I’ve read little bits and pieces about Curitiba over the last year, it often receives titles like ‘Best designed city on Earth’, ‘Best bus system on the Planet’, ‘The World’s most Livable City’. Surveys show that 60% of New Yorkers would like to leave their city - 99% of Curitibans are happy with theirs. 70% of residents surveyed in Sao Paulo say they think life would be better in Curitiba.

Curitiba is Brazil’s 7th largest city with a population of around 1.8 million and since 1965 has been following a master plan to build a city not for cars but for people. Central to building a city for people was building the world’s best bus system which to date has been copied by 83 countries around the world. With subway like boarding tubes and dedicated roads for buses the Curitiba bus system carries 2.2 million passengers per day.

In the last 20 years the population of Curitiba has tripled but the park lands and have grown from 2 square feet of green space per person to 150 square feet per person. By running a 6 month recycling program in all schools teaching children how to separate their rubbish, Curitiba has the highest rate of rubbish separation in the world (70%).

Interesting Resources:
Common Dreams have a great excerpt about Curitiba.
Interesting (slightly dry) facts about the city plan.
A video of a 20 minute talk from Jaime Lerner who has been one of the major driving forces behind the development of Curitba