Rendering by Gabriel Kozlowski and Miguel Darcy
Rendering by Miguel Darcy
Last week, academics, city officials, civil society organizations, state officials and international guests packed a standing room only auditorium at the Solar da Imperatriz within Rio’s Tropical Botanical Gardens to discuss how TransBrasil, the last of the four major BRT legacy projects to be built in preparation for the Olympics in 2016, can catalyze new investment in neighborhoods along Avenida Brasil. Serving as one of the city’s most important arteries and a gateway to Rio, Avenida Brasil has a lot of importance in connecting many residents and freight to the metropolitan region’s economy. TransBrasil will have a dedicated express lane to shuttle residents across the 32km corridor, and is estimated to carry 50,000 passengers per direction per hour when it opens in 2016.
Results were presented from the design charrette held a week prior in which government officials created a conceptual transit-oriented development (TOD) plan around one of the stations in the Bonsucesso neighborhood in the city’s North Zone. A rendering showing a re-imagined Avenida Brasil was inspired discussion about the importance of addressing density and parking in TOD design. ITDP CEO Walter Hook, speaking at the seminar, said that no TOD plan can be realized without someone specifically working to make it happen, and that a mechanism must be devised to assure all the financing and regulatory tools are in place to actually build high quality TOD along TransBrasil.
With 60% of Rio’s population living in North Zone of the city, TransBrasil has the potential to reap huge benefits for the communities living along Avenida Brasil that have long been neglected with decrepit infrastructure. The charrette with government stakeholders was meant to kick-start the planning process to bring high quality TOD to Rio. A final report of the design charrette and conceptual plan will be submitted to the city by ITDP in October now that wider discussions have commenced.