Bo Kristiaan Janssen

Content

Introduction
Public Transport
Individual Transport
Conclusion

Sources

Introduction

A lot of people asked me, before leaving to São Paulo and during my stay there, why I chose to study in São Paulo. Time after time I ended up telling them the same story: I did not want to stay in Europe nor a other western country, my dad is a Portuguese translator and so I am naturally more interested in learning the Portuguese language and as final, I always wanted to go to Brazil partly because of it's famous Niemeyer architecture.

The reply was in most cases: 'ok, but why São Paulo?'. My answer is that it was simply the city with the only university where my university in The Netherlands has contact with. This was also the only reason, I did not know anything about the city. My only image of São Paulo was a commercial I saw on internet with a helicopter in it flying over the big buildings, that the city has 20 million inhabitants and that it is extremely dangerous and violent. The last point is one I never really took serious, I mean that I never saw it as a reason not to go. There are still 20 million people who have to live in this 'extremely dangerous' city. The fact is that people outside Brazil, or better said the people in The Netherlands, don't know São Paulo. Most people will not be able to point the location of one of the largest cities in the world, or even know in which country it is. Friends asked me if I had to learn Spanish, friends who all study at very renowned university's in The Netherlands.

After my admittance to USP I started my small research to get to know São Paulo better.

My first sources were the dutch students who studied at USP before. They told me some stories and showed me some pictures. It was supposed to be the 'motor' of Brazil, a working city. My impression was that I was going to a very poor and not modern city, although I knew there was a metro and a lot of big buildings.

I also started to look on Internet. The first thing I noticed that it was very hard to find English written websites, this turned out to be a problem as I still couldn't read Portuguese. This meant that I didn't get to know much more from São Paulo from the Internet. Because I already started to search for an apartment and I didn't know where to live, I also looked for a decent map, but the only map I could find was one for the metro. I noted that it was very strange for a big city not having a map on Internet to get an overall view.

Finally FAAP, a private university where I attended an intensive Portuguese course during the first month, helped me out in finding an apartment. This apartment is located in the neighbourhood Higienópolis which was the startpoint of my exploration of São Paulo.

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São Paulo is not very known in The Netherlands, and I think this is the same in most 'western' countries. The image of São Paulo is not very good with the people who do know the city, the overall image is that it's a very dangerous and not a good city to be in. The possibilities of information retrieval were not able to change that image for me. So I went to São Paulo with the idea of going to one of the worst places I could imagine, one big adventure and clearly not the 'western' place I did not wanted to go.

This is a quite strange situation for a city who wants to be a modern and forward going city, it's not reflecting this outside Brazil or maybe better said, outside South-America. Why is São Paulo not known as a place to visit?

In the last few months I noticed that São Paulo is a city where there is no centre. There is an historically located centre, but this isn't functioning as one. There are multiple economical, shopping and entertainment centres spread over the city. One of the reasons is a lack of planning during the explosive grow in the last century. The city exploded, as seen in the graphics.

Modified graphics
Original from Csaba Deák in Strategic planning & urban projects/ Responses to globalisation from 15 cities, 2001

This extensive growth has resulted in a literally exploded city. This means that it is very hard for a visitor, who doesn't know the city, to discover the places where they need to be and where they can have fun.

What is in the history you can't turn back, so the city has to deal with this fact. But because of the great distances in a city this big, this is not easy. You need to have a good transport system to make an attractive city for visitors and make the city functional for the people who have to life and work here. As the city is 'the motor' of Brazil, it needs to function as a motor.

In this 'monografia' I want to concentrate myself on the functionality of this transport system, for residents of São Paulo and his visitors, on a small and more large scale in this city. I will do this from my point of view, because I have and am experiencing both situations.

Does the transport system function for both visitors and residents of São Paulo.

Public transport

Metro

The construction of the first line, north-south Tucuruvi-Jabaquara, started in 1968 and opened in 1974. This day there are 6 lines functioning. There are 2,7 million users a day on a total length of 270 kilometres, in the complete metropolitan São Paulo. São Paulo city has 102,4 kilometres of metro. With 10,2 passengers per kilometre per year it is the most intensively used system of the world after New York.

Currently there are 3 projects running for 2 new lines and one extention, see also the map.

The Metro system in São Paulo is one of great distances. You can overlap great distances and you can get the conclusion that you're still from great distance of your target destination. With an avarage of 1,1 kilometre between the seperate stations you will be needed to walk or to choose another form of transport to arrive at your final destination.

Public Transport Verkeerskund, urbanrail.net

The São Paulo metro is not very economical. For example: When you want to go from the neighbourhood Higienópolis to Paulista Avenue, it is faster to walk then to go by metro. Although it looks fast on the map.

As first you will have to walk to the station Marechal Deodoro (or Santa Cecilia, there is no big difference in distance) to talk the metro to the transfer station Sé. Here you take line 1, to Jabaquara. At Paraíso you transfer to line 2, to Vila Madalena. Finally you will arrive at Trianon-Masp after spending in total 45 minutes of travelling. If you need to walk after that it will take you at least 1 hour before you will arrive at you destination. Walking takes you maximum the same amount of time.

In the map is the walking route in orange, the red, blue and green are the different metro lines.

We will project these findings on a larger scale in São Paulo. The coloured lines are the metro lines existing now and planned for the future. The gray spots are actually 'black' spots because it are areas where you are to far to access the metro so it becomes not an option for travelling. The big gray spots north-west and south-east are the areas where there is a big problem in accessing the metro, they actually don't have one.

