A comparative evaluation of mobility conditions in selected cities of the five Brazilian regions

•We evaluated and compared the mobility conditions of six cities of the five Brazilian macroregions.•We applied the Index of Sustainable Urban Mobility in the selected cities.•In general, the cities located in the wealthier part of the country performed better.•City sizes also seem to have affected that performance.•Marked regional dissimilarities among the cities affected the availability and quality of the data used in the mobility assessments.

This study evaluates and compares the mobility conditions of cities of the five Brazilian macroregions based on the outcomes of the Index of Sustainable Urban Mobility (I_SUM). The Index, applied in Belém, Curitiba, Goiânia, Juazeiro do Norte, Uberlândia and Itajubá, has a hierarchical structure formed by nine Domains, 37 Themes and 87 Indicators. The study involved two phases. In the first, the existence of data required for the application of the index in the cities was investigated, considering two criteria: data availability and data quality. Next, an extensive data collection procedure was conducted and the index values were calculated. The availability of the mobility information needed for the construction of the Index was used to explore which were the domains with missing information in each city or how the information was collected in the different cities. The mobility conditions in the selected cities were also compared so that the aspects that might drive some of them towards sustainable mobility could be identified. In general, the cities located in the wealthier part of the country performed better. The city sizes also seem to have affected their performance. The differences regarding the context are also among the highlighted aspects, given the marked regional dissimilarities among the cities that affect the availability and quality of the data.