Curitiba

Geography

It is located at 934 m of altitude, on the Piedmont of the Serra C Mar, to a hundred kilometers of the port of Paranaguá. Its geographical position is of Southern 25.42°, and Western 49.29°.

Climate

The Climat of Curitiba is of moderate type continental, very influenced by the altitude and the proximity of the sea. Altitude gives to Curitiba specific characteristics, like one cold winter, comparable with the winters of towns of high latitudes.
La proximity of the sea (to 75 km) exerts a great influence on the climate of Curitiba and it makes it possible to protect the city from the large cold waves (which come from the Argentine and the the Antarctic) and to moderate the days of heat wave.
Selon the Classification of Köppen, the climate of Curitiba is classified Cfb, wet, without dry season, with a fresh summer and a relatively cold winter, with frequent frosts and occasionally of the Neige.
La temperature varies appreciably according to the moment of the day. Certain days the thermal Amplitude reached 25°C, and can come accompanied by sun, rain or Brouillard the night. The average temperature is of 16,5°C, July being the coldest month, and the hottest February. According to Simepar, during the summer the minimal and maximum temperatures average are respectively of 16°C and 26°C. In winter, the averages are of 8°C and 18°C, and on average 40 days per annum have temperatures below 10°C. The possibility of frost exists, being observed every 10 years, on average.

History

Colonial city

The city was founded in 1654. It was high with the row of municipe the March 29th 1693 (date appointed by the city for the foundation), under the name of Vila of Nossa Senhora da Luz back Pinhais (Town of Notre-Dame of the Light of the Pines). Its current name was selected in 1721, at the time of the visit of Raphael Pires Pardinho, official of the colonial administration. It comes from the word Tupi Curii Tiba , which means the city of the pines , in reference to the very many pines of the hills around.

The tradition of growth balanced of Curitiba goes up at that time: Pardinho ordered that the trees would be cut down only under certain conditions, in order to preserve this resource.

It enacted also the first rules of town planning:

the houses cannot be built without license of the municipal council;
of the broad streets will be traced (see Plan hippodamien).

The city remains, at that time, of the exploitation of wood, the construction of residences of winter, and of the trade. It is however very poor, until the arrival of the trade of cattle, after 1812. Placed on the way of the herds of the cattle-breeding areas towards Sao Paulo, it profits from the construction of warehouses and shops.

It is capital State in 1854. The city is only managed as from this moment.

Emancipation and takeoff

As from 1870, nonPortuguese immigrants started to arrive, in particular of the Germans, the Poles and the Italians, with also of the French, Japanese, English and Swiss in less number.

Curitiba enorgueillit to have preserved an element of each immigrant population, and thus to have known to capitalize on its diversity:

the Portuguese and the Spaniards, métissés with the Indians, form the base of the population;
with the emancipation of the city (1854), and the encouragements of the Brazilian government to immigration, the city attracted other migrants, of which the many Brazilian ones of the other provinces;
the Germans start to arrive of number in 1872; they settle in the urban core, and begin the industrialization of the city (Sidérurgie, Imprimerie S), develop the trade; the introduction of the civic spirit and the social responsibility their is allotted;
the Poles, whose arrival begins in 1871, found agricultural colonies around the city;
the Italians arrive in 1872 and found the colony of Santa Felicidade as of 1878. According to their origin, they provide workmen or tradesmen (north of Italy) or farmers (Southern); they introduce novel methods of culture, and are the majority of the market-gardeners (with the Poles);
the Ukrainians arrive in 1895;
the first presence of Japanese is raised in 1915, with the arrival of Mizumo Ryu (a boat); after 1924, they arrive in more groups;
theLebanese one were established in the trade of clothing, and the sale with the door-to-door.

The first federal Université of Brazil was built there in 1913, year of the electrification of the network of Trolleybus. The city also has three schools of foreign language, a Frenchwoman, English and allemande.

City planning

Curitiba is the example even of excellence in the city planning, by anticipation over several decades, the adaptation and the progressive improvement of the model chosen, the tenacity with which it was led for one long period, and especially by the results obtained.

The situation in the Fifties and Sixties

At the end of the Years 1950, Curitiba was a city very pleasant to live. However its growth worried some of its inhabitants, who feared that it does not call into question its character. Indeed, several cities of Brazil at that time knew a rapid growth, either badly controlled (Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo), or hypermoderne (Brasilia), all things which the inhabitants of Curitiba wished to avoid. The growth of the population of Curitiba, supplied with the Rural migration, was of 5,7% per annum of the Fifties at the Eighties.

