Ask the urban planner Ricardo Corrêa, 39, about bikes, and his eyes light up. Corrêa speaks fast for a person from southern Brazil, so eager is he to change the national culture of urban mobility. After all, his bike is an extension of his own body. “Riding lowers anxiety and brings you a moment of reflection,” he says. “It’s a moment with yourself.”

His attachment to this means of transportation goes back to his childhood, when he used to bike to school instead of going with his brothers on foot, in order to sleep a few minutes longer. A bike was also the means chosen to drive Ricardo and his wife and partner, Juliana Campos, on their wedding day (it had some cans hanging from the rear, in a nod to tradition).

In 2004, recently graduated in architecture and unhappy with his work, he did not even know what he wanted for the future. Corrêa decided to bike around the world for 5 years. But, 1,000 kilometers (621.37 miles), an 11-day course between the cities of São Paulo and Porto Alegre, was enough for him to realize that urban spaces are a reflection of their people. This gave him the idea of founding a company to develop projects with social and environmental impact. Three years later, TC Urbes – Transformação Cultural Urbana (Urban Cultural Transformation) was born.

In 2012, TC Urbes expanded its scope with Urbana (Urban), which makes handmade bikes designed especially for Brazilian cities. The inspiration came from a German bike that Corrêa brought on a trip abroad but broke after only six months riding in São Paulo. After ten prototypes, the businessman reached a model that would suit his purposes. He then started selling it to friends — and to acquaintances who contacted him through mutual friends even before the brand’s launch.

Today, TC Urbes invoices R$1.5 million reais (US$465,000 dollars) a year, has eight employees and is classified as a B Corp Brasil, a certification given to companies that combine profit with solving social and environmental problems. Corrêa received Believe.Earth at his company’s headquarters in the city of São Paulo, after a ride that began on Avenida Faria Lima — one of the main avenues of the city –, on a bike path designed by his team.

The same man featured in the cover photo, wearing jeans, a light blue shirt, a dark gray blazer and burgundy shoes, is sitting on the edge of a bed of lush greenery on a busy avenue. There is a purple bike in front of him.

Corrêa and his Urbana: A handmade model developed to withstand the rigors of Brazilian cities (F.Pepe Guimarães/Believe.Earth)

Believe.Earth (BE) – What motivates TC Urbes?
Ricardo Corrêa (RC) –
We are a B Company. The letter B stands for benefit – to the city, to society and to those who work with us. The entire production chain of the office is certified: The company, the product and the impact of the product. Our main mission is to make urban space more reasonable and equitable place by allowing people to access the city.

BE – Did you have to make many adjustments to be certified?
RC –
We did not make any adjustments. We are a B company. We’ve only improved our processes and greatly increased our score on the label. We  just got the re-certification. Before I learned about this stamp, I was a little bit bothered by the negative connotation of the term entrepreneur, which suggests that one is serving capital and not people. I heard about B Company from an Argentine friend, back when we were not even talking about it in Brazil. We started getting certified even before they [B Corp] had an office in this country.

BE – Which of the company’s projects would you highlight?
RC –
Rio Branco in Acre, is a very “cycling” city and the current mayor has placed a lot of importance on public transportation. So, we created terminals and planned the operation of the transportation system. Before we worked on it, if you were in the west area of the city and wanted to go north, you had to pass through downtown. Today, five terminals are spread throughout the city and you can go directly from one neighborhood to another and, from the terminal, get a micro-bus or use a bike. Rio Branco was the first city in the world to implement a bike plan to prevent traffic chaos. In addition to the public bikes in Rio Branco, I would highlight the bike path on Avenida Faria Lima and the bike project of USP (University of São Paulo), both in São Paulo, the bike path in Fortaleza – a great national model recognized by the Ministry of Cities – and the bike planning for Brasília and Salvador.

The same man featured in the cover photo, wearing jeans, a light blue shirt, a dark gray blazer and burgundy shoes is standing, on his bike waiting at the traffic light, the bike path in front of him. His back is to the camera. Busy avenues with cars and pedestrians surround him.

Corrêa on his way home from work in São Paulo (F. Pepe Guimarães/Believe.Earth)

BE -What is important to take into account when creating mobility solutions?
RC –
We have a job that I consider to be technical and investigative, which is to use intuitive perception to solve a problem. Being in the city, I make an initial diagnosis from my sensations. Then, we begin a secondary analysis using information from the city government as well as our feelings. We make an affective map, checking in with people. They draw on maps explaining the reasons they like one street and not another – and we find out that sometimes a street that some people don’t care for is the favorite of many others. Why? With a technical look, we try to understand what the population perceives as important: the afforestation of the place, the absence of wiring, or the sidewalks. So, our methodology looks first at people and their relationship with the city.

BE – Is it worth seeking inspiration in other countries?
RC –
The world is getting more and more identical and I think it shouldn’t. What is comfortable for me is not comfortable for a European person. Why is a bike path red in the northern European countries? Because that rubbery paint in the snow helps with the braking of the bike and the refraction of the ice. That is, through the ice you can see red. Here, the pigment of this color captures the asphalt pores and impairs braking. It should be another color here. We copy the idea mistakenly. It is necessary to understand what led the European decision-maker to make that choice and to understand if it fits our reality, instead of simply following the model. We must use our creativity to our benefit. When we offer a solution, the government often asks us: “But does this exist in Europe?” No, it does not exist anywhere else and that’s why it’s going to work here. We prove that it will have a positive impact,” save lives, benefit the city, but as long as it has not been tried elsewhere, it is very difficult to get it implemented here. The corporate bikes that we developed for Rio Branco gained more notoriety when they were later made in China.

BE – Do you think this is the main barrier to new initiatives?
RC –
One of the main barriers is dealing with the lack of respect for Brazilian inventiveness. It’s no use searching on another continent as we will not find it. I believe that much of the solution is in Brazil.