wards better participation in the policy andplanning phase, followed by a focus on ac-tion. RMA processes need to be better bal-anced with the need for community develop-ment planning

• developing a strategic approach to urbanplanning, by creating a mechanism for an in-tegrated implementation plan, especially forAuckland. The new Local Government Actcould be such a mechanism

• ensuring that proper understanding of theinter-relationship between transport access(mobility) and urban growth is reflected inthe implementation plan

• promoting incremental steps to move NewZealand cities more rapidly towards an at-tractive and integrated public transport net-work—comprising buses, trains, and ferries,with integrated ticketing and standardisedfares

• promoting much stronger regional planningand management of core infrastructure, forexample, transport, water and wastewater,major facilities and heritage. This may re-quire involving structural change andre-regulating such things as public trans-port.

Curitiba 24

Creative use of quarries

4.3 Transferable Ideas for Action

Within New Zealand there are already a num-ber of local, imaginative solutions being pro-posed to help raise the ‘liveability quotient’ forour communities. However, our experience inCuritiba has resulted in a conviction that thereare a number of easily transferable actions thatshould not be too difficult ‘to do’, sooner ratherthan later.

These include:

• More pedestrian streets—imagine mostof Lambton Quay and Lower Queen Streetwithout all the cars and emissions

• More and improved ‘people encounter’spaces—with permeable paving and seatingareas arranged to encourage interactions

• Creative use of quarries—for music, rec-reation and community activities

• More recreational areas—‘dead’ sectionsof the city could be made into informal sportand activity areas

• Heritage parks—to celebrate our culturaldiversity, for example, Samoan, Chinese, In-dian, Tokelaun …and more

• Better lighting—brighter and soft-tonedin public areas, especially where people haveto wait

• Integrated transport fares—in all re-gions, with discounts for regular commuters

• Transferable development rights—topreserve heritage areas and provide incomefor community programmes.

We invite you all to become active participantsin taking all available opportunities to advance,where appropriate, these relevant and transfer-able ideas.

At the same time we can be working together toadvocate for better coordination and integra-tion of the innovations, and the urban researchand planning, already in progress in Aotearoa.

5 NEXT STEPS

The study tour group resolved to continue net-working and interacting to progress the ideasthat emerged from the visit. Opportunities tospeak and to share learning from the journeywill be taken through conferences, seminar pre-sentations and other events.

A power point presentation illustrating many ofthe impressions in this report has been devel-oped by group members. A complimentary copyis available from the Parliamentary Commis-sioner for the Environment:email: lynne@pce.govt.nz.

Participants resolved to make commitments topersonal action, to be shared with the group.

Curitibans will be invited to New Zealand, in-cluding Jaime Lerner—who has pledged to visitafter he retires as Governor in October 2002. Aninvitation initiative is underway.

Curitiba 25

Study participants at ‘tree house’

ANNEX ISOURCESOrganisations or Centres visited inCuritiba:

• Research and Urban Planning Institute ofCuritiba (IPPUC)www.ippuc.curitiba.pr.gov.br

• Urban Transport Authority (URBS)www.urbs.com.br

• Municipal Housing Company (COHAB-CT)www.curitiba.pr.gov.br

• Unilivre: Open University for the Environ-mentwww.unilivre.org.br

• Social Action Foundation (FAS)Email: fas@fas.curitiba.pr.gov.br

• Municipal Health Centre• Mayor of Curitiba; Cassio Taniguchi

www.curitiba.pr.gov.br• President of the City Council of Curitiba;

Joao Claudio Derosso• Governor of the State of Parana; Jaime

Lernewww.pr.gov.br

• Volvo South America Ltdwww.volvo.com.br

• Federation of Industries of the State ofParana (FIEP)Luiz Guilherme Pauliwww.fiepr.com.br

• Curitiba Industrial City (CIC), DevelopmentCompany of Curitibawww.cic-curitiba.com.br

• Viacao Cidade Sorriso Ltda (private buscompany)

• City Recycling Centre

More reading and Websites:

• Hawken, Paul; Lovins, Amory and Lovins, L.Hunter (1999). Human Capitalism; Weavingthe web of solutions; the Curitiba example.IN: Natural Capitalism; Creating the NextIndustrial Revolution. Ch. 14 285–308. Lit-tle Brown and Co. Boston.

