Caminhar como mobilidade urbana: políticas, práticas e dinâmicas urbanas em Maceió, Alagoas

Abstract

Throughout the 20th century, industrialization and urbanization of Brazilian cities brought news ways of inhabiting, working, and circulating across the city that have become ingrained in society's way of life. The methods of transportation evolved with technology, bringing comfort and practicality to people, but have also brought negative consequences, among them pollution and high natural resources consumption. Walking around the city, an act once vital and ordinary, became neglected and not considered in urban mobility planning. In view of this, urban actors in cities across the world have researched ways of transforming this paradigm, returning pedestrianism, and so causing more appropriation and fruition of urban spaces by pedestrians, like in the cases of Copenhagen, Melbourne and Medellín, presented in the research. As such, this dissertation intents to debate the pedestrian question in the city from the historic, theoretical, and practical point of view around the world; in the Brazilian context, approaching as well other forms of locomotion; and finally, trough study of the city of Maceió. The methodological steps are many: the bibliographic review on urban mobility, with focus on the pedestrian, through the use of books, articles, news and official documents and data; the elaboration and application of an online questionnaire in the city of Maceió, with objective to obtain information about the population's relationship to the city, as it pertains to urban mobility, specially walking; and interviews that were made with residents of MTST's Dandara Occupation, that has a consolidated relationship with the Nest/LABiboca Research Group of which the author and supervisor of this work are part, so it can also be included in the research the perspective of low-income populations. As conclusions, it can be said that moving by foot is still very much adopted even in context of a city made for motorized vehicles, and that each person, in their spatial, social, and economic context, experiences the city in a different way. As to public policy, it was observed that Brazil has a broad legislation with good propositions to promote walking. Nonetheless, in practice there aren't wide initiatives that promote this way of moving about, except for punctual interventions. Finally, it is believed that this work brings a reflection little realized in Maceió, but essential so that a path can be taken towards a city more alive, more human and with more people walking throughout public spaces.