Proposal of an index of sustainable mobility: methodology and applicability

Abstract

The Index of Sustainable Mobility (ISM) was developed to be a tool to assist in mobility planning and management, so as to indicate priorities of public resources investment. The ISM quantifies the movements of people, translates the mode used for travel and quantifies the impacts of these choices on urban sustainability. For the composition of the ISM, indicators were selected based on two basic criteria: the existence of data and that they were collected annually. The application of the ISM to ten cities in the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre (southern Brazil) revealed deficiencies in regional mobility planning and management. Locally, the inability of municipal governments to obtain information from public transport operators was noted, as well as the lack of guidelines to promote non-motorized transport.