Mobilidade urbana e projetos estruturantes na região metropolitana de Natal: desafios recentes a uma metrópole em transformação

Abstract

The fast growth of cities causes the meeting of urban areas and the increase of political, economic and social influence between nearby cities, resulting in a process known as metropolization, which, in turn, causes direct impact on the way people and goods move through the cities - that is, on urban mobility. Especially in developing countries like Brazil, where the metropolitan areas (RM) lack of political interest and planning structures to ensure the governance of these areas, the effects of metropolization can cause irreversible negative impacts on mobility. As results of the claims of the Urban Reform, instruments such as the Statute of the City, the National Policy of Urban Mobility and the newly created Statute of Metropolis emerge as support to Brazilian RMs in achieving efficient mobility. According to these instruments, the various urban actions must be planned together to achieve more organized, socially fair and environmentally viable cities. From this situation, this study sought to show if the major infrastructure projects of urban and road expansion deployed in the Metropolitan Region of Natal (RMN), which physical and territorial transformations were intensified in recent decades, have been planned in accordance with mobility management. Firstly, the most important projects of the functional metropolis – formed by the municipalities of RMN that have strong integration – were listed. Then, a criterion called "Metropolitan Cohesion Potential" was established to define which projects were more relevant on the RMN’s territory as limitations of this study did not allow analysis of all projects. The International Airport Aluízio Alves, the Light Rail and Metropolitan Road presented the highest potential of metropolitan cohesion, so they were analyzed considering their relationship with mobility management, primary objective of the research. It was investigated if the structuring project meets the steps of the new type of desirable urban mobility: promotes investments in the poorest areas of infrastructure; causes population density and induces mixed land uses; contributes to the compactness; encourages democratic access of the population to goods and services; has a structure that indulges the transport of non-motorized means and collective motor; enables integration of modal; and seeks to cause less environmental damage. From this analysis, it can be seen that the RMN entails the consolidation of an urban environment with efficient mobility, to promote sustainable development in its territory, or in a contrary manner, fosters a disorderly growth by allowing structuring projects to be deployed separated from the mobility management.