Increasingly Governing Bus Services Through Policy Instruments

Continuity and Change of Urban Policies in São Paulo: Resilience, Latency, and Reanimation

“…Electronic validators and turnstiles were universalized, and a real smart card (Bilhete Único) was introduced, allowing temporal fares and free integration between buses. This was complemented with several monitoring technologies such as a control center, GPS on buses, and electronic line controls, enhancing legibility over the flows of passengers, buses, and fares (Campos 2021; SP Trans 2016a and b). Passengers could now change an unlimited number of times between buses within 2 h paying one single fare, a major redistributive measure considering the social profile of bus users and the large distances poor people travel in Brazilian cities.…”

“…During the Kassab administration, companies and cooperatives were urged to convert their vehicles to less pollutant fuel, going mainly from diesel to biodiesel and ethanol and expanding the presence of buses with improved accessibility. This administration also implemented measures to reduce frauds with the card (Campos 2021).…”

“…9 The São Paulo bus system has proportional size and complexity. In 2018, 13,000 vehicles belonging to 32 private contractors circulated in 1,300 bus lines, delivering around 6,400 daily scheduled trips (Campos 2021). Among motorized trips (not considering trips made on foot or bicycles), private automobiles were responsible for 40.1 percent, buses for 37 percent, and the subway and trains just for 16.4 percent (Metrô 2019), turning bus transportation into a crucial issue for mayoral politics.…”

“…Fare resources were centralized in a fund that included fares and municipal budget resources, ending the "remuneration by service cost." Payments started to be calculated by a formula that weighted kilometers traveled and transported passengers, calibrated to cover operational costs, and incentivize getting more passengers (Campos 2021). The administration was impacted by many conflicts involving strikes of both CMTC and private companies' employees (Couto 1994).…”

“…The remaining structure of the company was renamed into SPTrans and was reorganized to become a transportation regulatory agency. Due to the bids, the number of private companies providing lines jumped from 32 in 1992 to 63 in 1999 (Campos 2021). Payments for contractors were again restricted to fare revenues, sharing them within each group of lines proportionally to their costs.…”