The master plans of the State of São Paulo and the issue of urban mobility: a case study of some medium-sized cities in São Paulo - the city of Araraquara

• Grant number: 11/08227-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): November 01, 2011
• Effective date (End): December 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Urban and Regional Planning - Methods and Techniques of Urban and Regional Planning
• Principal Investigator: Renata Cardoso Magagnin
• Grantee: Marília Matos Scarpelini
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura, Artes e Comunicação (FAAC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Brazilian cities have reproduced over the years a circulation model that is causing the declining rates of mobility and accessibility (including medium-sized cities) because it is guided individal motorized transport (cars). The dependence on this mode of transport has led to environmental degradation, increase in time of congestion, increased number of traffic accidents, among other urban problems. The improvement of mobility in cities, with the consequent increase in the quality of urban life, is related to the adoption of specific measures for transport management. These measures include: encouraging public transport over the private transport, implementation of legislation regulating the movement of public and private transportation, establishing criteria for the construction and maintenance of the road system, and to encourage the use of more sustainable modes of transport, giving priority to non-motorized and collective modes. Moreover, the decrease in dependence on the automobile is directly related to the re-organization of urban space, namely the adoption of a new planning policy of land use linked to transportation planning (incorporating the vision of sustainable urban mobility). Thus, this research aims to investigate how the city of Araraquara (medium-sized city of São Paulo) addressed the issue of urban mobility in developing its Master Plan and thus try to identify if it incorporated in this Plan the main city mobility problems. (AU)