Curitiba’s BRT: Inspired Bus Rapid Transit Around the World

I love, love, love seeing Streetfilms all over the world! Nice job.

Great video! Curitiba looks amazing. This bus system looks so so so efficient compared to the slow, congested bus system of Buenos Aires.

This is a fantastic video. It is a real wake up call to how government, when proactive can really stand up for the citizens and not just get bought by corporations and automobile lobbies. Curitiba is only aprox a 1/6 of NYC! It really shows when governments care.

Interurbans,

To say the Orange Line is a "failure" is a complete farce. You could argue it could be better in the future as a LRT - yes, without a doubt and that could well be true and its future - but I found nothing about the ride bumpy or uncomfortable. Loading was not slow at all, in fact it is very fast compared to any bus system in the country, especially the weak attempts at partial-BRT or rapid systems. I rode the LRT lines in L.A. and they were great too, but loading time in my opinion was only slightly faster vs. BRT.

The 15,000 a day number is not a good hard and fast rule. Sure in some cities that may be a good barometer, but BRT systems in cities like NYC where there is not going to ever be any dramatic expansion of the subway or LRT lines (except maybe across 42nd street as a streetcar) BRT is a great way to expand service and transit. The problem is you are looking at all your arguments as a LRT vs BRT. In some cases there is nothing on the other side of the "vs". For example, in NYC on, let's say 2nd Avenue - the only feasible choice because of $$$, density, etc. is BRT vs. continuing, slow bad bus service. In that case BRT is a good solution.

In other places where you may have more open space and fewer roads to actually cross it may be LRT vs. nothing else.

I am hardly arguing for BRT across all of America. They both need to prove themselves on their merits. BRT would be a good choice for places like the Bay Area and NYC. To paint with a broad 15,000 stroke is reckless.

Great video! But we must think that today Curitiba is perverting some foundamental principles of its own revolution.

For example, several bus services decreased the number of employees, and today in several routes the utilised bus is smaller than 2 or 3 years ago. In this type of bus, we have to pay the tickets directly with the driver! (Think that the video speak´s about the "dinamization" of transport, including paying the tickets). This is not BRT system, but if you imagine an integrated system, this is abnormal...

Another abnormal thing is the price of the tickets, mysteriously more expansive, while the number of passengers also increased in the past years.

Important things to change in Curitiba again...

As a matter of sense, LRT is more expensive to build. As a matter of fact, it is more costly and polluting to operate and slower than BRT. Why? Electricity is made from burning oil, coal or hydro-power. 1 time of changing the energy-form (from oil to electricity) will causes loss somehow. Then later, the electricity will be changed again to make kinetic energy to propel the LRT's cars which is also subject to some energy loss. -> 2 times of loss. Meanwhile for the bus which burns oil directly, it will suffer from 1 time of energy transformation. -> more loss of energy means more pollution. Slower than BRT? Because it doesn't have the traffic signal priority like BRT. My 3 cents.

I say LRT has lower floors than BRT, thus easier boarding.
In New Jersey, the Camden-Trenton River Line LRT was built at a tenth the cost of other LRT's. That's because they left out the catenary (overhead wire) and made each vehicle diesel powered.
I favor rail- steel wheels on steel rail has the least friction , gets the best fuel economy, and has the smoothest ride.
As for bikes, you wouldn't have bike riders attracted to LRT track.

Curitiba is now building light rail.

They decided that their "world model" BRT system was too low-capacity, and that running a gazillion buses on a giant right-of-way was not as efficient as running light rail trains on a narrower right of way.

BRT is just dumb. If you have the demand for exclusive busways, you have the demand for rail, and you'll get faster, more comfortable rides using fewer drivers (labor is the main operating cost for transit).

If you don't have the demand for exclusive busways, then it's not BRT, it's just buses. Nothing wrong with having well-run buses, of course -- London's buses put most bus systems to shame.

Oh, also, the facts on energy efficiency:
(1) Carrying around many pounds of fuel wastes energy. Transmitting it over power lines wastes a lot less energy.
(2) Electrical generators are very efficient and so are electric motors. Both are *so* efficient that a motor-generator set is more efficient than a straight-up gasoline or diesel engine converting fuel to mechanical energy! (Shocking, I know!) This is why all train locomotives, and a bunch of new buses, are "serial diesel-electric hybrids"!
(3) Bigger electrical generators are more efficient than smaller ones. So producing the electricity at a power plant and sending it over the wires to a train (or trolleybus!) ends up being MUCH MUCH more efficient than running a diesel bus (or train!).
(4) Trains can be longer than buses, packing more people in per pound of steel and per driver. This avoids wasting money moving steel around.
(5) All of this only applies if you have high volumes, of course. If you aren't running very many vehicles per day, the capital costs of the electric wires overwhelm the operating costs of the diesel engines; and of course there's no point running quarter-full trains when you could be running fully-full buses.

Conclusion: electric trains are the way to go for high-volume routes. Good buses (NYC transit is settling on diesel-electric serial hybrids) are the way to go for *lower volume* routes. But of course low volume routes don't need "BRT".

every 30 SECONDS!!!!! wake me when any USA city hires that many drivers. You can build and speed all you want, but when people have to wait 20 to 60 minutes for a bus, each transfer, they won't want to take transit.

I live in Curitiba, and I can say that our system of transportation has improved a lot, you pay once to ride all over town,the ''bi-articulated'' are perfect for those who live here or who come to know the city,good to know that my city inspires the others, we do everything to make each day better and more sustainable.