The definition of accessible routes on sidewalks: a new challenge for Brazilian cities

Sidewalks in Brazilian cities still have physical conditions that hamper or even prevent pedestrians to move, especially those with disabilities. 2010 Brazilian Demographic Census indicated that 69% of urban households were benefited with sidewalks and that only 4.7% with ramps for wheelchair users. The same Census reported that Brazil had a contingent of more than 45.6 million people who declared themselves with disabilities, representing around 23% of Brazilian population. Federal legislation has advanced on setting up planning mechanisms aiming to build more accessible cities. Since 2015 Accessible Route Plans are mandatory for cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants or that integrate metropolitan areas, as part of a Municipal Comprehensive Plan. Despite improvements on legal provisions concerning accessibility, its fulfillment is still far away from what is desired. Among the set of functions that sidewalk provides, the clear path is the least considered in Brazil, because those responsible for infrastructure building over it do not usually regard its importance. Even today, it is common inadequate location of physical elements on sidewalks, such as access ramps of vehicles to buildings, electricity poles or street lighting, urban furniture etc., disrespecting universal accessibility in clear paths. Taking it into account, the purpose of this paper is to present a technical method to support local administrations in accessible route definition on downtown sidewalks, especially those with population under 20 thousand inhabitants, where sidewalks precariousness tends to be greater. The suggested method assumes two stages. The first one, explored in this paper, has a remote nature, using secondary data available from official sources of the three administrative spheres of the Federative Republic of Brazil. This first stage consists, basically, of 5 steps: i) Central Business District delimitation; ii) identification of CBD commercial and service units that act as pedestrian attractors; iii) accessible route definition connecting these units; iv) remote survey of sidewalks physical conditions in the predefined route; and v) preliminary proposal of physical interventions to guarantee universal accessibility in the defined route, with estimated costs. The second stage involves field surveys to complement data that allow the site diagnosis to build an executive project of the accessible route. To illustrate the application of the suggested method (first stage) it is presented a preliminary study of an accessible route on sidewalks in the central area of Quitandinha municipality – with approximately 5,000 urban inhabitants - located in Curitiba Metropolitan Area. Considering the diversities of physical elements placed on the sidewalks and of entities, whether public or private, responsible for their installation and maintenance, sidewalk regulations must be more significant in urban legislation to guarantee universal accessibility. The remote method proposed allows a previous wide comprehension of site problematic, compiling several types of spatializable secondary information in a single data base. In addition, this method makes it possible to propose sidewalks interventions aiming pedestrian universal accessibility, regardless previous field surveys. Despite these advantages, limits in its application occur in the case of cities whose streets are not totally covered by secondary source or when they are outdated. The proposed method, which is relatively easy to apply, is expected to stimulate: i) local administrations to evaluate their sidewalks situation and to include their suitability in their investment agendas considering accessibility requirements; and ii) regional and federal administrations to develop public policies to qualify urban environment.