Curitiba

Curitiba did a number of things, best described here:

1. Built parks instead of canals to reduce flooding. Also used parks to make the city more liveable.
2. Pedestrianised the downtown area.
3. Invented and built the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) – a bus system that works like a light rail system but is 10 times cheaper.
4. Gave people bus tokens in return for waste.
5. Started a massive recycling scheme – all initiated by children.

So:

1. Curitiba has the highest recycling rate in the World – 70%.
2. Curitiba has bus system that is so good that car traffic decreased by 30% while the population trebled in a twenty year period.
3. Curitiba has the largest downtown pedestrianised shopping area in the World.
4. Curitiba has built large numbers of beautiful parks to control floods rather than concrete canals. So many that they use sheep to cut the grass as it’s cheaper than lawnmowers.
5. Curitiba is a city where 99% of inhabitants want to live. In comparison, 70% of Sao Paolo’s residents want to live in Curitiba.
6. Curitiba’s average income per person has gone from less than the Brazilian average in the 1970’s to 66% greater than the Brazilian average.