The Context

Porto Alegre is the southernmost capital of Brazil, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. With more than 3.5 million inhabitants, it is the fourth largest city in Brazil, with traffic problems to match. Currently, an uncoordinated network of city bus services creates chaos and severe air pollution in the downtown area, since bus depots are concentrated along major arterials and buses idle for long periods of time next to waiting passengers and passers-by.

In May 2005, inspired by the success of the CTS model in Mexico City, EMBARQ created CTS-Brasil, a center whose first project will be implementing a BRT system in Porto Alegre, and which will then expand to work in other cities in Brazil and the southern cone.

Despite its present transport problems, Porto Alegre has important strengths that promise success for its new EMBARQ center. Porto Alegre’s pioneering role in the Brazilian environmental movement, dating back to the 1970s, means the city has a strong tradition of political will to tackle transport challenges. The city’s transport sector is rich in technical and entrepreneurial capacity, having developed innovations such as high-flow bus convoying corridors in earlier decades. Finally, CTS and the city are able to draw on the expertise of planners and advisors who have worked on the design of TransMilenio in Bogotá and Metrobus in Mexico City and can bring the benefits of both political and technical lessons learned.