Mega-event transport legacy in a developing country: The case of Rio 2016 Olympic Games and its Transolimpica BRT corridor

摘要

The Rio de Janeiro government, in order to prepare the city for the 2016 Olympic Games, implemented four new BRT lines (Bus Rapid Transit). One of these is the "BRT Transolimpica", which would mainly serve the mega-event by connecting two Olympic venues, but which was justified as the integration between the northern and southern regions of the city. In this paper, the Transolimpica transport legacy, regarding urban development, was analysed to verify the influence of this BRT line on the development of its surroundings. The three-step methodology comprised a study of the surroundings of BRT stations through analyses of physical dynamics, real-estate dynamics, and relational analysis (the contextualisation of the results within the local context). The analyses cover five phases of the BRT implementation associated with the 2016 Olympic Games: candidature (2008-2010); planning and design (2010-2012); implementation, subdivided into two periods (2012-2014 and 2014-2016); and operation (2016-2018). We found that this BRT line: i) was not relevant to the occupation of the surroundings; ii) ended up accentuating the segmentation of the territory along the corridor; and iii) has been consolidating an ambiguous transport legacy in terms of urban development.