Mariana Fernandes Mendes
With the 2014 World Cup's confirmation in Brazil, the country massively invested in several road constructions throughout the twelve host cities, alleging that the urban mobility sector needed to be better suited and that this would be the greatest legacy left by the mega sports event in the country. These interventions, mostly still in course, did not exclusively come up for the event. The World Cup became the reason for the acceleration and/or execution for the constructions. Despite the investments collected by the federal government through the Matriz de Responsabilidades da Copa e do Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento - PAC 2 (World Cup Responsibility Matrix and Acceleration and Growth Program), the urban mobility constructions were restricted to rearranging roads surrounding the sports arenas in the host Brazilian cities. In other words, the "legacy" was made of concentrated territory traffic interventions and its cost-benefit is widely questioned in this thesis based on studies that discuss the urban through a critical perspective and from an analysis in the Fortaleza metropolis. The urban mobility constructions of the World Cup PACs and of the Fortaleza mobility were significant and caused deep social spatial impacts in the property appreciation and in the forced displacement of thousands of families which resisted and are still resisting the expropriation through organized social movements. Although there were improvements in the urban mobility sector in Fortaleza, many interventions made by the state and municipal governments go against an inclusive mobility. The constructions prioritize automobile circulation, which need more roads to circulate, and therefore feed a vicious predatory cycle. As we can see in Fortaleza, the mobility crisis impact caused by the huge automobile numbers provoke a constant road expansion space in order for them to circulate, which enhances the existing social spatial inequalities. This occurs due to the creative destruction and the urban road system process, which separates territory and boosts property appreciation in the metropolis, generating lower class areas expropriation through either forced expulsion or urban land price increase. Even though the mobility agenda is present in the urban political actions in a municipal, state and federal scope, its collective social and potential purpose are neutralized by its esthetic content with transient nature, apparently mythical, which has as a main effect the urban soil appreciation instead of assuring that urban access is made through its urban mobility equipment.
University of Campinas2017
