The Tubes!!

Here is a shot of Curitiba's transportation amazingness. These two lanes in the middle are for buses only. There are several kinds of buses, distinguished by color; different buses travel at different speeds, stop more or less frequently, and go to different places.

You can see a bus in the distance at the bottom of this hill, these buses are the poster-children of Curitiba's public transit. They have these dedicated lanes and arrive very frequently, but don't make a ton of stops, and go fast. The stops are the famous "tubes." You step up and pay your fare, then enter the tube, the bus comes and a ramp lowers from the side of the bus as the doors open and you walk out of the tube and onto the bus. I'll have to get a good photo of some tube-action tomorrow.

The cars travel on the outside lanes. Some of the bigger boulevards (the lifelines of Curitiba's radial density growth) are arranged even cooler: there is the dedicated bus lane in either direction in the middle, then just outside of that is a lane for local car traffic, then outside of that more lanes for faster car traffic. The areas around these superhighways are zoned for the maximum density and taper off as you get away. So a 3D overhead of the city would show all the tall buildings in lines following these roads. No one who lives here is more than 500 meters from a bus line. It is absolutely tunning, and people use it!

Tomorrow we will go to the transportation agency; I'm curious to ask about bike use and planning. Not too many people here ride bikes. I'm the most excited person on the trip about all this transportation/land use business. I was all smiles while we were in that tube!

It is neat that I'm here long enough to need to go to the grocery store. I was psyched to buy some carrots! Also, bananas, apples, yogurt, and some amazing Brazilian granola/cereal bars.