Abstract

CASTANEDA-MENESES, Patricia Lorena. Effects of urban mobility on mental health. The case of Metropolitan Valparaíso, Chile. Prospectiva [online]. 2023, n.36, e21712927.  Epub Oct 17, 2023. ISSN 0122-1213.  https://doi.org/10.25100/prts.v0i36.12927.

Urban mobility in large cities presents difficulties in meeting people’s displacement needs. Its main problems are expressed in long travel times, environmental and acoustic pollution, and the preferential use of urban roads by motorized transport. This causes mental health problems for the population due to the limited opportunities for the development of psychosocial protective factors. The objective of the study was to analyze the effects of urban mobility on the mental health of the population of Valparaiso Metropolitano.

Qualitative research was conducted from the Case study modality. The results characterized the mental health of the population as an incremental emotional chain of psychosocial discomfort that unfolds with different ranges of severity, according to the schedules and events faced in their movements, noting unsatisfactory relations between inhabitants, infrastructures, and equipment, which lack projections of improvement in the short or medium term. It is concluded that the tensions in psychosocial well-being caused by urban mobility are present in a transversal way throughout the metropolitan population, affecting more strongly the lower income sectors, for whom public transport is their main, and sometimes their only, possibility of urban mobility.

Keywords : Urban area; Urban planning; Urban mobility; Health; Mental health.

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