Quality in urban collective bus transport systems : the case of São Paulo, Brazil

Urban mobility in a metropolitan region, defined by the easiness with which people can move around, is a fundamental characteristic of the quality of life of those who live in it and of its degree of social and economic development. The urban mobility system is deeply related to the urban development and the use of the land. In Brazil, where 84% of the population lives in urban areas, the mobility question has an increasing importance. The mobility model implemented in São Paulo throughout most part of the 20th century has been focused on the use of the automobile as main mode of transportation. The investment in large avenues and road projects such as tunnels and bridges and the prioritization of private transport instead of public transport are vital features of this model. However, it is showing signs of exhaustion, as demonstrated by the daily traffic jams and the every lower indices of mobility of the population of São Paulo. Collective modes of transportation are an alternative of mobility system, especially the bus system, because it has low implementation costs and it enables operational changes that will have short-term impacts, when compared to subways or urban train systems. In June 2015, the City Hall of São Paulo published the structure of the tendering model for the concession of the bus public transport services that will regulate the operation of buses in the city for twenty years, extendable for another twenty years. This tender, with a value of R$ 140 billion, has several innovations and mechanisms in order to guarantee that the service is offered with quality and efficiency. This work, based in the available literature review, analyzes the ways in which the invitation to tender measures the quality of the service supplied by the operators and the tools it uses to maintain minimum standards of service and to influence behaviors. Several shortcoming were found in the definition of quality of the proposal, especially concerned about the perspective of stakeholders other than the users of the system. I conclude with a series of suggestions of strategies and mechanisms that could be included in the contract with the operators and in the tendering process of the concession of the service exploration.