Dissertação
A caminhabilidade como instrumento de humanização de travessias urbanas rodoviárias
Fecha
2020-05-15Autor
Raquel Corrêa Lacerda Dutra
Institución
Resumen
Urban road crossings - urban areas segmented by highways - are complex regions caused by
the conflict between transit traffic and local traffic. In this context, it is possible to observe that
pedestrians appear as the most vulnerable elements in a mobility microsystem, bearing in mind
that, traditionally, the ultimate goal to be achieved is optimal traffic flow. Therefore, studying
pedestrian traffic in urban stretches of Brazilian highways becomes a challenge in view of the
research incentive aimed at other means of transportation. Over the last decades, despite some
actions have been taken regarding improvements of infrastructure aimed at pedestrians in
different types of urban road crossings, it is necessary to increase actions towards transforming
urban road areas into spaces that are more friendly and safe for pedestrian traffic. For this
purpose, methodologies that are able to understand the environment of pedestrians, which are
areas scarcely researched up to now, are extremely relevant. Applying an index that can be used
as an assessment tool of the environment in which pedestrians are inserted becomes of utmost
importance in an effort to better understand the quality of a certain spatiality. In this context,
the goal of this dissertation is to develop a walkability index that allows for the assessment of
the quality of the environment intended for pedestrian traffic in urbanized areas surrounding
highways. From this point of view, two stretches of the state highway MG-10, located in the
municipality of Lagoa Santa, Minas Gerais were selected for this research. The index was
conceived in 5 stages. The first stage consisted of identifying, in national and international
literature, indicatorsthat help measuring walkability conditions; after that, these indicators were
assessed as it concerns their applicability for urban stretches segmented by highways. The
second stage consisted of adapting the walkability index produced by Carvalho (2018), whose
work is developed/continued in this dissertation, as a basis for the preparation of an index to be
applied to urban road crossings. The third stage consisted of the preparation and application of
a questionnaire survey among highway professionals in an attempt to identify the significance
level of the indicators used in Carvalho’s (2018) research. The fourth stage was concerned with
the development of a walkability index for urban road crossings and, finally, the fifth stage
consisted of applying the proposed walkability index in two different spatialities of the same
urban road crossing. The proposed methodology has been found to be accessible and easy to
understand, taking into account, whenever possible, a quantitative analysis of the elements,
making the index application a quickly executable method. The index created was used for the
assessment of two spatialities, one consisting of 8 segments and the other consisting of 6
segments of the MG-10 highway. The use of the index proved to be efficient in the assessment
of walkability in urban crossings, showing that it can be used in other spatialities or road
stretches with similar features. Also, it was noted that the index can be an important tool on the
definition of new projects as well as for correcting existing situations. Finally, the study
presented here points out the need for a deeper investigation of issues related to improving the
walkability of pedestrians across urban road crossing.