Are Brazilian cities ready to develop an efficient urban freight mobility plan?

José Maria Dias,João Eduardo Azevedo Ramos da Silva,Gabriel Bugan Sobanski,Leise Kelli de Oliveira,José Geraldo Vidal Vieira

doi:10.1590/2175-3369.010.003.ao07

José Maria Dias, João Eduardo Azevedo Ramos da Silva + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/2175-3369.010.003.ao07

Copy DOI

Abstract

Abstract According to the Urban Mobility National Policy (UMNP), Brazilian cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants are obligated to elaborate Urban Mobility Plans (UMPs). The literature shows a lack of national research on urban freight planning and a need for better understanding issues on cargo transportation for authorities, especially regarding decision-making on policies and on urban freight transportation planning. City Logistics solutions can be considered on UMPs to reduce the problematic urban freight transport. Therefore, a survey was applied to investigate the resources available within cities to draw UMPs, the solutions for cargo movement in Brazilian cities, and the perceptions of public managers about freight transportation. The results show that “restrictions” are the solutions most adopted by Brazilian authorities, including the representative sample for cities within the São Paulo State with more than 250,000 inhabitants. The conclusions point out that Brazilian cities are not prepared to develop an efficient urban freight plan, as public managers seem to be unconscious about urban logistics demands within their cities or have neglected aspects regarding urban freight within the UMNP.

Highlights

Urban Mobility National Policy (UMNP) was established in Brazil by Law 12587, which regulates the accessibility and mobility of people and cargo within Brazilian cities (Brasil, 2012)
The contribution of this paper is to explore the situation of UMNP in Brazil and assess the interest of public managers and authorities to modify the current state of urban freight transportation within the Urban Mobility Plans (UMPs)
To check the status of the UMP’s in cities, the variable used was named PLANSTAT, and the results show that 38 cities have the UMP approved, and another nine cities are awaiting approval, which means that 47 cities have the UMP

Summary

Introduction

Urban Mobility National Policy (UMNP) was established in Brazil by Law 12587, which regulates the accessibility and mobility of people and cargo within Brazilian cities (Brasil, 2012). According to the Law, cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants must adopt an Urban Mobility Plan (UMP) to manage passengers’ transport and cargo operations. UMP is a mobility management tool for city managers, as it regulates resources and financial planning, public land use and stakeholders’ participation (Silva et al, 2008). According to the Ministério das Cidades (Brasil, 2013), from 1,650 cities expected to have a UMP (Lima & Galindo, 2013) only 174 declared to have one. This low percentage (10.5%) suggests the cities are not prepared to elaborate their UMP, not even some large cities of the São Paulo State where solutions have been evaluated for decades. Urban freight transport seems to be only superficially considered or not considered at all into UMPs (Dias, 2017)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion