Urban AI depends: the need for (wider) urban strategies

Abstract

The Southern Brazilian city of Curitiba is well-known for a series of innovative projects that during the end of the 20th Century affirmed it as one of the exemplars of planning and transport innovation in the Global South and beyond. Jaime Lerner was the architect and urbanist turned-mayor, responsible for several of those projects. Lerner recalled that, when designing and testing the revolutionary Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system, an issue arose on ensuring a perfect alignment between buses and the tube-shaped stops. Many ‘complex and costly solutions’ had been considered, including digitally-assisted ones. Then the bus drivers themselves were consulted, and suggested a low-tech way of simply making two marks – one on the bus’s window and the other on the station – and aligning them. This provided a system that has kept working for many years, with no accidents.