• McKibben, B. (1995) Chapter 2 "Curitiba"IN: Hope, Human and Wild, Little Brownand Co. Boston.

• Rabinovitch, J. (1996) Urban Planning inCuritiba, Scientific American 26–33(March).

• Ravazzani C. and J.P. Fagani, eds (2000)Curitiba: A Capital Ecologica, Natugraf.LTDA Curitiba

Curitiba 26

Medical Centre Jaime Lerner’s ‘thinking tree house’

ANNEX IIMEMBERS OF CURITIBA STUDY TOUR

Claudia BellSenior Lecturer, Sociology,Faculty of ArtsUniversity of Auckland

c.bell@auckland.ac.nz(09) 373 7599 ext. 8662

David BrashActing Deputy Chief ExecutiveMinistry for the Environment

david.brash@mfe.govt.nz(04) 917 7410

Joel CayfordCouncillorChair, Works and Environment CommitteeNorth Shore City Council

joelc@kiwilink.co.nz(09) 445 2763

Jenny DixonProf. & Head of Department of PlanningUniversity of Auckland

j.dixon@auckland.ac.nz(09) 373 7599 ext. 5344

Charles EasonEnvironmental ToxicologistLandcare Research NZ Ltd

EasonC@LandcareResearch.co.nz(03) 325 6700

Kathy GardenDirector of Strategic DevelopmentManukau City Council

kgarden@manukau.govt.nz(09) 262 5196

Sonia HaweaRegional Manager- ManukauTe Puni KôkiriMinistry of Mâori Development

sonia.hawea@tpk.govt.nz(09) 277 8248

Roger HillManager – TransportInfrastructure Auckland

rogerh@ia.co.nz(09) 379 2540

Dave HinmanCentral City Revitalisation ProjectManagerChristchurch City Council

dave.hinman@ccc.govt.nz(03) 371 1804

Russell KenleyProfessor of ConstructionCentre for Property & Construction Innova-tion, UNITEC

rkenley@unitec.ac.nz(09) 849 4180

Margaret LawtonRegional ManagerLandcare Research NZ Ltd

LawtonM@LandcareResearch.co.nz(07) 858 3700

Wayne McDonaldRegional Manager, AucklandTransit New Zealand

wayne.mcdonald@transit.govt.nz(09) 368 2000

Craig ShearerDirector of Strategic PolicyAuckland Regional Council

craig.shearer@arc.govt.nz(09) 379 4420

Peter ThorbyHead of Building and ConstructionOpus Central Laboratories

peter.thorby@opus.co.nz(04) 587 0642

Wendy WalkerDirector of Strategy and PolicyWellington City Council

wendy.walker@wcc.govt.nz(04) 801 3682

Morgan WilliamsParliamentary Commissioner for theEnvironment

morganw@pce.govt.nz(04) 495 8356

Pamela WilliamsPresidentNZ Association of EnvironmentalEducation

pamwilliams@xtra.co.nz(04) 380 0432

Arthur WilliamsonChairmanSustainable Cities Trust

a.williamson@cape.canterbury.ac.nz(03) 364 2943

Curitiba 27

ANNEX IIIIPPUC: THE URBAN RESEARCH AND PLANNING INSTITUTE, EST. 1965

IPPUC is a semi independent agency of theCity Council. It is governed by its own Presi-

dent and council and currently employs about250 staff with skills in sociology, design, statis-tics, economics, urban planning, architecture,geographic information systems, engineeringand transport. All staff are contracted. IPPUCincome comes from the city, state, Federal Bra-zilian and International banks and recently theJapanese government. Individual staff ofIPPUC undertake consultancy work on varioustypes of leave, but the Institute as a whole doesnot do contract work.

