This article aims to analyze and propose urban mobility strategies in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, based on the experience of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

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THE RATIONALIZATION OF URBAN MOBILITY IN SALVADOR
Fernando Alcoforado *
The problems caused by urban mobility in Salvador, including the high accident rates in
recent years, are increasingly worrying. The increase in the use of the car, the disorganization
in the traffic and the lack of planning contributed to aggravate the situation. Either with the
use of the car, motorcycle, bicycle or bus, people living in Salvador began to live almost daily
with major traffic jams at any time. Salvador has one of the most challenging situations of
mobility in the country and with a tendency to worsen. The travel time house-work place of
40 (forty) minutes, on average, per example, is the third highest in the country (only inferior
to the times of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo). The individual vehicle fleet grew by 7.4% per
year between 2007 and 2013, which should continue to grow due to the relatively low per
capita vehicle penetration in Salvador when compared to other Brazilian capitals.
1- The changes planned for Salvador in urban mobility
Salvador will undergo major transformations of urban mobility in the next decade. Major
works and changes in transportation systems are ongoing or planned. Examples are: 1)
Subway (implantation of approximately 40 km of subway, impacting Salvador's mobility and
its integration with Lauro de Freitas and the North Metropolitan Region of Salvador area); 2)
New Bus System (with deep improvements in the quality of services, security and system
management); 3) Salvador-Itaparica Bridge Project (bridge of approximately 12 km in length
that is part of a socio-economic development project that seeks to open a new urban
development vector south of Salvador, increasing the integration between these territories and
generating important impacts in the transport systems, especially in the ferry boat and road
access to the Port of Salvador); 4) Live Line (with the construction of this new North-South
axis that will promote the mobility and the integration of RMS- Metropolitan Region of
Salvador); 5) Cross corridors (with the implementation of two new corridors transversal to
Parallel Avenue); 6) BRT (Bus Rapid Transit); 7) VLT (Light Rail Vehicle, also known as
Light Rail, Light Subway or Surface Subway, small electric train driven by electricity); and,
8) Public Parking Policy.
Despite the recent advances in urban mobility planning in Salvador, with the elaboration of
the Urban Mobility Plan of Salvador based on the guidelines established by Law No. 12,587
of January 3, 2012, it presents great weaknesses because it was not based on urban planning
of the city as a whole. It is, therefore, an urban mobility plan that did not result from urban
planning for the city of Salvador as a whole. Moreover, it does not provide effective responses
to address, for example, the increased use of cars and the deployment of other modes of
transport, including cycle paths.
2- How to rationalize urban mobility in Salvador
As in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, each type of transport should have its place
in the public space in Salvador. As in Amsterdam, the lateral cut across a street or avenue in
Salvador should have several "layers", such as sidewalk, bicycle lane, bus lane, tram rail, train
track and track for cars. Whoever is walking would always have a small island between each
of these layers to be safe to cross the street.
Like the 2025 Amsterdam Mobility Plan, drafted jointly by the city's transport, housing and
environment secretariats, it would be important not to create more streets in Salvador so that
more cars can circulate. As in Amsterdam, the plan should categorize in Salvador the existing

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streets, according to their function: 1) Residential streets - should not have space for public
transportation, only allowing the entrance of cars and motorcycles of those who live there,
besides having free movement of bicycles and pedestrians; 2) Small shopping streets - are
made to be walked on foot, but may have public transportation. In these streets, the sidewalks
must be wide without parking for cars, which in most cases, nor should they circulate through
them; 3) Commercial streets with lots of traffic - shopping areas with large circulation of cars
with parking in the streets, but without public transportation and without bicycle lanes; 4)
Wide arterial avenues that connect neighborhoods and important areas that are expressways
that do not have public transportation, only cars and bicycle paths; and, 5) Inter-municipal
highways that have large and small vehicles and connect the city to neighboring
municipalities.
The city of Salvador should follow the example of Amsterdam that is clear on how to act to
prevent the growth of car use in the city, improve the public transport network and increase
the number of trips by foot and bicycle. In Salvador, there should be an urban toll system
similar to that of Amsterdam and London. Anyone who wants to drive in the city center
would have to pay a fee. To discourage the use of private vehicles such as in Amsterdam, the
city of Salvador should reduce the number of parking lots in the streets and increase taxation,
both in the purchase of cars and fuel. Today the modal split of the city of Amsterdam is: 36%
of trips are made by public transport, 33% by car, 27% by bicycles and 4% by foot.
Like the 2025 Amsterdam mobility plan, that of Salvador should control traffic on major
arterial roads - those connecting neighborhoods - that should have their infrastructure
improved to concentrate the entire flow of cars. So the cars will always pass through them,
never through the smaller streets. As in Amsterdam, the downtown parking lots in Salvador
would cease to exist and would be concentrated in outlying areas so that the old and new
center of the city would be free of congestion. This measure would be combined with the
attempt to develop urban comforts in the outskirts of the city, with the creation of schools,
shopping centers and services. Like the Amsterdam 2025 mobility plan, the urban mobility
plan in Salvador should emphasize the need for people to live close to work.
The division of the public space into layers with different functions could help cities with
problematic traffic like that of Salvador. In the case of Salvador, as in most Brazilian cities,
there is a network of roads on the asphalt, which, for the most part, only serve cars. If these
roads were shared with other modes, the city would gain a lot. The worst thing you can do for
a city is to let the cars move freely, because they take up more and more space.
The other lesson of Amsterdam is to think together the improvements of the urban structure
with the good functioning of the economy. The elaboration of the local mobility plan was
based on the integration of the departments of transport, housing and environment. This
initiative facilitated public planning on the mobility of the city, especially as regards the
limitation of cars on other means of transport, improvement in the public transport network
and increase in the number of trips by foot and bicycle. There is no priority for a type of
transport, but rather for the articulation between them in the public space. In the streets are
interspersed spaces for bicycles, cars, trains and trams, as well as islands and sidewalks for
pedestrians. Thanks to this integration, the city would move at a leisurely and constant speed,
without the rush characteristic of large cities.
Taking into account their own characteristics, urban mobility policies such as those adopted in
Amsterdam could be carried forward in Salvador.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

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CAU/BA. Como anda o Plano de Mobilidade Urbana de Salvador? Available on website
<http://www.cauba.gov.br/como-anda-o-plano-de-mobilidade-urbana-de-salvador/>.
GARCIA, Natália. Amsterdã: planejar é a regra, fluidez é a sensação. Available on
website
<http://www.oeco.com.br/reportagens/25343-amsterda-planejar-e-a-regra-fluidez-e-a-
sensacao>, 2011.
SEMOB. Plano de Mobilidade Urbana de Salvador. Available on website
<http://www.sucom.ba.gov.br/wp-
content/uploads/2015/09/Plano_Mobilidade_Apresentacao.pdf>.
* Fernando Alcoforado, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning
and Regional Development at the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of
strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and energy systems planning, former Secretary of
Salvador (1986/1987) and former Undersecretary of Energy of the State of Bahia (1987/1991), author of the
Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto
para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os Condicionantes de Desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia
(PhD Thesis, University of Barcelona, http: //www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e
Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento da Bahia do Século XVI ao Século
XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the
Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft
& Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e
Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e
combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os
Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no
Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As
Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016) e
A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017).