Traffic jams in São Paulo
Despite heavy investments in the transportation infrastructure, drivers of São Paulo still have to face awful traffic jams. Newspaper O Globo informed that in the morning of March 6th 2008, São Paulo faced 165 km (about 103 miles) of jammed streets, the highest figure ever (the former record, of 145 km, had been set just two days ago).
The traffic flow is monitored daily by Companhia de Engenharia de Tráfego - Company of Engineering of Traffic - CET; CET monitors 820 km of the busiest streets in the city via sensors and cameras; the information is available on-line in real time at this map of transit flow in São Paulo.
O Globo interviewed several specialists, who appointed several flaws in the way that São Paulo deals with the problems of transit and transportation. There are fewever vehicles in São Paulo than in Los Angeles (there are 6 million cars in the city of São Paulo, and 9,5 million in the metropolitan area), but cars move faster in LA thanks to a better infrastructure.
One serious problem is the lack of long term planning. For example, most vehicles going from the interior of the State to the Port of Santos must drive across the city, because of lack of alternatives; there is a plan for the construction of a Rodoanel (Ring Drive) around the city, but it started to be built over ten years ago and to date only 32 km (20 mi) were finished.
Other reason mentioned is the rapid growth in the number of vehicles (over the last decade, the fleet grew ten times more than the population) coupled with the proverbial lack of education of Brazilian drivers. Everyday, several accidents happen because of misconduts, and each single accident may be enough to slow down transit for several hours.