IPPUC is without doubt the key agency inCuritiba when it comes to researching and de-signing the city’s paths to the future. Its financedirector described IPPUC's central role in theannual plan process, prioritization of projects(done over a 15 day period) and their centralrole in deciding what will be funded and when.IPPUC design all city infrastructures. Thisyears annual plan is working with R$60 million(=NZ$60 million) for new infrastructure.

IPPUC, with the ultimate say over what isfunded, is a very influential agency - distancingthe raw politics of the council chamber decisionmaking. A high level of council input does gointo the decisions, via a weekly meeting be-tween the Mayor and IPPUC's President.We gained the impression from bothIPPUC and the Mayor that IPPUC'srole in prioritization of projects is avaluable arrangement in that itseparates funding allocationfrom the pressures of dayto day politics.

Curitiba 28

ANNEX IVMONORAIL PROJECT BRIEFINGBACKGROUND

Growth of the city from the 1940’s occurredin a traditional radial pattern around a

Central Business District. In 1966 a new masterplan was prepared which challenged conven-tional planning by:

• Limiting centralised CBD growth.• Planning structural axes or transportation

corridors for both public transport and vehi-cles to guide land use planning.

• Encouraging linear growth along and in sup-port of transport corridors by insisting thathigh density development occurred adjacentto the transportation corridors and that den-sity could reduce in proportion to the separa-tion between the transportation corridorand the development.

REVIEW OF PLAN SUCCESS

The plan has lasted 30 years but it is now con-sidered necessary to have a vision for the

next 30 years. One reason for needing a newplan is that the public transport capacity of thesouthern corridor bus system has been reachedand extra capacity has to be created.

The reason for the corridor capacity beingreached is that while the annual populationgrowth in Curitiba is of the order of 2.5—3.0%per annum, the metropolitan area surroundingCuritiba is growing more rapidly. The corridorsserve the areas beyond Curitiba and growth inthese areas is much higher.

A new plan is being developed which will copewith growth beyond the boundary of CuritibaCity. The plan is based on the 1966 philosophyand provides for existing transportation corri-dors to be extended out into the metropolitanregion.

CAPACITY ASSUMPTIONS

The bus operation in the southern corridorhas reached its capacity at 28,000 passen-

gers per hour. A new twin track monorail hasthe capacity to carry an average of 33,000 pas-sengers per hour with a peak of 42,000 passen-gers per hour.

OPPORTUNITY

AFederal Highway connects from south to

north on the eastern side of the CBD. TheGovernment agreed to the City taking over theFederal Highway corridor and to use it for bothpublic transport and roading.

The new structural axis for the proposed mono-rail is in place ready for construction. The pro-posed monorail system is intended to be used tocreate a pattern of land use development and in-duce growth in the southern part of the city.

The monorail plan is seen as supplementing thevision rather than as a radical change.

THE VISION

The 80 – 100 metre wide ex-Federal Highwayreserve is to be converted into a linear park.

The land uses along the route will be trans-formed to avoid the environmental impact ofthe monorail.

It is believed that running the electrified mono-rail along the centre of the very wide road re-serve will minimise any noise or visual intru-sion. In fact elevation of the track is seen asbeing positive because it will enable pedestriansto cross the reserve at ground level unimpededby the monorail tracks. Similarly side roads willbe able to cross the road reserve transverselywithout creating level crossing situations andallow for bus access to the monorail stationswith vertical transfer by escalation. Another de-liberate planning strategy is to use the elevationof the track to allow vistas of the city in terms ofoverall urban design.

THE PROPOSED SYSTEM

Salient features of the system follow:

• It is based on the twin track system alreadyoperating as the Kokura Line in KitakyushuCity, Japan.

• The system will be built in three stages andbe some 25 kilometres in length.

