A Geografia urbana e sua influência sobre o tráfego

Resumo

Engineer JERÔNIMO CAVALCANTI, of the Municipality of the Federal District, studies, in this article, the influence which urban geography has over the problem of traffic. Initially he makes. a study of the history of the original attemps at town planning, which have become ever more needed in our days, owing to the demographic increase of the human nuclei, of the diversity and variety of activities, and of the mechanization of transporta, all of which requires easy and, above all, rapid outlets.

            As the planning of cities is specialiy dependent on topographic conditions, the solution will be ever more complex as irregular may be the sites.

            In the case of the city of Rio de Janeiro, which is analysed in detail by the writer, its orography of varied reliefs was the main obstacle encountered by its settlers and, later, by the urbanists. It was from this situation, owing to its configuration, now aggravated by its great development, that the need arose for encroaching upon the sides and summits of its hills, for perfoming cuts and boring tunnels. He planned, as a solution, the Bonier type, office fingers and a wrist, after comparing it with · the radio-concentric types of Paris and Berlin.

            Again orography had a decisive influence in the plan of the city of Salvador (State of Baía), where the intelligent instaliation of an inclined plane and, mainly, of the Lacerda Elevator, - a positive demonstration that vertical transit may be industrialized - proved to be a means of intrinsic urban value, for dealing with traffic besides being a good source of income.             In Recife (State of Pernambuco) the urbanist had to grapple with the river, and there we see potamography having a strong influence in the planning of the city. The Capiberibe and Beberibe rivers, though they hinder and restrict urban outlay enlhancing the solution of the traffic problem and calling for the construction of several bridges, they offer, on the other hand, an economic solution, namely fluvial navigation, since their waters serve the flourishing districts and the more populous suburbs.

            After submitting conclusions which prove the thesis which he defends, he goes on to say that "briefly, we conclude that, in studying the traffic problem of a city, the urbanist must be guided, in facing the geographic factor, by:1. The Principie of Extension, since the area to be served with traffic lines is what selects the limit and type of highway, as a consequence ot which the plan, the administration and the price will be decided. 2. The Principie of Correlation, since one must compare what is done elsewhere in similar geographic conditions, where altimetry and hydrography imparted characteristic methods to each solution. 3. The Principie of causality, since by the instaliation of a traffic network conducted and guided along the best geographic path there will result the success of the economic urban life and of the social, political and, sometimes, military existence of the habitat; cause and effect as' may be seen".