Enhancing Places through Technology
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Data
2017
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Edições Universitárias Lusófonas
Resumo
The Brazilian city of Curitiba, capital of the Southern state of Parana, is well-known globally
for a series of interesting planning initiatives and choices promoted through its recent history
by some of its administrators, amongst which probably the most prominent has been the
architect-planner Jaime Lerner. One of the most notable pieces of innovation in the city,
enjoying a global resonance, was the original design of the mass transport system known
as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). Thanks to various ideas, mainly related to the ‘tube’ design of
the bus stops and the consequent affordance of a very fast exchange of alighting and
boarding passengers, the operations of the BRT’s long buses could be almost as efficient
as that of an underground system. The story of the design and evolution of the BRT presents
an interesting – albeit indirect – point of reflection for those involved in efforts of ‘smartening
up’ the city through the application of technology. Lerner often tells the story of bus drivers
solving through an extremely simple and low-tech idea – the application of two small
marks on the bus’s window and the stop’s structure to allow drivers to always stop at exactly
the same position – a problem that otherwise would have called for complex and expensive
hi-tech solutions [1]. Similarly, when the BRT system was augmented with a new ‘express’
type of bus that would not call at all stops, allowing for quicker longer-haul transfers
within the city, the issue of allowing such buses not to be blocked by slower vehicles
stationing at facing stops in narrow roads arose. Again, this could have easily called for all
sorts of smart, digital ‘solutions’, such as geo-locating the vehicles, sensing their presence
and mutual position, maybe automatically controlling their speed through actuators in
their engines linked with the centrally managed system. What was done, however, was
rather smart indeed, yet involving no high technology. Simply, opposed stops were moved
slightly, so that they would be staggered and allow enough space for the express buses
to go through even when two slower vehicles were loading passengers at both sides of
the road. This points at two key hints that matter in smart – in its wider sense – space design.
One is of course the importance of simplicity. The other one, however, is the often
underplayed – if not entirely forgotten in contemporary digitally-driven urban visions –
importance of physical space and the role and agency it has in the city.
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Palavras-chave
EDUCAÇÃO, EDUCATION, URBANISMO, URBANISM, CULTURA URBANA, URBAN CULTURE, ORGANIZAÇÃO TERRITORIAL, TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION, ESPAÇO PÚBLICO, PUBLIC SPACE, SOCIEDADE, SOCIETY