Classe trabalhadora e o uso da bicicleta: um debate sobre a mobilidade urbana na cidade de Feira de Santana – BA

Abstract

This study presents a reflection on the working class and the use of bicycles, proposing a debate on urban mobility in the city of Feira de Santana – BA. It is a qualitative study constructed with the participation of several subjects involved in the topic. In this context, the bicycle can be a tool to fight for the right to the city. Therefore, the study aims to listen to working cyclists who use bicycles as a means of transport and find out their relationship with the bicycle and the city of Feira de Santana. In the study there is also a section, a research field, that seeks to analyze in a qualitative way the cyclists who travel by bicycle and use it as a means of transport in the Centro Industrial do Subaé (CIS) neighborhood, which was created in 1970 with the purpose of being an industrial installation neighborhood. Therefore, the study has the following general objective: to study the perception/conception of the working class, who use bicycles as a means of transport, and the Urban Mobility Policy in the city of Feira de Santana – BA. We seek to meet the following specific objectives: a) study the right to the city, relating it to the working class in defense of quality of life and how collective actions are developed; b) analyze the national urban policy relating it to the mobility plan and the Feira de Santana master plan; c) carry out a historical survey of cycling activism in Brazil as a tool for participation, contribution, demand and analyze what was done in the city of Feira de Santana; d) understand the demands of workers who use bicycles as a means of transport and their compliance by public authorities, as well as possible conflicts in relation to urban planning. In addition to bibliographic and documentary research, 15 forms and 7 interviews were used as methodological instruments to collect the qualitative data necessary for the investigation. To apply the forms – one part included objective questions and answers and another part with open questions in a semi-structured interview format that were even recorded for the 15 working cyclists in the CIS neighborhood. For the application of 7 semi-structured interviews with cyclists and non-cyclists, but involved in the topic. The structure of the work is presented in four chapters including field research and methodological instruments, which together aim to understand the urban mobility policy in the city of Feira de Santana and the use of bicycles by the working class. From this perspective, which we will study in the theoretical chapters on the right to the city, the mobility plan and director of Feira de Santana, Statute of Cities, participation channels, democratic management, the benefits of implementing infrastructure for cycling, cycling activism and more of the 7 interviews. In the chapter on the research field we will present the results and responses of the working cyclists who answered the 15 forms. Thus, it was determined that the bicycle is an object with multiple purposes and can be an efficient urban transport instrument in the city of Feira de Santana.