You can't get there from here

My Argentinian co-blogger recently wrote about the transportation system in Porto Alegre. It's interesting that he made comparisons to Buenos Aires; I was there in March, and I felt like I knew my way around that beautiful city better after three days than I did in POA after three months!!

The dearth of useful information available here to the visitor—and resident—baffles me. There are few maps in circulation, and the layout of the city and its bairros seems to have no coherent pattern.

Worse still is the incomprehensible maze of public buses and the complete lack of travel guidance. It's like some sort of secret society, where you have to crack the code to enter. I am always asking 'How am I supposed to know WHICH bus to take to a particular destination?'

The answer is invariably the same. 'You just know.'

But there are no notices at the bus stops. There are no timetables, no destination charts. There is no bus map that makes any sense. The official eptc website is a myriad of confusion. Only if you know the exact bus number you want to look up can you find its route and schedule. And because there are four bus companies that don't seem to have any connection with one another, it's even harder to map out a course.

You can't just walk to the closest bus stop and see where you can go. You could flag down each bus and ask the driver, but what if you don't speak Portuguese? What if the very bus you need is just around the corner and no one tells you? What if you're the sort of person who wants to plan the easiest route ahead of time?

So how is a tourist supposed to navigate the city using public transport?? Many world cities have readily-available and easy-to-understand walking and transportation maps. Many public bus and train systems offer comprehensive guides in print or online, and most stops have detailed route information, including, in some cases, the arrival times of the next one approaching.

And why only a single-journey fare? Why is there no discounted weekly or daily pass, and why must one pay for EACH trip if a change of buses is needed?

Having said all this, once you figure out which bus you need, and where the stop is, and how to negotiate the turnstile and pay the fare, the bus ride itself it quite comfortable and efficient. I'm a huge fan of public transport, and I would like to use it as often as I can. But I think POA has some work to do to get ready for the influx of tourists in 2014.

links: PoaTransporte   eptc

phone: 118 for route information (Portuguese only)