Collective Transportation Policies in Belo Horizonte/MG: an analysis based on sustainability and equity

Abstract

This paper aims to understand what are the main weaknesses of the public transportation policy of Belo Horizonte when compared to the policy adopted by other capital cities, with a special focus on the city of Curitiba-PR. To do so, we chose the IMUS (Sustainable Urban Mobility Index), developed by Costa (2008), a support tool for public policy development. The index includes 87 indicators, which can be applied only partially depending on the focus of analysis. Since the focus of this research is public transportation, only 22 indicators directly related to the topic were calculated. In addition, a comparative analysis was performed between the results obtained by other Brazilian capitals. The results obtained by applying the index pointed to an unsatisfactory performance achieved by the Municipality, resulting mainly from the negative scores achieved by indicators related to the form of financing of the system and the provision of infrastructure by the public authority. As conclusions, the study suggests the improvement of financing mechanisms for public transportation, as well as greater investment in urban infrastructure and further qualitative studies.