Socioeconomic characteristics, land use and travel patterns of Sao Paulo, Brazil

摘要

The Sao Paulo metropolitan region has been experiencing intense growth in the last decades: the population doubled and the motorized vehicle fleet was multiplied by six from 1970 to 1996. The region has consolidated itself as the most important economic and political region in the country, with the tertiary sector corresponding to 70% of jobs. Average income, although high for Brazilian standards, is relatively low, with 58% of people earning less than U$ 500 a month (and highly skewed towards the upper strata).The region has also experienced increasing transportation problems, that are unevenly distributed among social groups and classes, considering those with and without access to private transportation. Most of the problems are related to the sharp increased in the use of private transportation and the corresponding decrease in the use of public transportation: the percentage of congested roads in the afternoon peak is currently 80% and average bus and auto speeds are very low (12 km/h and 17 km/h respectively). Severe congestion is causing a waste of 300 million passenger-hours per year in the city (for bus and auto trips), and atmospheric pollutant concentration is inadequate in 10% of the days. In addition, the city of SSo Paulo presents some of the highest traffic accident figures among large cities in the developing world, with 60,000 injured people and 2,300 fatalities in 1995. Current problems are challenging the region's economic efficiency and its position as a candidate world city and have also been promoting an intense debate on alternative transportation solutions, that include the coordination of urban, transport and traffic problems at the metropolitan scale, the provision of high quality public transportation and the restraint to the use of private transportation.