A stop in Karachi Pakistan The intersection of Preedy and Zaibunnisa Street in the historic Saddar Town yet again is totally clogged Pedestrians mopeds cars and buses are pushing toward each other from all di rections It s a scene that depicts what urbanization cur rently means in many places more people more mobility needs more deliveries and more vehicles while traffi c ar eas remain the same or due to construction sites are even reduced almost always resulting in gridlock Inexpensive and eff ective dedicated bus lanes The situation in the megacities of poorer countries is particularly critical because they oft en simply lack the money to invest in eff ective local public transportation systems Karachi s 20 million inhabitants can neither use a subway nor a tram The trackage of the Karachi Cir cular Railway is only 30 kilometers 18 6 miles long and eff orts to expand it have repeatedly failed Consequent ly local public transportation is limited to buses and In 1974 Curitiba in Brazil was the fi rst city in the world to roll out a Bus Rapid Transport BRT system with dedicated lanes As early as in the 1960s Curitiba began to systematically coordinate urban and transportation planning Today the city with a population of 1 8 million is regarded as the environmental showcase among Brazilian cities Cities are growing together into conurba tions and trains play a key role in both ur ban and interurban transportation No other means of transportation is able to take as many people from A to B with equally min imal space utilization However the costs incurred for railroad infrastructure are high and the environmental footprint of rail transportation heavily depends on the type of electricity consumed and ca pacity utilization MASTERS OF EFFICIENCY outlook 89

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