Recife has one of the worst traffic problems in the country.

Leonardo Lucena_PE247 – Recife (PE) is in third place in the ranking of the ten Brazilian capitals where citizens spend the most time commuting from home to work. According to data collected between 1992 and 2009 by the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea), residents of Recife take an average of 34,9 minutes to make the journey. São Paulo (SP) is in first place with 42,8 minutes, and Rio de Janeiro (RJ) is in second place with 42,6 minutes.

The disappointing third-place ranking puts the capital of Pernambuco ahead of other major world metropolises where residents spend more time commuting from their homes to their workplaces. In New York (United States), for example, the commute takes 34,6 minutes, in Tokyo (Japan) it takes 34,5 minutes, and in Paris (France) it takes 33,7 minutes.

According to Oswaldo Lima Neto, PhD in Urban Planning and Transportation from the University of North Rhine-Westphalia (GER), Recife needs a growth model that favors the use of automobiles. "Planning cannot be done along the way; it has to be done before, during, and after the action," he states.

Data from the Pernambuco State Traffic Department (Detran-PE) indicates that the number of cars circulating in Recife exceeds 384,000 and the number of motorcycles reaches 117,000 units. Similar to other capital cities, such as São Paulo, the Recife City Hall (PCR) is studying the implementation of a vehicle rotation system during peak hours – 6:30 am to 8:30 am and 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm.

“We can also limit the number of parking spaces in public parking lots by increasing the price, and implement urban tolls,” says Lima Neto, from the Department of Civil Engineering at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE).

In the case of the Recife Metropolitan Region (RMR), statistics from Detran show that, four years ago, the vehicle fleet increased from 846 to 1,1 million in 2013. And, while in the capital the time spent commuting from home to work is 34,9 minutes, a survey by Ipea indicates that 12% of car users in the RMR spend more than an hour traveling this route.

The expert also points out that Recife needs intermodal integration to allow citizens to park their cars or bicycles at metro stations. "This provides more security for the user," he says.

According to the scholar, widening viaducts, streets, and avenues is not a viable solution for improving urban mobility. "There's a saying: whoever builds roads, reaps congestion," he observes. "We have to prioritize public transportation and, regarding bicycles, create a network of cycle paths to connect neighborhoods. It doesn't necessarily have to be a cycle path; it could be cycle lanes," adds Lima Neto.

Completing the ranking of the ten capitals with the longest commute times are the Federal District, in fourth place with 34,8 minutes, in fifth place Belo Horizonte (34,4), followed by Salvador (33,9), Curitiba, in seventh (32,1), Fortaleza (31,7), Belém (31,5) and Porto Alegre (27,7).