The use of sustainability indicators in urban passenger transport during the decision-making process: the case of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

•A set of 20 sustainable transportation indicators was selected to assess the sustainability of transport.•The state of Rio de Janeiro was used as case study to evaluate the applicability of this set of indicators.•The use of the proposed indicators could help the public managers assisting in decision-making process.•The set of indicators can be applied to other Brazilian states to draw comparisons.

Transportation is an important sector that has significant economical, social and environmental impacts. In this context, indicators can be used to evaluate sustainable transportation and to guide decision making process. In this paper a set of 20 indicators is selected and used as an example to evaluate their applicability to monitoring the lines of action regarding transportation in the Rio de Janeiro State Climate Plan. The results indicate that certain objectives cannot be monitored from the perspective of the sustainability criteria, and signal the importance of establishing monitoring criteria previously of public policy elaboration process. The use of the proposed indicators could help the public managers to monitor progress toward the goals presented in climate change policy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and identify whether Rio de Janeiro is progressing toward sustainable development.