Urban mobility plan must present solutions to current problems of cities

All cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants are required to present Urban Mobility Plans, the PMUs. The documents are important for the municipal structuring, as explained by transport doctor Adriano Paranaíba. “The urban mobility plan is a planning tool for the city to think about current problems, how it will solve them — and how it will plan its urban mobility growth to continue providing a good service to its citizens”, he explains. .

The deadline for submitting these plans was extended again by the federal government through Provisional Measure 1,179/2023. Now, cities with more than 250,000 inhabitants have until April 12, 2024 to complete the document. Municipalities with up to 250,000 inhabitants must submit the plan by April 12, 2025.

The change allows for the continuity of support actions — initiated by the federal government — for the expansion of municipal capacities, allowing small towns to have enough time to complete their obligations, without harming the population.

Transport economics professor at the University of Brasília (UnB) and the Federal University of Ceará (UFC), Gildemir da Silva, emphasizes the importance of these urban mobility plans. “When I have a plan for something, the investment has a designation of where it will be allocated and why it will be allocated there. In addition, mobility plans value a set of attributes that are now part of the global sustainability agenda. The mobility plan gives the most assertive direction and with more intensity for the development of certain regions with sustainability, mobility and accessibility for all”, he emphasizes.

The National Urban Mobility Policy determines that cities with more than 20,000 residents have PMUs in place as a condition for accessing federal funds for works in this area.