ABSTRACT
In the 1960s, Curitiba began its journey to become one of the most successful cities in expanding the benefits of public transport to other urban sectors in a quite unfavorable environment. Part of the success of Curitiba in making public transport and land-use zoning a key driver to quality of life and urban innovation has been, on one hand, to incorporate some unexpected positive results in its long-term plans and, on the other hand, fix those planning measures which were initially thought as good ideas but eventually produced negative outcomes. Curitiba attempts to remain a city strongly associated with urban sustainability. Curitiba shows that a mix of clear objectives and flexible planning tools is necessary in order to achieve co-benefits. It also shows that unintended positive outcomes can be incorporated along the way to reshape planning processes. Planning, like cities themselves, must understand this process and embrace an ever-changing environment in order to continually achieve better results.
