Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ABM Topic and Case Study by Lester
ABM Topic and Case Study by Lester
Case Study
In 1988, Jaime Lerner announced his candidacy for mayor of Curitiba with only 12 days remaining
before the election. During his first term, Lerner implemented the Rede Integrada de
Transporte (also called Bus Rapid Transit), and continued to implement a host of social, ecological,
and urban reforms during his ensuing terms as mayor.
As mayor, Lerner employed unorthodox solutions to Curitiba's geographic challenges. Like many
cities, Curitiba is bordered by floodplain. Wealthier cities in the United States, such as New Orleans
and Sacramento, have built expensive and expensive-to-maintain levee systems on floodplain. In
contrast, Curitiba purchased the floodplain and made parks. The city now ranks among the world
leaders in per-capita park area. Curitiba had the problem of its status as a third-world city, unable to
afford the tractors and petroleum to mow these parks. The innovative response was "municipal
sheep" who keep the parks' vegetation under control and whose wool funds children's programs.
When Lerner became mayor, Curitiba had some barrios impossible to service by municipal waste
removal. The "streets" were too narrow. Rather than abandon these people or raze these slums,
Lerner began a program that traded bags of groceries and transit passes for bags of trash. The
slums got much cleaner.
Similarly, Curitiba has a nearby bay that was a dumping ground that would be extremely costly to
clean up. Lerner began a program that paid fishermen for any garbage they retrieved (by the pound).
This way, they can make money even outside fishing season, supplementing their income. The
savings to Curitiba is in the millions.
Lerner instituted many innovative social and educational programs. Barrio kids can be apprenticed to
city employees if they don't want to go to school. Although his term as mayor is not without
controversy, Curitiba does not have the gangs of much more populous cities such as Rio de Janeiro.
Perhaps the crown jewel of Curitiba's achievements is its Bus Rapid Transit system (called
"Speedybus"). Originally, the city was given federal money to build a subway (Curitiba is not a small
town), but Lerner discovered that "heavy rail" like a subway costs ten times the amount for "light rail"
(trolleys), which, in turn, costs ten times a bus system, even with dedicated bus ways. The "light rail"
savings usually touted to sway municipal decision makers occur because even trolleys can have
relatively fewer drivers than a 40-60 passenger bus. Lerner got Volvo to make 270
person Swedish articulated buses (300 Brazilians, says Lerner),[2] so that the problem of a lower
passenger-number-to-driver ratio was no longer an issue. The city built attractive transit stops with
the look and feel of train stations, and all with handicapped access equipment, inducing private firms
to purchase and operate the buses. A hierarchy of buses of six sizes feed one other. The city
controls the routes and fares, while the private companies hire drivers and maintain equipment.
Natural land-use patterns within the city of Curitiba support public transit systems. Buildings along
the dedicated bus ways are up to six stories tall, gradually giving way, within a few blocks, to single
Disadvantage:
Overcrowded because of the line.
a lot
of problems that always arose as the time passes by and as the
city grows, more people are migrating from rural settings. Not
just the populations that are increasing but also the pollution, the
unemployment rate, and the traffic congestion are also
drastically increasing.
Top
Top/Middle
3-5 years
Middle/Lower
annually/quarterly
Monitor
Everyone
ongoing/monthly/
quarterly/annually
Meaningful
productivity.
Agree- upon
Relevant
stakeholder.
Timely
The goals and plans developed in the third step of the goal
setting and planning process are living documents which
means that they are open to being revised when they are
revisited at regular intervals.