Avaliação da Qualidade de Calçadas em Cidade de Pequeno Porte - Estudo de Caso em Santa Helena de Goiás

Abstract

Accessibility is the ability to easily and safely access any place, ensuring that individuals with or without reduced mobility can fulfill their roles in society and exercise their citizenship rights. Civil engineering plays a fundamental role in addressing accessibility, being of utmost importance for the development and implementation of accessible projects. The Municipality of Santa Helena de Goiás, specifically the Centro neighborhood, serves as the focal point of this study, considering it is the most accessed location in the city. The methodology of Sidewalk Level of Service Evaluation for Small Cities was employed, calculating the Sidewalk Service Index (ISE), involving two aspects: Quality of space and Accessibility (ISCqe and ISCa). The method comprised three stages: technical analysis of sidewalks (for the indicators, verification was done considering the most critical case within the segment), assessment of user perception, and assignment of Service Levels, ranging from A to F. The Highway Capacity Manual (2000) method was also utilized, analyzing the Pedestrian Flow Rate according to sidewalk movement, and Service Levels were defined accordingly. In the end, a comparison between the Service Levels was possible, and it was evident that the two analyzed methods are different study metrics but complement each other when assessing sidewalks. It was possible to identify strengths and areas that need improvement, serving as a preliminary study with potential variations for the future development of more effective strategies in the municipality.