O sistema nacional de trânsito e os municípios de pequeno porte

Abstract

In 1998, the Brazilian Traffic Code (BTC) assigned a number of responsibilities to all municipalities concerning traffic management. Among those responsibilities at the municipal level was the obligation to implement traffic municipalization. In the process of traffic municipalization, municipalities are to meet certain requirements to formally integrate the National Traffic System (NTS) and thus officially take charge of traffic management in their jurisdictions. However, the obligations and requirements for municipalization were imposed indistinctly on all municipalities, with no consideration for the diversity of Brazilian municipalities. Fifteen years after those obligations were established, only 24.9% of the Brazilian municipalities have adhered to the NTS, mostly large municipalities. The present study presents a methodology to investigate the reasons for the low adherence of small municipalities to the NTS. Further, this investigation methodology aims to characterize the extent to which the duties assigned to municipal authorities, as defined by the BTC, are being effected in the municipalities that have not yet been included in the NTS. The proposed methodology is applied to the municipalities of the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Area that have not been integrated into the NTS to date. Based on the results of the present study, alternatives are discussed with regard to enabling or facilitating the integration of the small municipalities into the NTS, while respecting their peculiarities and specific needs. The major contribution of this study is to point measures and public policies to regulate the action and improve the traffic management capability of small municipalities. The implementation of those measures and policies could change the current Brazilian scenario of low traffic municipalization indices.