Porto Alegre, a medium size city in the State of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, is planning to implement a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor and a fare integration scheme to reduce the number of buses and terminals in the city center and to increase bus ridership. EMBARQ/WRI worked with local partners to estimate the impact of these two proposed initiatives on air pollutants and CO2 emissions in the city.

The results of this case study showed that the BRT system would reduce emissions by 25-31 thousand tones of CO2 per year, when compared to the business as usual scenario with fare integration. Interestingly, the study estimated that the fare integration plan, if implemented on its own, could actually increase emissions. Further analysis shows that cleaner fuels and emission control technologies would have a significant impact if applied to fleets with high annual mileage, such as the municipal or the metropolitan bus fleets.

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