In January 2003, the Brazilian government created the Ministry of Cities with the objective of formulating national housing, environmental sanitation and urban mobility policies that have a strong impact in urban development. The National Secretary of Transportation and Urban Mobility – SeMob was created and the CBTU – the Brazilian Urban Train Company, which was part of the Ministry of Transportation and the Denatran – the National Traffic Department, which was part of the Ministry of Justice, have been incorporated by the Ministry of Cities to elaborate and implement urban mobility policy.
SeMob has formulated and debated the Sustainable Urban Mobility concept to respond to the mobility crisis being faced by the large urban centers due to inadequate collective transportation networks, the reduction in the population’s income, the high fares and the model of urban circulation, which is built around automobiles, among other reasons. It is also possible to ascertain the fragmented approach to the problem, which results in different transportation and traffic policies that more often than not do not take into consideration land use and occupation
and the social aspects involved in urban mobility.