• The three stages are:

Curitiba 29

Stage A Southern suburbs to cityStage B City to northern suburbsStage C Direct south to north allowing a

bypass of the CBD.• The costs are a third of a conventional un-

derground system.• Trains will operate on rubber tyres.• One track will operate in one direction and

the other in the opposite direction. The dif-ference with this new monorail system is theability to switch trains from one track to theother.

• A monorail was chosen to avoid forming abarrier at ground level between communi-ties located on either side of the corridor.

• Provision will be made for east/west connec-tions to the monorail services.

• The intention is to take heavy trucks off thenorth-south route in the monorail corridor.

• The same cross-section principles will beused as for current Busway corridors.

• The fare will be part of the flat fare system.The flat fare for all will be increased to payfor the monorail system.

• The carrying capacity of any train is assessedas follows:

• The choice was driven in part becauseground water is high in the corridor. Goingunderground would have been very costly.

• The design of stations and trains will followthe form of the existing bus system. For ex-ample tube like stations. Trains will betreated in a similar way using local bodymanufacture on imported chassis.

• Volvo is expected to be involved in the con-struction of the vehicles.

• There has been no need to incur land pur-chase cost because of the gifting of the Fed-eral Highway road reserve.

• The transportation modelling undertaken toevaluate options was undertaken by URBS.

• The intent is to decrease the number of peo-ple using buses in the southern corridor andat the same time, to give new connections tothe monorail system. The current bus trans-

fer stations on the Busway system will beshifted to the monorail system.

• There was acknowledgement that there is astate organisation responsible for planningtransport infrastructure (COMEC) and thatit had been consulted during the develop-ment of the project. We were not able to meetwith COMEC.

• Escalators will be used to give access to ele-vate stations with lifts for the disabled.

IMPLEMENTATION:

Key actions are:

• A decision has been made to implement theproject and all land use zoning changes havebeen made.

• The Mayor is going to Japan to sign the con-tract for construction in May 2002.

• 85% of the funding of the track structure isbeing provided by a Japanese Bank and re-payments of a 40 year loan will not need to bemade for the first 10 years. The balance ofthe capital funding will be provided by theInter America Bank.

• Private enterprise will purchase the mono-rail vehicles funded by Japanese loan money.

• Planning began in 1998 and tender for theconstruction of a monorail will be let in 2002.This is a very short time for implementingsuch a major project.

• The aim is have a ribbon cutting ceremony tomark the completion of the first stage beforethe end of this term of political office in twoyears time.

SUMMARY

The Curitiba Governance structure ensuresswift implementation of schemes. Four

years from project inception to signing a con-tract is very swift by New Zealand standards.

Wayne McDonaldRegional Manager

Transit New Zealand

Curitiba 30

No. of Units Capacity (people/hour)

3 320

4 420

6 630

An interesting and relevant quote was provided by ayoung member in their design team. He observedthat:

“Solutions are behind the curtains.”

ANNEX VCURITIBA CITY GOVERNANCE:

The City Council consists of 36 elected councilors and a Mayor. There is a four year electoral cyclefor the Mayor, who cannot hold consequent terms but may be re-elected. The council is electedbi-annually and is presided over by a President, elected by the Councilors. The President's role ap-pears similar to that of the speaker of our House of Representatives.

The Councilors and the Mayor are aligned with carious political parties, with the current councilhaving a majority (24 members) on the council. The Mayor is currently of the same party as thecouncil majority, which in combination with his statutory role, gives great powers to the Mayor. Heis responsible for health and education services as well as all the usual local government functions.

There is an operational hierarchy of Federal, State and local laws, For example, rivers are Federal,waste is now a State matter, roads within the city are local. Shops, schools and banking hours are alocal matter, hence the ability to adjust them to manage transport capacities.

The Council operates via administrative departments (staffed by a mix of civil servants and con-tract staff) plus a suite of semi autonomous agencies such as COHAB (housing), URBS (transport),IPPUC (urban research), FASA (social action foundation) and CITIPAR (economic development).

The cities current budget is R$1.6 billion (NZ$ 1.6B) raised via local rates and sales taxes (R$50M)plus state and federal monies.