In recent years, urban mobility has been a major topic of debate among general public, academics, politicians and urban planners. Despite public policy programmes on mobility kick-started by the City Statute (Estatuto das Cidades), the resources invested in Brazil have not produced significant improvement in the quality of public transport in metropolitan areas, culminating instead in mass public demonstrations in June 2013. According to calculations made by the Federation of Industries of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FIRJAN), taking into account loss of production and additional expenditure on fuel, among other variables, the cost of traffic congestion in Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area amounted to 29 billion reais in 2013, the equivalent of 8.2 percent of the area s GDP and higher than the GDP of the states of Piaui and Tocantins. Against this background of increasing urban immobility, investment in public transport, as against private transport, has become a priority.