Rational Use Of Energy For Urban TransportationIn Brazil

Urban transportation in developing countries is usually associated to the use of a large amount of energy, which mainly depends on refined products of petroleum. The abusive burning of exhaustible fuels, like fossils ones, most applied to internal-combustion engines consumes a great amount of the national economic resource becoming the principal source of air and noise pollution. The purpose of this paper is to show how Brazil is dealing with the problem of its large dependence on refined products of petroleum in urban transit and the necessity of a national engagement in the rational uses of this energy. Technological researches and government policies and legislation to rule the use of traditional petroleum derivatives energy sources and alternative ones for roadway vehicles are the main focus of this article. Distinction is given to the large experience in the use of alcohol (ethanol) to move passenger cars and to the problems that arise when defining and implementing a government plan to use Natural Gas as alternative fuel for buses and trucks.