Urban mobility and social determination of health, a reflection

Abstract

Understanding the relationships between urban mobility and the health-disease process requires realizing that urban mobility is directly related to the type of city and society where it occurs. Thus, the different mobility conditions in cities, a phenomenon underlying the physical and social quality of urban space, may imply health inequities, especially in peripheral capitalist countries. In Brazil, the mobility model associated with precarious infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists, long distances to be travelled, travel times, and the insufficiency and low quality of collective transport systems potentiates the deleterious effects on human health. This leads us to infer on urban mobility as a social determinant of health. This essay seeks to launch reflections on urban mobility beyond a positivist utilitarianism from a development of social justice based on Health Promotion and having as main strategy the strengthening of intersectorialities.