Abstract

Urban mobility has always been studied in urban development matters. As cities experience the growth of large informal settlements – commonly isolated and segregated – urban mobility becomes essential to integrate the population by allowing open access to different parts of the city. Transport planning is therefore usually a top-priority agenda item for authorities; however, in third-world cities, it is common for operations to extend beyond the planned limits. While the public transport system is often disorganised and little regulated, a wide-ranging informal transport system emerges mostly to serve areas left unserved by formal public transport. By seeing urban regeneration as an urban transformation process that allows social inclusion and better quality of life, this investigation aims to evaluate urban mobility (both formal and informal) as an urban regeneration tool based on a case study of the Almendral neighbourhood hills in Valparaíso, Chile. In this paper, we explore the concept of Transport-City Synergy as a way of regenerating a city, which at the same time allows current development and planning patterns to be reevaluated. Finally, an urban mobility and connectivity analysis of the sector is carried out. As a result, an efficient and semi-informal public transport system is identified, which influences the consolidation of informal neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the city.