Pedágio urbano como instrumento de política pública, gestão econtrole de tráfego: desafios para sua implantação na área central de Belo Horizonte

Abstract

Mechanisms to control the demand for individual motorized travel are essential for the survival of the world's major cities, considering road system unavailability due to excessive demand by automobiles, lack of resources to investment in public transport, and the urgent need to improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gases. One of the main tools for transportation demand management is congestion charging. As such, this dissertation considers the congestion charging as an instrument of public policy, traffic management and control, first considers, the perception of Brazilian transport specialists, on issues related tothe possibility of adopting congestion charging in the country's large cities. Subsequently, it explores the perception of the inhabitants of the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Region (BHMR), faced with the implementation of congestion charging in the Central Area of thecity. For this, a total of 348 transport specialists, from several Brazilian cities, were initially interviewed, and then 676 residents of the BHMR who travel either on a sporadic or frequent basis, passing or heading for the Central Area. The issues addressed were elaborated based on the literature review contained in this document and consistent with the Brazilian Federal Mobility Law 12,587 of 2012. Despite the controversy over the effectiveness and, above all, the public acceptability of the urban toll, its adoption with popular participation in the definition of how the revenue should be used, proved to be a reasonably and acceptableoption, both for the specialists (17.5% considered the most effective option to discourage the circulation of cars in large urban centers), as well as for the population of RMBH (23.8% stated that the solution is the most effective for the Central Area of Belo Horizonte). However, investments in roads or exclusive lanes to public transport presented numbers that were more expressive as 'the most effective measure', according to 48.6% of the specialists and 54.2% of the BHMR residents. Congestion charging scenarios were developed that specified how the collected revenue would be spent (on public transport, non-motorizedtransport and bus fare subsidies), as well the expected results, 78.7% of the inhabitants considered this a good option for the city. Among motorists, 51.4% stated that, if an urban toll was adopted in the Central Area, they would seek other modes of transport and 50.6% considered that the charging proposal would be advantageous to them.