Is Curitiba, Brazil the model city for parking management?

Christopher Ziemann
District of Columbia Department of Transportation
November 2008

This paper examines parking supply, price, and policies in Curitiba, Brazil, the original model city for BRT. The goal of this exploratory paper is to expand the current body of literature on Curitiba?Ts transportation and land use connections and to bring attention to how policy impacts parking, and how parking influences mode choice. This paper provides a review of parking literature, concluding that restricting parking reduces vehicle mode share, and gives examples of policies other cities have implemented such as maximum parking allowances. Then, from interviews, this paper explains the history of parking policy in Curitiba and examines five case studies to determine how this has affected supply, demand, and price. The paper also compares this data with socio-economic statistics and data on urban form. The result is that Curitiba adopted minimum parking requirements similar to most U.S. cities, even along the BRT lines. There is high supply and in all five cases, and high demand where income and density are highest. The lessons from this paper are especially relevant to poor countries battling congestion and pollution and seeking low-cost solutions and can help define what a model city for parking management would look like.

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