Analysis of transport modes in urban environment: an application for a sustainable mobility system

The paper intends to analyze transport modes in urban environment, confrontingthe experience in different settings, urban and suburban, in cities of differentsizes. The process introduced aims to improve the quality of life and access formore sustainable patterns of development, while at the same time not harmingthe urban mobility, proposing a model that can be applied to the different urbanareas.The high costs of construction of additional road space, and the considerationthat a grater offer of road space is an impulse for a greater demand of private cartraffic, leads the planning process in the direction of using existing road spacemore efficiently, by using traffic control mechanisms, and shifting demand toalternative modes.The spreading of heavy traffic using unsuitable roads, has led to the increase ofthe risks for public health and safety, being the levels of pollution dangerouslyhigh and the pedestrian mobility strongly restricted.The actions discussed in the paper are parking policies, which aim to redistributeon and off road parking, discouraging parking in what is central area by themeans of charging policies and the institution of Controlled Traffic Zones, anddoing so shifting long term parking to fringe areas. A key factor of the success ofthe proposed parking policy is the institution of pedestrian routes promotingwalking and cycling.