By Todd Benson
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - In Brazil's financial capital of SaoPaulo, the traffic is so bad that vendors line its majorhighways during rush hour, selling cold beer and snacks tomotorists.
Traffic jams around the city can total more than 200 km(124 miles), and on a good day it can take more than two and ahalf hours to cross town.
The gridlock underscores a broader challenge facing theLatin American giant. As the economy booms, the country'screaky infrastructure is bursting at the seams, forcing publicofficials to scramble for ways to compensate for decades ofpoor planning.
"For too long, the prevailing mind-set in this country hasbeen to tackle problems with temporary solutions that bring ashort-term fix," said Candido Malta Campos, an urban planner atthe University of Sao Paulo.
"If we keep doing that, Sao Paulo is going to grind to ahalt in four or five years."
Sao Paulo has nearly 11 million people, 6 million passengercars, 650,000 motorcycles and 32,000 taxis. And that doesn'tinclude the urban sprawl that holds another 7 million peoplearound the city.
In many ways, it has long seemed like a metropolis on theverge of collapse. In the 1960s and 1970s, millions ofBrazilians from the countryside flocked here in search of workin its factories, spawning a population boom that urbanplanners struggled to keep up with.
Instead of investing in public transportation, successivecity governments sought to ease the growing traffic withgrandiose but largely ineffective overpasses and tunnels.
The result is a congestion-plagued city where the very richcommute by helicopter while average Brazilians spend hours aday in their cars or packed into overcrowded buses with no airconditioning.
Brazil's economic revival has only aggravated the problem.With inflation under control and interest rates at an all-timelow, Brazilians are buying cars at a record pace, adding to thecongestion. On average, 800 new cars are registered a day inSao Paulo alone.
The worsening traffic has made commuting in Sao Paulo anincreasingly nerve-racking experience. Motorists are wary of
changing lanes for fear of cutting off one of the estimated120,000 motorcycle messengers that zigzag through the gridlock,ignoring lane markers, red lights and stop signs.
FIGHTS, SHOOTINGS
Local newspapers are littered with chronicles of shootingsand fist fights over traffic disputes. Hold-ups in bottlenecksare common. And last month, a disgruntled commuter slashed thetires of a bus because it was full and was almost lynched bypassengers before police intervened.
"It's a nightmare. It's getting to the point where I can'ttake the stress anymore," said Geralda Aparecida Mendes, acleaning lady who takes three buses to work every day.
The traffic woes are also a drag on the economy. In arecent study, Sao Paulo state's transportation secretariatestimated the gridlock costs the city's economy at least 4.1billion reais (1.2 billion pounds) a year in lost productivity.
The congestion has become so bad that it is shaping up as akey issue in municipal elections in October. Sao Paulo MayorGilberto Kassab, who made his name by pushing through a ban onbillboards in the city, is now on an anti-traffic offensivethat could make or break his chances at winning a second term.
In recent weeks, officials have unveiled a slew of measuresto reduce the gridlock, including road work to improve the flowof traffic in 22 critical areas and new restrictions on the250,000 trucks that circulate in the city limits.
Motorists are already restricted from driving their carsone day a week between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. and between 5 p.m.and 8 p.m. Starting in mid-May, trucks will also be subject tothe restrictions and will no longer be allowed to makedeliveries during the day.
"We have to reduce the number of vehicles on the streets,"said Alexandre de Moraes, the city's transportation secretary.
What Sao Paulo needs most, urban planners say, is moremetro lines. In the 40 years since the city broke ground on itsfirst metro line, only 61 km (38 miles) of track have beenlaid. In Mexico City, which began building its metro around thesame time, there are about 200 km (124 miles) of track.
The Kassab administration plans to invest almost $600million (300 million pounds) to extend one existing line andbuild a new one by 2012, doubling the length of the metro.
"The only way people are going to leave their cars at homeis if there is a decent metro system," Moraes said."Unfortunately, it's a solution that takes time."
(Editing by Kieran Murray)
