Via Charge News.

Há décadas, Curitiba deu um enorme passo no rumo de uma melhor cidade para uma vida melhor. Tornou um bom trecho da rua Quinze de Novembro bloqueada ao tráfego de automóveis e veículos motorizados de alta velocidade. Deixou a Rua das Flores exclusiva para as pessoas e a tornou um centro de encontro e liberdade.

Por que parou?

Por que, apesar das fartas evidências dos bons resultados obtidos, desaprendeu a lição acima e continua a caminhar no sentido de prover cada vez mais estrutura para os veículos de alta velocidade?

A queda no número de passageiros dos ônibus da capital está fazendo com que o sistema de transporte coletivo de Curitiba opere no vermelho. Desde o início do ano, quando a prefeitura aumentou o preço da tarifa de R$ 1,90 para R$ 2,20 de uma só tacada, depois de cinco anos sem reajuste, a média de passageiros diminuiu em mais de 600 mil pessoas por mês. Em quatro meses, de janeiro a abril, isso significou 2,6 milhões de passagens a menos.

Como resultado, a Urbs precisou usar metade do Imposto sobre Serviços (ISS) pago pelas operadoras do sistema e jogar no próprio pagamento das despesas de transporte – em vez de encaminhar para o tesouro municipal, como normalmente ocorre. De janeiro a abril, o subsídio levou a uma injeção de R$ 4 milhões no sistema de transporte. Mas nem isso resolveu o problema – e a partir daí, a Urbs passou a atrasar o pagamento feito às 10 empresas que põem os ônibus para circular na cidade.

[...]

Fonte: Gazeta do Povo

A atitude estratégica de aumento da tarifa de ônibus pela prefeitura no início do ano parece estar agora se virando contra ela. Frente à grandiosos projetos de reforma de terminais e implantação de novos e maiores ônibus, a URBS tem acumulado dívidas e dívidas devido à falta de passageiros.

Com certeza essa diminuição teve repercussão nas bicicletas da capital. Alguém mais tem a impressão de que tem muito mais gente andando de bicicleta agora do que no ano passado?

Não, não é uma ironia. Os policiais da Dinamarca realmente estão abraçando pessoas, mais especificamente, ciclistas. Eles param pedalantes sem capacete, dão-lhes um abraço e depois colocam um capacete em suas cabeças. Uma forma de policiamento no mínimo curiosa…

Update: Este vídeo faz parte de uma campanha da Municipalidade de Allborg para uso de capacetes pelos ciclistas. No entanto, o objetivo de publica-lo neste espaço não tem a ver com esta promoção, e sim com o comportamento dos policiais, bem diferente dos brasileiros. O uso de capacete deve ser uma decisão do foro individual, e não uma imposição de lei. No Brasil, o seu uso é opcional.

O Art Center College of Design de Los Angeles – conhecido como a “Harvard” do design de tranportes – recentemente patrocinou o simpósio “Expanding the Vision of Sustainable Mobility“, onde Timothy Papandreou defendeu a idéia de que está mais do que na hora das cidades favorecerem as pessoas, e não os carros. A Wired escreveu sobre o assunto, que pode ser acessado através deste link.

Bike path entrance

The shared cycle-path of the Passeio Publico had a few problems:

1) Heavy flow of pedestrians, compromising the circulation of bikes

2) Irregular paving because of the tree roots

3) One of the entrances has a depression on the pavemente that is dangerous to cyclists

4) After a few minutes raining, there is always water right on the entrance of the Passeio in the same spot of the depression

Rain Water

Joao Gualberto Entrance

But in the beginning of the month of March 2008 appeared two new ones. Two nice obstacles placed at the entrances. One located at the access by the João Guaberto Avenue and the other one when we reach the Presidente Carlos Cavalcanti Street. The most obvious conclusion is: the circulation of bicycles on this area is highly discouraged. Actually, some cargo bikes with trailers have no access at all.

Pres. Carlos Cavalcanti Entrance

Unfortunately, this is the main cycle-path that links the center to the north-side of the city. And there is only alternative by cycle-path and it means riding a few extra kilometers up hill.

Patricio hands cyclists proposal to Clever Almeida

We were on the third meeting of the Curitiba Mobility Plan (PlanMob) held in the Curitiba Institute of Urban Research and Planning (IPPUC). This plan will be soon dispatched for approval in the City Hall of Curitiba (CMC). There were also representatives from the Public Transportation Syndicate, Public Ministry, URBS, Accessibility Group and some others.