A metro-system is one of the best solutions for fast transport in big city's, almost every with big proportion use this system. But in this case it has only use when you are living near or have to travel big distances.

Because of the easy to use and safety in the metro it is a nice transportation device for visitors to São Paulo. There are no traffic problems, it is not expensive and most stations are located near places which are worth visiting.

Bus

The bus (ônibus) system of São Paulo is not very easy to use. It is quite hard to get around if you don't know how the buses are driving. The boards on the side of the buses say the main streets but as soon as you want to go to a location where there is no direct bus going to it is hard to find out how you are going there. Also in this case you will end up walking for quite a distance.

For example:

In my case I live at Avenida Angélica in Higienópolis and friends of me live at Alameda Franca in Jardim Paulista. In this case I would like to get there by bus. The problem is that there are a lot of buses going throe Avenida 9 de Julho, close to there home, but those buses are not coming near to my home. The closest one is going throe Rua Augusta (on the picture dark green). This still is quite a walk from the house of my friends. So not really an option. Metro is also not an option, as said in 'Metro'.

Conclusion Public Transport

In this case there is not directly an easy solution to solve this problem, it's quite a small scale. But I think this example is one which represents the problems in the planning in São Paulo, this one is on a small scale but you can pull this to a larger scale and see the same problems. The holes which are left by the metro are mostly being filled with the bus system. But also there, as you can see on the small scale, it isn't flawless. Problems out of the life of inhabitants of São Paulo. A car is needed.

Individual transport

Because I do not have a car in São Paulo it is not easy to give my opinion about the road system in São Paulo. But I do use the taxi's once in a while and I have talked with a lot with Brazilians who do have a car and live in São Paulo for much longer than I do.

Again I will use the same example, how to get from point 1 to point 2.

On every map of this piece of the city you get the idea that you can drive directly from Avenida Angélica on to Avenida Paulista. This is not possible though, what means that you need to know this situation very well to have the solution there before arriving at this big intersection, because before you know it you are already on Avenida Rebouças. No returning back.

In my experience with taxi's (approximately 50 rides) they make a choice out of 2 ways to get to point 2, named as 'Route A' and 'Route B'. Both routes are extremely complicated and not possible for the 'visitor', if you are not living in the neighbourhood you will not drive according this route and you will have a lot of problems getting to point 2. On the last map are the directions where the unexperienced driver will probably be heading without knowing how to come back.

This example is again a problem on small scale, on larger scale you see the same problem happening in the connection of Region East (Zona Leste) with the Centre and the immediate region on the west side of it.In this map you can see how the main access to the centre is on this moment. The gray zones between the lines are zones which are hard to access and it is very hard to move from zone to zone. In the current system there is no option to go to the other zone purely by a primary road, you will have to drive over secondary and tertiary roads. This does not help making the road system clear and easy.

Conclusion Individual Transport

As soon as you have a lot of experience in the traffic in São Paulo you will manage to get around, and as soon as you manoeuvre around the trafficjams you will not experience a lot of problems. But when you are not a regular in this city, you will have a lot of problems finding your way and it will take a lot of time. And as soon you get lost and find yourself in a bad area of the city, it can

Conclusion

When you put the both maps, metro and car, of the larger scale together. You will see the overlapping gray areas as the spots where it is very hard to get to and away from. Espescially the south-east part is a problem area. This area is mainly planned for residential use, and is not a part of town where a tourist would like to go.

But as soon as you are staying in São Paulo a little longer than a few days, you will be needing to get to places where it is not easy to get to using only public transport. These moments you will miss having a car and the only solution is going by taxi. But this is not a real solution, taxi's in São Paulo are quite expensive for a student, even if they are from Europe, and so not for every day use.

The conclusion out of this monografia is that the current transport 'motor' of São Paulo is not functionizing very well. Residents of São Paulo do not have an easy time getting around in the city. The fastest way to get around is by car, but only outside of the rush hour. If you do not own a car, your world is a lot smaller, as most of the Brazilians do not earn enough to get around by taxi. The reach of the metro is to small to get where you are 95 % of your time. Buses take too much time, your bus will rarely go straight to your destination without having to walk far.

Moving around in São Paulo by car as visitor is very hard. The road system is not clear and if you find your destination outside of the main roads it will take you a lot of time. When you are getting lost you need to watch out ending up in a bad area. By taxi the visitor will think he's getting ripped of all the time because of the strange shortcuts taxi drivers take to manage in the chaos.

By bus is not worth the struggle for a visitor, as soon as you find out how the system works you will be out of São Paulo again. The bus is a nice option if the bus goes straight to your destination. By Metro is probably the most efficient way to move around in São Paulo, along the metro track there are a lot of spots well worth to visit. It is an easy way and a cheap way. As soon as you need to be outside of the metro range, a taxi is probably the fastest option but also the most expensive one.

Sources

- verkeerskunde number 2-2005
- http://www.urbanrail.net/am/spau/sao-paulo.htm, 26-11-2005
- Csaba Deák, São Paulo, In Carmona, Marisa & Burgess, Rod
(orgs, 2001) Strategic planning & urban projects/ Responses to
globalisation from 15 cities Delft University Press, Deft, pp:173-82
(text) & 282-88 (illustrations)