I was recently riding the metro system in Rio de Janeiro. During rush hour, there were so many people packed into the cars that I had to let two trains come and go before I finally got on. Trains were showing up already packed, only a few new passengers could fit--and I definitely tried. Then when I got off, in the trample of bodies a lady got hurt, looked like she sprained an ankle. She was carried off by two people. In Rio people don't wait until passengers get off first before boarding, each stop is a melee.
I guess they can just add more subway cars before the Olympics? If not it could be a real problem--or a jackpot for Rio taxi drivers.
Add to that the fact that the new subway line designed to go to the Olympic Park is at "high risk" of not being built in time.
Key Rio Olympics Subway Line at ‘High Risk’ of Being Late
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-07/key-rio-olympics-subway-line-at-high-risk-of-being-late
These are only a few of the problems I noticed in Rio.
Rio smells, big time. At first I thought it was the stench from urine of thousands of drunk and homeless people but apparently there are literally tons of dead fish showing up in Rio's waterways.
-50 tons of dead fish in the lagoon that lies at the heart of Rio, Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas (see map). They plan to hold canoeing rowing events in this lagoon!
-56 tons of dead fish in Guanabara Bay, the main water body that flanks Rio. On a taxi ride to the airport along the coast of this bay, it absolutely reeked the whole way.
Sad And Smelly: Massive Fish Die-Off At Rio's 2016 Olympic Site
http://www.npr.org/2015/04/21/401167059/sad-and-smelly-massive-fish-die-off-at-rio-s-2016-olympic-site
Rio also has crime issues, big time. Case in point: Last Friday, my last night in Rio, around 10 pm I went two blocks outside my airbnb apartment near the Sambadrome and Central Station to get an ice cream from a little hole-in-the-wall store. Lots of people are on the street drinking at the bars, kids even kicking a soccer ball at 10 pm. As I'm just reaching the store in the middle of the block, I hear a huge bang like a shot fired just around the corner where I had just walked from the apartment. First I think it's a gunshot, then I think, "well maybe somebody's tire just popped." Nope. The residents knew better, they all ran inside and I followed. Within seconds a police car pulls up 50 meters away at the end of the block, the door swings open and an officer's arm comes out "bang bang!" two shots fired. The car revs and turns left, heading away from me and continues the chase, where it stopped at the far end and looked like they apprehended someone.
On the airplane coming home from Rio, I sat next to a young guy who works for Ronald McDonald House in Rio headed to the Ronald McDonald Foundation Convention in Chicago. He said he used to live in an apartment where a gunshot went through his window and the cops, after measuring, said it came from a gunfight in a a favela (slum) nearly a kilometer away. He said he had to move to another area.
Much of Rio is simply not safe.
In addition, Rio has a huge number of homeless people, over 5500, which is unmistakably clear to anyone visiting the city.
http://vivario.org.br/en/more-than-5-thousand-homeless-people-in-rio-de-janeiro/
And add that a few weeks ago on Sunday, August 16, 2015 hundreds of thousands protested jointly against corruption in the Rousseff government in 200 major cities in every one of Brazil's 26 states.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/16/brazilians-protest-pressure-builds-on-dilma-rousseff
These are serious challenges, it should be an interesting Olympics.
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