The culmination of a site visit, focused working group and continued analysis, ITDP Brazil recently released a report recommending several changes to a BRT station planned for the Bonsucesso neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. The report draws on input from city officials and planners, recommending changes to the station’s name, location, and design. As the TransBrasil BRT plans continue to be refined, ITDP staff members will meet with Rio’s Transportation Secretary in the coming weeks to discuss the proposals in detail.
As part of the Our Cities Ourselves (OCO) Program, ITDP Brazil organized a working group in September to look a planned TransBrasil BRT station for improvements. Together with representatives from several government agencies, including transport, city planning and public works, planners visited the planned site and evaluated aspects of the station’s design with an eye toward transport oriented development (TOD). The resulting report identifies a range of opportunities to maximize the benefits of the station.
A key detail of the report is the proposed renaming and relocation of the station. Currently named ‘Joana Nascimento’ the report suggests changing the station to ‘Hospital Bonsucesso’, a more identifiable landmark for city residents. In addition, the report finds that the current station location is not optimized for housing proximity, and has poor walking accessibility, in part due to an adjacent military reserve. By relocating the station slightly farther north along the BRT corridor, it would be more accessible to pedestrians, closer to current and planned housing developments, and would allow easier intermodal connections.
Further suggestions for the station redesign address pedestrian and cycling accessibility. The report calls for wider sidewalks, access ramps with green space and vendors, and overpass bridges to support increased foot traffic from nearby housing facilities and a local university. Increased bike paths, traffic calming measures, and better signage will further aid non-motorized transit and support use of the BRT station.
The report builds momentum for continued work refining plans for the new TransBrasil corridor. After the OCO design charette, a multi-agency working group developed to review other stations along the planned BRT corridor.