The total number of commutes per weekday in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, evaluating those using some type of individual or public transport, fell from 42 million in 2017 to 35.6 million in 2023, which represents a reduction of 15.1%, according to the new edition of the Origin and Destination (from the original, Origem e Destino - OD) survey, conducted by São Paulo’s Subway (from the original, Metrô de São Paulo). Between 2017, the year of the previous survey, and 2023, there was a loss of 6.3 million daily commutes. Also according to the study, which was discussed in the latest edition of Mobility Friday (from the original, Sexta da Mobilidade) — an event held by the Center for City Studies — Insper's Arq.Futuro Laboratory (from the original, Centro de Estudos das Cidades — Laboratório Arq.Futuro do Insper) on the last Friday of each month to promote the culture of urban mobility — the average number of commutes per inhabitant also fell, going from 2 to 1.68 in that same comparison period. The Subway’s survey analysed how people commute in Greater São Paulo, which is made up of 39 municipalities, seeking to ascertain their destinations and reasons for commuting.
The drop recorded was greater in non-motorized trips, such as those made on foot, with a reduction of 23%, and in public transport, with a decrease of 20%. Individual motorized transport, mainly through apps, increased. Trips by this method went from 468 thousand in the last survey to more than 1.1 million per day.
“The fundamental purpose of urban mobility policies is to reduce the desire or need to commute. The idea is to design cities where people do not need to commute, or at least not for long distances, to reach their work, education, leisure and/or public service destinations. The study shows that this was generally successful, with an effective reduction in the number of commutes, despite the fact that economic activity was more buoyant than in 2017. Generally, the better the performance of such economic activity, the greater the number of trips,” says Sergio Avelleda, coordinator of the National Observatory for Sustainable Mobility (from the original, Observatório Nacional de Mobilidade Sustentável - ONMS), a partnership with the CCR Group (from the original), which is part of the Study Group Urban Mobility, which he also directs, of the Center for City Studies — Insper’s Arq.Futuro Laboratory. “The reduction can be explained by the effects of the pandemic, since we started to adopt remote work and expanded long-distance learning”.
The survey shows that 13% of the population in the metropolitan region of São Paulo is working remotely – half of them working from home full time and the other half working in a hybrid model. Remote work, a model which is more common in jobs that demand high qualification, is more visible in the city's central and higher-income neighborhoods, such as the Faria Lima region.
However, the major reduction in commutes was seen on public transportation, more than on other means. “This is troubling because it shows that users are migrating to individual motorized transportation, such as cars and motorcycles. The result is worsening traffic and air quality, which are already terrible in São Paulo, in addition to an increasing number of deaths and injuries in traffic accidents,” says Avelleda. In this context, in the expert's view, the study urges authorities to adopt a policy aimed at resuming demand for public transportation, ensuring higher quality of service and better prices.
Most sectors of the population, in fact, want to return to public transportation, according to a survey by the National Confederation of Transportation (from the original, Confederação Nacional do Transporte - CNT) mentioned on Mobility Friday, with 63% of people who migrated from public to private transportation willing to return – as long as the routes are more rational, the travel times are shorter, and the fares are more affordable. “There is a need for constant investment in expanding the subway network, which represents the fastest, safest, most efficient and sustainable means of transport. This is how we will be able to stimulate the use of public transportation,” points out Avelleda.
The February edition of Mobility Friday focused on the thirtieth Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 30), which will be held in Brazil in November, with the challenge of understanding what is needed to decarbonize urban mobility. “On the one hand, the country faces a huge challenge because our main transport matrix for cargo and passengers on long-distance trips is road transport, which is characterized by high levels of greenhouse gas emissions. On the other hand, we have a very clean energy matrix, unlike the rest of the world, which depends on fossil fuels,” notes Avelleda.
In order to decarbonize transportation he highlights three paths: better designing cities to reduce the desire or need to commute; replacing individual motorized transportation with public transportation and active mobility (such as the use of bicycles); and improving the technology of motorized modules (in cars, buses, trucks and motorcycles) so that they emit as little pollution as possible. “We are leading a coalition of more than 60 entities to create a solid agenda for decarbonizing the transportation sector and thus, collaborate with the government for the success of COP 30. It is important that we are all dedicated to this agenda,” emphasizes the coordinator of the National Observatory for Sustainable Mobility.
According to Avelleda, the debates promoted by Mobility Friday will bring up, besides that of COP 30 and the research on the origin and destination of the subway, other “hot” topics that are in the news. Among the upcoming topics are the creation of a blue lane for motorcycles on some of São Paulo’s main avenues and the increasing implementation of free-fare buses, with city governments fully subsidizing this means of transportation.