Traffic impact studies committed to sustainability: The case of Rio de Janeiro

This article investigates whether the traditional approaches to Traffic Impact Studies (TISs) have evolved to meet the current needs of a society increasingly concerned with sustainability, especially in Brazil. For this purpose, we conducted a comprehensive literature review to identify the main sustainability aspects that should be covered by these studies, including the most suitable analytic techniques for this purpose, in particular for traffic simulation. We then prepared a proposal for classifying traffic impact studies and applied it in a specific case, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, the study of the Porto Maravilha port district revitalization project. This enabled understanding the current state of the practice of these studies in the country, indicating they are in general very poor, justifying the need for improvements.