186 CHAPTER 7 Human Population Change and the Environment
CASE STUDY
Curitiba was the first city in Brazil to use a special low-
polluting fuel that contains a mixture of diesel fuel, alcohol, and
soybean extract. In addition to burning cleanly, this fuel provides
economic benefits for people in rural areas who grow the
soybeans and grain used to make the alcohol.
Over several decades, Curitiba purchased and converted
flood-prone properties along rivers in the city to a series of
interconnected parks crisscrossed with bicycle paths. This move
reduced flood damage and increased the per person amount
of “green space” from 0.5 m^2 (5.4 ft^2 ) in 1950 to 50 m^2 (540 ft^2 )
today, a significant accomplishment considering Curitiba’s rapid
population growth during the same period.
Another example of Curitiba’s creativity is its labor-intensive
garbage purchase program, in which poor people exchange
filled garbage bags for bus tokens, surplus food (eggs, butter,
rice, and beans), or school notebooks. This program encourages
garbage pickup from the unplanned shantytowns (which garbage
trucks can’t access) that surround the city. Curitiba supplies more
services to these unplanned settlements than most cities do. It
tries to provide water, sewer, and bus service for them.
These changes didn’t happen overnight. Urban planners
can carefully reshape most cities over several decades to make
better use of space and to reduce dependence on motor
vehicles. City planners and local and regional governments
are increasingly adopting measures to provide the benefits of
compact development in the future.Urban Planning in Curitiba,
Brazil
Livable cities aren’t restricted to highly developed countries.
Curitiba, a Brazilian city of 3.1 million people, provides a good
example of compact development in a moderately developed
country. Curitiba’s city officials and planners have had notable
successes in public transportation, traffic management, land-
use planning, waste reduction and recycling, and community
livability.
The city developed an inexpensive, efficient mass transit
system that uses clean, modern buses that run in high-speed
bus lanes. High-density development was largely restricted to
areas along the bus lines, encouraging population growth where
public transportation was already available. About 2 million
people use Curitiba’s mass transportation system each day.
Since the 1970s, Curitiba’s population has more than
tripled, yet traffic has declined by 30 percent. Curitiba doesn’t
rely on automobiles as much as comparably sized cities do, so
it has less traffic congestion and significantly cleaner air, both
of which are major goals of compact development. Instead of
streets crowded with vehicular traffic, the center of Curitiba is a
calcadao, or “big sidewalk,” that consists of 49 downtown blocks
of pedestrian walkways connected to bus stations, parks, and
bicycle paths.
✓✓THE PLANNER
City
centera. Curitiba’s bus network, arranged like the spokes of a wheel, © Pete M. Wilson/Alamy
has concentrated development along the bus lines, saving much
of the surrounding countryside from development.
b. The downtown area of Curitiba has open terraces lined with
shops and restaurants.