Is it really that difficult to restore the self-esteem of the people of Pernambuco, so that we can say that the metro is magnificent, as it once was; to say that the experience of arriving at Arena is, indeed, worthy of a major event? Will we remain trapped in the illusion that individual transportation is the solution, not only for getting to Arena, but also for daily commutes?
On Tuesday (13th), the Arena de Pernambuco hosted two events: the friendly match between the women's football teams of Brazil and Argentina, which ended in a draw; and the "show" (I'm being ironic) of car dependency for transportation. The worst part is that this show has been repeating for years, with kilometers and kilometers of traffic jams. After all, we continue to use the same failed solution: access to a large venue by a single mode of transportation – worse: individually.As I have already written, the game is not won..
The football match began at 8:30 PM on a typical Tuesday evening, a midweek day, with an estimated attendance of around 30,000 people. This meant that Arena Pernambuco was far from being full. Nevertheless, there was a veritable "river of cars" on all sides (to use thewords from the cartoon CARtoons, page 93Undermining the free car dictatorship.
Below the cartoon is an expression attributed to Adolf Hitler in 1933, stating: "In the past, people's relative standard of living was measured according to the amount of railway lines, but in the future, the amount of kilometers of roads suitable for car traffic will be used as a measure. So, what can we say now, in the 21st century, about our standard of living that is still so dependent on cars?
Our quality of life has deteriorated. Let's see: near-daily immobility, increased travel times, excessive use of urban space, increased traffic accidents, contribution to global warming, and a gradual distancing of people from public transport. My profession compels me to record a point: in that sea of people trapped in traffic jams for hours, consuming their precious time and leisure, it is difficult to recognize that each of them was also part of the infamous traffic jam.
In a contradictory and impactful way, just a few meters from the Arena, there is a disused railway line, a witness to another time. This is the question in the face of the constant "superadventure" of getting to the Arena: is it really impossible to modernize this line and integrate it into a major attraction? Is it technically impossible for the metro system, the most efficient system, to reach the door of the Arena?
We need to break with this spirit of the time, marked by outdated decisions. We must break with the logic of“CARtoons” that say “We are the cars” (p. 17)and that, in the words of the former Vice President of General Motors, “the car must be exciting and create desire in people, not become a mere means of transport. Otherwise, we will only have something useless, and they will spend their money on other things”.
The sentence exemplifies why a portion of society still views public transportation as something for the unsuccessful. After all, it is a matter of decades of cultural conditioning that associates personal cars with freedom, success, and desire. It is a matter of decades in which the idea has become natural that investing in roads, airports, and paving is synonymous with progress, while investments and subsidies for public transportation are often treated as a waste of public money.
Breaking with this logic requires a paradigm shift and a willingness from everyone to open new paths and new routines. We need to re-evaluate what we understand by progress and recognize that the quality of life in cities and for the people should not be measured by the number of cars on the streets, but by the ability to ensure that people have the right to travel with dignity, regardless of the chosen mode of transport.
Thus, on October 15th, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, candidate for re-election, proposed a zero fare for public transportation on weekends and holidays. This is a disruptive proposal that puts public transportation at the center of the debate. It is an old desire of those who use and pay dearly for public transportation. In the Metropolitana do Recife, the zero fare on Sundays during the first round increased the demand for buses (80%) and the metro (100%) considerably.
Considering that days of the Women's World Cup can be treated as local holidays, there is room for a change of perspective, opposing the logic expressed in the statements attributed to Hitler and the former vice-president of a powerful automotive industry.
The year 2026 may be historic, as it opens the space to think about progress not by the length of roads for automobiles or subsidies for cars and motorcycles - electric or not - but by people's access to public transportation. Let us finally have this beautiful spectacle in our streets, based on theStructuring the Unified Mobility System (SUM).