After the presentation of the IPPUC proposal, the present members made their comments about the issues that concerns themselves. Here below are some of the itens presented in our report that we handed to Cléver Ubiratan Teixeira de Almeida, the PlanMob General Coordinator:

• Detailed evaluation of the current situation of the cycle network for further improvements and expansion
• Development of a wide Parking Program located in downtown Curitiba and the traffic generating sites, sucha as schools, the Civic Center, Shopping Centers, Hospitals, main commercial areas
• Nomination, among the IPPUC employees, of someone dedicated exclusively to the cycle infrastructure matters.

Some of these itens are alredy part of the IPPUC proposal and were briefly discussed. Here are some of the present issues in the IPPUC proposal that should be submited to the CMC:

• Give priority to non-motorised traffic in the Central Circulation Area, with the expansion of sidewalks, and theconstruction of cycle-paths / cycle-lanes and bike-parks; and the instalation of lights with time for pedestrian crossing.
• Reduce the access of individual motorised vehicles to certain areas during predetermined periods.
• Improve and expand the cycle-path system in Curitiba and their suburban connections, through a detailed Cycle Master Plan

We hope that this and other measures concerning cycle-mobility be treated as priorities and become reality as soon as possible. And we will be always available to help this come true.

Besides the general report we also gave them:

1. a study report explaining why the 6 public bike-parks didn’t receive any offer to be activated
2. one of the models we created for the campaign “Bike-friendly Business”
3. a copy of the documentary Sociedade do Automóvel(in portuguese)
4. a copy of the Free Transportation Project (in portuguese) developed in CELEPAR.

Representantes

Read more:
Complete Report (in portuguese)
Bike-park Report (in portuguese)
Analysis of Curitiba Cycle-paths(Google Maps)
Previous meetings (in portuguese)

Portuguese version

Mario Tourinho Cycle-path

The bicycle paths in Curitiba will pass through a revitalization program next semester. The network is no longer a part of the urban infrastructure department from the Urban Research and Planning Institute of Curitiba (Ippuc) and belongs now to sector of transportation – a strategy born in consequence of a demand from the Urban Mobility Plan (PlanMob) of Curitiba and Metropolitan Region, a program that is going to be installed in one year period financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). One of the ideas is the incentive to healthy and non pollutant means of transportation, such as bicycles.

Three years ago, Ippuc considered the possibility of restoring the bicycle paths for the first time and came even to elaborate the preliminary plans. The extent of the bicycle paths network is over 160 Km, the largest one in Brazil, estimated in lousy 200 Km. The engineer Clever Ubiratan Teixeira de Almeira, special projects advisor for Ippuc explains that the tendency isn’t to disable parts of the network, but to widen it. One of the projects contemplated by the city hall is an 8 Km long bicycle path in the South Contour parallel to Juscelino Kubitschek Avenue. “There is a demand from the workers in the area”, explains Clever.

Estimates for the year 2000 showed 10.7 thousand bicycle paths users during the week and 15.6 thousand on Saturday and Sundays. Since then, the capital gained 200 thousand new habitants, so it’s likely that the bicycle paths have around 18 thousand users in the weekends, close to 1% of the city population. A performance far from the ideal, considering the urgent need to decrease the numbers of automobiles in the streets.

To begin to use the bicycle paths demands great effort from the cyclist or the pedestrian. In the poor areas of the city the conservation and signalization of the network is good. However, downtown and close to the parks, like Barigui, the conditions are similar, although the traffic shaped to the automobiles gives no way to the cyclists. In the most popular neighborhoods it’s common to find poorly signalized parts of the bicycle paths, which makes it hard to the first time travelers. There are also parts of the bicycle paths squeezed in the sidewalks, full of irregular bits, as it is in at Antônio Escorsin Street, in São Braz.

Translator’s notes:

• The cycle-paths were built in the 70’s with recreational purposes only. Until today (March/2008), the revitalization process didn’t take place.
• According to an Ippuc research, the amount of pedestrians using the cycle-paths are higher than cyclists. There aren’t any exclusive cycle-paths in Curitiba.
• Curitiba is no longer the city with the largest network in Brazil.
• Curitiba is nowadays the most motorized city in the Country.
• For more information see our map with dozens of cycle-path photos.

Originally published at Gazeta do Povo – Caderno Paraná.

See portuguese version