Trekking in the Concrete Jungle:

How Urban Design Can Save the World

By Matthew Willse

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Daily log 7/1/05 6:05 pm - Curitiba, Brazil

Cobblestone streets, created by 17th century settlers, intersect with dedicated busways, the smoothest and cleanest roads that I have yet encountered here in Brazil. Historic charm intersects with a modernized and efficient future. Bi-articulated buses pass me by, snaking through streets with 270 passenger capacity. As the light fades, these colonial facades, with their intimate architecture, are lit from below, highlighting their intricacies.

For anyone who has ever visited a country like Brazil, China, or India, it is obvious that cities in the developing world are experiencing growing pains. Miles of shantytowns spring up on their outskirts to accommodate the influx of rural migrants who have come in search of opportunity. Providing basic services like sanitation and transportation is an increasingly difficult and costly process. Just as our cities are our centers of culture, employment, innovation, and economy, they are also our engines of ecological degradation. These problems demand an energetic and renewed focus on the sustainable design of cities in both the developing and the developed world. Much of the inefficiency within cities is due to the unfettered and disjointed growth that has taken place over the past several decades. Accessibility has become a major issue as traffic chokes our ever-widening roads and fossil fuel consumption pollutes our air. For those who would depend on public transportation in the U.S., limited options exist in most metropolitan areas. Lack of funding and political traction has led to ineffective and underused services even though cities with extensive transportation systems often boast the highest quality of life.

An Excursion to Brazil's Other Jungles

Curitiba, Brazil, is a city in the southern state of Parana. It is known as the ecological capital of Brazil, a place where the quality of life is higher than anywhere else in the country. As part of my thesis research, I spent three months there this past summer, studying its innovative urban design. Upon visiting the city, one might be surprised by its unique character. It boasts one of the most extensive and well designed bus systems in the world. In 1966, a team of architects, engineers, and city planners were commissioned to create a master plan that would guide the city's accelerating growth. The most creative of their ideas was the integration of transportation and land use planning. The city was designed around several transportation corridors which radiate away from the center of the city. Along these corridors, the zoning is high density mixed-use. This means that skyscrapers can only be built within close proximity to the transportation lines. Therefore, planners have only allowed high density growth and activity along these easily accessible transportation corridors. This prevents sprawl into protected areas outside of Curitiba, while reinforcing the convenience and efficiency of the transit system for the majority of the population.

The zoning of the city showcases countless other innovative ideas. In the center of Curitiba, where all the transportation lines come together, there is a twenty square block pedestrian mall, where local business and commerce thrive. While taking a stroll, one notices the dedicated busways which run through the canyons between high density buildings. The bus system itself acts more like a surface metro system, with huge bi-articulated red buses—buses with three sections attached by two accordion-like fans—running every 4-5 minutes on average. Supplementing these express lines are several other types of buses, color coded for easy recognition. They serve other routes, like circular, local, and inter-neighborhood. "Tube stations" act as entry and exit points, where users pay to enter the tube, instead of paying to enter the bus. This eliminates the delays associated with payment, and means that commuters can enter and exit at all available doors, instead of just the front. This speeds up service exponentially.

Hollywood Makes it Cool

By integrating an effective transportation system with innovative zoning and efficient land use, urban planners can utilize what few tools they have to guide the haphazard growth of adolescent cities. Transportation corridors, coupled with effective zoning, serve as the structural skeletons of healthy urban areas. Furthermore, the use of busways instead of light rail or subway cuts the capital costs by tens of millions of dollars while still increasing flexibility. Building railroad infrastructure is a very expensive and permanent process. What's more, renewable and clean fuels like bio-diesel and compressed natural gas can then take the place of petrol diesel in buses for a cleaner transportation system. 'Rapid Bus Transit' (RBT) as it has been named, is a viable option for cities in need of cost effective transportation options.

Regrettably, very few U.S. cities have actively integrated transportation and land use or invested in RBT. The two shining exceptions are Portland, OR, and Los Angeles, CA. In Portland, transit-oriented development has long been a part of the growth strategy, and now, that city boasts one of the best transit systems, as well as excellent livability and accessibility. Los Angeles, of all places, is in the middle of its phased implementation of Rapid Bus Transit. After visiting Curitiba in 1998, Los Angeles city planners decided that RBT was a viable option for L.A. Because L.A. is such a sprawling city, building extensive railways is not a cost effective solution. Instead, a BRT system would complement the existing railways. They modeled their 'Metro Rapid' system directly after Curitiba's. Metro Rapid began operation in June 2000, and has since decreased travel times by 30 percent and seen ridership increases of 40 percent. Slated for completion in 2008, Metro Rapid will operate 450 miles of service across Los Angeles County.

In fact, the grand opening of L.A.'s first dedicated busway, the Orange Line, will take place next Saturday, Oct. 29th. The Orange line is marketed as part of the Metro subway system, rather than a bus line. They call it "the bus that acts like a train." Project manager John Drayton recently called the new Metro Liner buses that serve the route "the most advanced transit vehicles ever introduced in North America.the biggest leap in styling and appearance our industry has seen in over 30 years." Running on compressed natural gas and designed after the Curitiba model, the buses even look like trains. Where else should this bus line be built but in the epicenter of the Car Culture of America: Hollywood and The Valley.

And so it goes that an impetus for change rears its beautiful head. Will residents of this community heed the call of this new mode of public transportation? Will they leave their cars in the garage, and catch the Orange line connection to the Metro Red Line, to downtown Los Angeles, or anywhere else? Will buses finally be able to attract a more diverse ridership, like trains do? While it will be interesting to see who utilizes this new service, the success of the Orange Line does not depend on the rich and famous. It depends on the working soul whose budget is pinched by rising energy prices. Certainly, there are many people who live between Warner Center and North Hollywood who meet this description. Who knows, maybe public transportation will become hip in the coming years? One thing, though, is clear: only with the infrastructure in place can the demand be met.

Towards our Common Utopian Future

Getting cars off the road, cutting down on air pollution, and improving accessibility and quality of life in our cities are issues that demand visionary urban planning and governance. Every city should craft its own unique master plan in order to guide growth efficiently. These plans would include home-grown and community-oriented approaches to improve economy, livability, and environment, as well as to preserve historical architecture and character. For effective strategies, we must envision how we want our cities to look and function in 40 years or more, and begin constructing that reality now. Picture a city where the traffic lights adjust to smoothly guide the flow of traffic, where tree lined transit-ways run through arts districts, thriving urban neighborhoods, and mixed-use commercial and industrial zones. This is a place where you don't need a car to live well. Some cities are already implementing these methods. In London, for example, those who wish to drive cars in the downtown are assessed a modest tax; this revenue is then pumped back into the transportation system. For the future, try to envision a cityscape with large solar arrays and massive roof gardens, and a tax-incentive system that encourages retrofitting your building with these types of sustainable technologies. Imagine independence from foreign oil, and a new emphasis on science and technology.

Not every city will look or function like Curitiba, but we can learn from their example. Their emphasis on innovative and pro-active problem solving on a limited budget is inspirational. We cannot afford to be complacent about our urban future, as exemplified by the nadir situation of New Orleans. In order for us to achieve some sort of equilibrium with our planet and its climate during this century, we must think of cities as living and breathing systems that interact with the surrounding ecosystem; systems whose main goals are quality of life for citizens and ecological balance. Fortunately, this reality is more viable with every increase in the price of a barrel of 'light, sweet, crude' oil. The solutions are most definitely out there. It is up to hard-spirited and forward-looking entrepreneurs to make this vision a reality.

Matthew Willse B'06

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