Driving in Brasília

The road system in Brasília makes perfect sense. The city is divided into areas by function, and the numbering is logical. The avenues are broad and interspersed with wide open green spaces. The capital city, inaugurated in 1960 after a stunningly short five years of construction, was designed for modernity, for the automobile. If you spend time in Brasília you will absolutely need to travel by car, as public transportation is woefully lacking. You will need to drive, get a taxi or an Uber in most situations.

For all this logic and planning, driving in Brasília is an adventure. Now, I need to preface my blog on this topic with the admission that I am infamous for my lack of direction and my propensity to get lost almost anywhere in the world. And much of what I will say about Brasília also applies to the rest of Brazil. First I’ll discuss common aspects of driving throughout the country, and then unique aspects of the capital city.

Brazilians are speeders. They love to drive fast. And those who don’t love to drive fast put themselves and everyone else at risk, because they provoke the speeders into passing them in dangerous situations. Because Brazilians love to speed, there are two primary mechanisms used to slow them down.

The first mechanism, found in cities large and small, and even on the main streets of sleepy villages, is the speed bump. Or speed hump; some are veritable Mount Everests. Enclosed, gated condominium residences are laden with them. They call them officially lombadas or colloquially quebra molas, characteristically descriptive Brazilian Portuguese: break your springs. And they will break your shock absorbers if you abuse them. So people do slow down, way down, to traverse the quebra molas. The only problem is those that aren’t marked with a sign and on which the yellow striped paint has faded. Which brings up a first rule of driving: watch for brake lights on the open road in front of you, because there’s a reason that person is suddenly slowing down.

Another place to see brake slamming is the speed camera. These are ubiquitous in major cities, and the driver is forewarned by a sign saying fiscalização eletrônica, electronic control, with an indication of what the acceptable speed is in kilometers per hour. What a lovely, euphemistic way of saying “speed camera.” Your Waze or other navigation app will warn you “speed camera reported ahead.” And if you were daydreaming, let the brake lights of the cars ahead of you wake you up. If you exceed the posted limit, a fine will be sent to the car’s owner. Doesn’t matter who was driving. I live in fear of inadvertently triggering a fine that will be sent to my friends who loaned me their car for the duration of my visit for the launch of a lua ao avesso.

Both speed bumps and speed cameras are passive controls; they don’t require of police resources such as personnel triggering radar, for example. As surely as the sun rises in the morning, if you blow through a speed camera you will be fined. If you blast your way over a speed bump it will at least be a jarring experience, if not damaging to your car or the groceries in the trunk.

Another universal is machismo on the road. Mostly practiced by men in my observation, hence my framing it as machismo. This is aggressive driving at its finest. Speeding far above the posted limit and tailgating anyone in front of them, even if that car is traveling above the speed limit itself. Weaving in and out of traffic, what Brazilians call costurando, or “sewing.” Giving you the hairy eyeball when they pass you. Definitely not letting you merge into traffic or switch lanes to exit.

Now, I must clarify that I like to drive fast. Given a highway with no electronic or other barriers, I will move at a rapid clip. I’m from the western United States, and I’ve been driving open roads since I was just a young thing. I started driving when I was fifteen years old, taught by my dad to drive a “stick” (manual transmission) and handed the wheel on long hauls from California to Colorado. So when I’m tailgated and given the hairy eyeball it’s not because I’m a slowpoke.

Now onto the unique aspects of driving in the capital city of Brasília. The beautiful wide avenues are usually six lanes, with relatively frequent retornos, or places to do a U-turn. This frequent mechanism will be verbalized by your navigation app: “Keep left to retorno, then keep left.” Or then move over lanes to turn right. Everything is done to avoid a left turn. If you miss a retorno there’s usually another one before long. In the rare situation there isn’t, you will find yourself mumbling expletives when you realize it.

So, a lot of U-turns, by design. Which means a lot of people blending into the wide avenue as they retorno, and a lot of cars trying to blend into traffic, with a lot of drivers who generally have no interest in letting you blend in to the flow. Gun it and jump in when you can and expect the previously mentioned machismo drivers traveling twice the speed limit to tailgate you, then gesticulate as they weave around you and then weave around all the other drivers on the road ahead. Wait patiently for an opening, you say? Tell that to the drivers stacked up beyond you, also doing a retorno.

The main thoroughfare in the capital is the Eixo Monumental, the monumental axis, the wide boulevard that bisects the two airplane wings of the city’s footprint, the plano piloto. Then there is the Eixo Rodoviário, which bisects the Eixo Monumental, and is popularly called the Eixão, or the big axis. These have no retornos.

These broad roads were designed from the very beginning to allow the unimpeded flow of traffic, but there had to be a mechanism to enable cars to exit the Eixão to get to the superquadras, the mixed used residential and commercial neighborhoods that line both sides of the Eixão. And so were invented the tesourinhas, the most unique feature of driving in Brasilia. Tesourinhas mean little scissors, and they are circular loops that create a dizzying affect as you exit the main road to, hopefully, the neighborhood you are looking for. If you made a mistake, and even if you didn’t, you may find yourself driving around, literally, in circles, and again in my case, mumbling expletives.

As I said at the outset, it all makes perfect sense. Despite that, Brasília can still be confusing. The superquadras all look alike to those unfamiliar with the city. The tesourinhas make you dizzy. And get ready to make a lot of retornos. It’s all part of the experience of driving in Brasília.

Photo by Daniel Costa on Unsplash