ABSTRACT: Nowadays issues related to the conditions of urban mobility in the largest Brazilian cities become quite important. Particularly in Rio de Janeiro there are some serious structural challenges to overcome: overcrowding and difficult access to bus stations, subway and trains; inadequate traffic signaling system and traffic congestion provoked by a great number of single-occupant vehicles. This article aims to analyze the actions that the municipal government could promote to improve urban mobility. How and for what reasons a city that has heavily invested in several modes of transport in the last years still has problems in these services? This question is discussed from two points of view: the legal framework available to the government for development of public transport policies and the use of a Sustainable Mobility Index (SMI), proposed in this research as a tool for assessment of the public transport quality. Specifically, the SMI is used to study the case of the VII Administrative Region of the City of Rio de Janeiro (São Cristóvão and neighborhood districts), an area selected due to the multiplicity of urban occupation (housing, education, sport facilities, leisure infrastructure, health services, trade companies, industries, many connections to other districts) and its privileged geographical situation near downtown, with several access routes forming a great potential for intermodal logistics. A correct use of such good features depends basically on government decisions and public investment but, as put in evidence by the SMI calculation, São Cristóvão still suffers from the faulty planning of Rio de Janeiro transport system.
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