INFORMAL MOBILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY IN SOUTH AMERICA: TOWARD A RIZOMIC IRRIGATION OF THE TERRITORY

in Paris-Est University (UPE) and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), in process from 2016.

For more than twenty years, large public programs have been launched in Brazil to implant transport infrastructures in informal neighborhoods such as cable cars, funiculars or elevators. The case of Alemão Complex cable car in Rio de Janeiro, realized in 2011, as part of the preparation of the city for the 2014 Football World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, acts in favor of improving the mobility and accessibility of the community. By offering a connection to the city's train network, internal journey times to the complex are diminished and the safety and visibility of this territory are enhanced. It is noted, however, that only a small part of the population uses this mean of transport. In fact, the lack of participative politics and preliminary studies to the project, the difficulties of accessibility of the stations, the low intermodality of the system, or the lack of attractiveness of the complementary programs, necessary for the integration of the cable car, are factors that explain the low attendance rate. The central question posed by this research focuses on understanding what the Cable Car of the Alemão Complex brings in terms of mobility and accessibility to the population, assuming that the system of "hard" infrastructures (train and cable car) cannot answer for itself, and in an exhaustive way, to the inhabitants' mobility demand. The articulation with the informal transport network of the community (operated by Vans, Kombis and motorcycle-taxis) appears as an inherent condition for the rhizomic irrigation of the territory by transport.