Segregation processes in territories of urban expansion: analysis of public passenger transportation in the case of the Metropolitan Area of San Juan (Argentina) from 2020-2022

BLANCO AVILA, ANA MARÍA; MATTIOLI, LUISA; DALLA TORRE, JULIETA; SALES, ROMINA GISELLE

Newcastle upon Tyne

Congreso; Citizens on the Move: Accessibility and Mobility in the Global South - Online International Seminar; 2022

Urban Planning and Urban Affairs, Newcastle University; Universidade Federal Do Minas Gerais (Ufmg), Observatório Das Metrópoles É Um Instituto Nacional; y Universidad de Concepción del Uruguay

Latin America is witnessing processes of dispersed urban expansion that generate peri-urban interface territories, distant, with poor accessibility to labor sources, goods and services, social facilities, among others. There is not only a lack of public passenger transportation, but also a lack of service provision. Although in Argentina, there are many advances regarding mobility in the processes of territorial planning, it is observed that the dynamics of urban expansion exceeds the provision of public transport. In addition, transport and mobility are generally considered as sectorial issues. This implies gaps in terms of response at the territorial level, increasing in peri-urban interface territories. Currently, urban expansion in San Juan is mostly associated with the construction of state-subsidized housing and private operations. In the year 2021, a public transport system called "RedTulum" (Tulúm Network) was implemented, which incorporated structural modifications in the primary and secondary network of inter and intra-departmental connection services. In this context, the objective of this article is to analyze the incidence of this new configuration of the public transport network in the production and reproduction of segregation processes in peri-urban interface territories of the Metropolitan Area of San Juan (AMSJ), in the period 2020-2022. For this purpose, a case study was selected in the AMSJ, adopting a quali-quantitative methodological strategy that combines several techniques: documentary analysis of secondary information sources (written and graphic support); semi-structured interviews to state agents (to investigate public policy strategies); cartography and analysis through the free software QGIS. The Tulúm Network is presented as an integral system for social mobility, which expands connectivity between different points of the province by improving the supply of public passenger transport services. However, it is considered necessary to reflect on how this modification in the urban structuring generated by the network promotes, enables or restricts segregation processes in peri-urban interface territories. The results aim at discerning such changes in the context of urban expansion transformations, considering public transport as a tool for social equality-integration.