May 03, 2012 at 7:30AM - May 03, 2012 at 9:30AM
Location: 32-141
Stata Center
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Complimentary lunch served at 11:30 am
Paulo Sergio Custodio
Brazilian international consultant
Topic: Sustainable Transportation - is the world moving in this direction?
Time:
11:30 am – Complimentary lunch
12:00 pm – Lecture begins
Abstract:
Over the last decades decision makers and stakeholders have embrace the ideas of sustainability and pursued great endeavors in public transportation that have shaped major cities in the developing world. Amazing futures - inspired by the Rede Integrada de Transporte of Curitiba, Brazil (1974) - were imagined through the transit projects of Transmilenio, Lima BRT, Transantiago, and Guangzhou, China. However, more than ten years after the implementation of Transmilenio, the ability of these projects to fulfill that sustainable vision is being questioned and in some cases these projects are considered by the public as failures. What was the sequence of events and conflicting interest that led to these results? How does stakeholders and decision makers lack of commitment to sustainability shape these outcomes? Does it make sense to keep promoting these systems as feasible solutions to mobility? The lecture will provide an update of the current state of these systems and set the ground for a rich discussion of the reasons behind their under performance and the possible answers to these questions.
Bio:
Paulo Sergio Custodio is a Brazilian international consultant with 40 years of experience in planning design and implementation of sustainable urban transportation projects. Throughout his career Mr. Custodio has worked in Asia, Africa, and Latin America and he is recurrent consultant for the World Bank, the ITDP and the World Resources Institute. Custodio has vast experience in working effectively at all government levels, providing solutions that range from transportation policy to pure design, engineer and implementation of transportation systems, TOD, and Smart Growth. He has been coordinator of the Origin and Destination Survey of the Metropolitan Area of Sao Paulo and has played key roles in the advancement of sustainable mobility in his country. After being a Project Director for the team of consultants in charge for the creation of Transmilenio in Bogota, Colombia, Mr. Custodio has worked on large scale projects in the cities of: Beijing, Jinan, Nanning, Changzhou, Hefei, Kunming, Chongqing, Chengdu, Xian, Nanjing, Kunshan in China; and consulted for the BRT systems in Delhi and Hyderabad, India and Indonesia.
More information on the Speaker Series can be found on the Distinguished Speaker Series webpage.