Transport in Brasilia: the limits of aesthetics

The idea of moving the capital of the country from the coast to Brazil's vast but isolated interior goes back nearly two centuries. The basic motivation was to encourage construction of a national highway system, which in turn would encourage economic development of the interior and reduce regional disparities. The construction of Brasilia was an integral part of President Kubitschek's national development programme in the late 1950s, accompanied by expansion and sophistication of the energy, steel, automotive and road building industries. By 1975, highway transport times and costs had been reduced to some 20–26% of their former levels in most regions, with the Central‐West, where Brasilia is located, being the area with the greatest cost reductions. Despite the success of this development package, Brasilia's transport system has been less successful on a local and regional basis. Most of the problems within the city proper (the Pilot Plan), are due to the excessive emphasis on facilitating car traffic to the disadvantage of buses and non‐motorized traffic, while there are no local rail services. The regional transport problem stems from the location of the satellite cities far from the Pilot Plan, forcing low‐income bus riders to spend 3–4 hours daily in transit and up to 30% of the minimum wage on the journey to work. Improvements depend on institutional and policy changes affecting locational patterns, demand peaks and modal split.