The conception of “axes” in São Paulo, Brasil: a mixture of travelling of managers and ideas, new urban plan methods, in an incomplete incorporation of Transit Oriented Developments (TOD) agenda

Abstract

This article focuses on the relationship between urban planning and mobility present in the “axes” of the 2014 São Paulo Strategic Master Plan, which became zones in 2016, understanding the conceptual and theoretical origin of the idea that proposed densifying where there is public transport infrastructure. The initial hypothesis was that the inspiration for the axes came from the concept of Transport Oriented Development (TOD), but a bibliometric analysis of scientific articles and manuals, and interviews with the urban planners responsible for regulation, denied this. Urban regulation in previous decades oscillated between zones and urban design, and the axes ended up incorporating an incomplete TOD agenda without improving active mobility or the climate change agenda. Keywords: transit oriented development; urban planning; urban design; zoning