New Roads

Always trying to limit the kilometers, I have been trying to use different roads, to test their efficiency. I feel strangely over-excited by small discoveries like the ones I just made. It feels like beating Brasilia at its own game!
A few weeks ago I found this backroad that makes it much faster to get to the airport. It must cut off 5 or 6 km to the entire trip. This road cuts through what is called the chacaras, which were initially properties with a agrarian use. Today these properties are mostly large estates with comfortable mansions, just like anywhere else in the plush suburb of Lago Sul. The beauty of this road is not only its landscape but also the fact that there is no photo radar. Don't get me wrong, I am not a real speeder. But any distractions are so costly that I prefer taking the back road.

A more important discovery was this "highway" to the JK bridge, all the way from the W3 South to the bridge, uninterrupted by retornos (U-turns) or round-abouts. It is called Via das Ligação Se/Ne, the SE/NE Connecting Avenue.  Why am I so excited by this find? It is because if moving North-South in this city can be in a very short time and in a very direct way using the large Exio, moving East-West. But crossing the "wing" of the plane of Brasilia, through the quadras (clusters of housing blocks) is frankly speaking a pain.  Moving East-West was obviously not a concerned for the planners, imagining that weaving through the quadras would flow easily, but the effort of reaching the W3 from the bridges and Lago Sul is greater than coming from completely the opposite direction (Asa Norte).

In other words, without the Ligação, the West-East travel necessitates to needle in and out of the quadras through their commercial streets.  Commercial streets which are already congested by the lack of parking space and the number of enthusiast double-line parkers. And since the quadras are not aligned with one another, but arranged in staggered lots one from another, one has to flow along around a round-about to the next connecting street to the following round-about to the next quadra's commercial street to a set of three dips under the massive Eixo and its side Eixãos through the next commercial and around the next round about to the next connecting street to the next round about to the next commercial street until you reach the W3. Dizzy?
A portion of the  Ligação is fairly new, so new that Google Maps did not get it right yet (yes I doctored the maps to show you where I drive). But the good news is some planners have accepted to cut through the "picture perfect plan of Brasilia" to make something essential and efficient, probably amidst some purist opposition.

Via the quadras, the Garça Bridge and along Dom Bosco road: 18,4 km. 

Via the W3, the Via de Ligação, the JK Bridge and a bit along the Dom Bosco: 17,2 km - going straight.
We are talking about a km of difference, which is in itself not really convincing. But this is the retorno-free, round-about free line that saves the driver here. But looking at these maps quickly might easily be misleading about the issues. This is the problem with Brasilia. From above, from very far above, it is difficult the understand the challenges of the city layout. I mean, the guys who planned the city did not imagined how frustrating it would be to move around. At the contrary, they were convinced to have created the best place to live on earth!