In 1964, the population reached the figure of 430.000 inhabitants. In front of this situation, the mayor Ivo Arzua asked for proposals including the social action, the offer of service medical, the offer of residences and of course, displacements. The architect Jaime Lerner, resulting from the university of the city, made a proposal which aimed all at the same time:

to avoid the urban waste lands;
to preserve the historical sector;
to control the traffic in the center ( downtown );
to offer an accessible and effective transport system.

The Curitiba Master Plan

A long maturation

Curitiba had obtained a preliminary Plan of town planning since the Forties, of which one of the aspects was to allow displacements of its inhabitants and those of the close localities in all the city. This plan had been directed by the French Alfred Agache, cofounder of French Association for the studies of town planning. The IPPUC (Research institute and of city planning of Curitiba) had in load the design and part of the follow-up of the application of this plan. It envisaged the installation of public services, the reduction in the congestions, the creation of several secondary centers. It included/understood the creation of broad transportation routes, a distance of five meters between the lane and the first constructions, an industrial park, an administrative center. It was not completely implemented, because of the economic situation (Second world war) but the final plan adopted in the Sixties of it is the obvious heir. It is also of this time which some rules go back to town planning, several very broad ways, the industrial park of the station, the administrative center, the polytechnic center and the municipal market.

The plan adopted in 1966 establishes a reorganization of the city giving up the radial plan (i.e. an overall growth), to substitute an expansion of the city to him according to five main axes. These axes, made up of structuring Avenues, were to allow a linear growth by attracting residential and commercial constructions along these axes of transport. Decrees of zoning were taken since 1966. In 1969, the mayor Omar Sabbag developed the preliminary plan of transport, and in 1971, the final plan of transport in commun runs was completed.

Lastly, in this plan the experiment drawn from the long story of transport in commun runs of the city appeared. Their introduction indeed goes up with the November 8th 1887, with discovered horse-drawn carriages, which were replaced by electric Trolleybus in 1913. The number of passengers had increased 680 000 with 1 910 000 of 1903 to 1913. In 1928, the buses made their appearance on stage, and ten years later, they transported only 2,7 million passengers, against 11 million for the trolley.

In the Forties, the lines of bus gradually replaced those of trolley, which were definitively abandoned in 1951. However, the ticket of bus being more expensive, the users expressed and the municipality fixed a flat price for all the ways, to 50 Cruzero S. It was the first single tariff of transport in commun runs of the city.

Ternary ways

On the five axes of development chosen, grounds were reserved in order to build five avenues with six lanes. In the center, two ways reserved for the buses are. This corridor of bus is bordered of two roads with one way of circulation, but two-track. As from 1974, the construction of two of these avenues started on the reserved grounds. The five were completed in 1982.

Along these ways, the Gratte-ciel are authorized, whereas as one moves away from there, the authorized density decreases.

These roads were designed in order to decrease circulation. Speed is limited there to 60 km/h, as in all the city. With the accesses of the schools, lawful speed is of 40 km/h.

Implementation of planning since thirty years

First achievements

The first achievements were in fact, in 1971, the creation of the first malls of the Brésil.

But the central point was of course the success of the network public transport: a service offered satisfactory would push the inhabitants, the trade and the companies to be settled along the axes envisaged; the urban spreading out would be limited; the urban development controlled.

Gropings of tariffing

Several gropings were necessary in order to arrive to a transport system in commun runs which one compares with a subway of surface. First of all, only one ticket makes it possible whoever to go anywhere in the agglomeration. The correspondences are thus unlimited. At the beginning, the municipality set up a system aiming at decreasing the delays due to the payments at the time of the correspondences, and introduced a mark of correspondence. But at the end of 7 months, the fraud appearing important on these paper marks, the municipality introduced a double tariff, for the lines express train, and for the lines connecting these lines express train to the periphery. This tariff was abandoned at the end of 18 months, because it supported richest, living close to the center and paying only one ticket a little expensive, against two for poorest living further. The buses connecting the periphery to the center thus became free. What transformed the buses into dormitories with tramps , and thus caused complaints. The return to the single tariff, with a separation between the buses of periphery and bus express train, was a success. But this success, plus the popularity of the new lines express train, caused an extraordinary growth of the frequentation, and the buses quickly became very dirty. The bus drivers were also tempted to make excess speeds in order to catch up with the time wasted with the stops.

The companies serving the distant districts were found in fact to transport customers who had paid their ticket with a sometimes concurrent company. In 1987, the municipality set up a compensation system based on the number of kilometers traversed by the vehicles and their type.

The invention of the subway of surface

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