Intelligent Applications for the São Paulo Municipal Bus Transit System
IV Quarterly
October 1999

Recognizing the dominance of buses in pubic transit in South America, the IVQ zeroed in on the extensive operations of São Paulo Transit.   Many thanks to Waldomiro Yoshida, Project Manager, Engineering and Technology Division, and Hughson de Castro, Project Manager, System Planning Division, for providing this article on IV applications within their system.

The city of São Paulo, in Southeastern Brazil, with a population around 10 million (16 million in the 39-municipality metropolitan area), operates one of the largest urban bus fleets in the world -- over 11,000 units -- which serve a daily patronage above 4.5 million.  They provide about three fourths of the total available public transit supply, even though the city boasts 50 km of modern subway lines and 200 km more of relatively inefficient commuter railways.  Bus routes operate across a 3,000 km network of streets and avenues, with only a very minor degree of priority represented by 40 km of exclusive lanes that are not always respected by the general traffic, and about 120 km of even less respected preferential bus lanes.  Traffic congestion is endemic in the city and bus services are suffering ascending travel times, unreliable schedules, and loss of riders.

Multiple Systems Envisioned to Provide Total Service

Current proposals by SPTrans, the local bus transit authority, call for the implementation of a high performance bus trunk route system, interconnecting the central business district (CBD) with the several lesser business districts scattered throughout the urban area and with the major residential districts. Proposals emphasize the need for such trunk routes to operate on truly exclusive bus lanes, to be located along important radial and orbital streets and avenues.  Together with the existing subway and commuter rail lines (for which other improvements are planned), they will provide a high/intermediate capacity transit “backbone” to accommodate the more concentrated displacement demands.  This basic transit network is to be complemented by feeder route subsystems, so designed as to guarantee that any system customer, anywhere in the city limits, may expect to reach the nearest business district or some access point to the basic network within a reasonable, specified period of time.

Existing bus transit services, which heretofore have been strictly controlled by the municipality, are to be redesigned, beginning with the subdivision of the city into a number of “service areas.”  Transit operations within each service area will be assigned to a single private operator under a concession agreement which will establish service parameters and oversight procedures.  While relinquishing its former grip on transit operations control, the city must nevertheless keep an alert eye on it: onboard and roadside intelligent features are to play a critical role in that brave new world.  City transit authorities are considering a variety of new capabilities, including smart card readers, real-time vehicle location monitoring, dynamic passenger information on-board and in terminals, and time-based fares.

Guided Buses Key to Operational Improvements

Intelligent vehicle applications are also being actively pursued.  The standard bus corridor configuration in São Paulo includes reserving the leftmost lane, on double carriageway avenues, exclusively for buses.  These buses, which can be single unit, articulated, or double-articulated, are equipped with left side doors, as stop platforms are also located at left, on median islands, and raised to bus floor level in order to improve access and  minimize stop dwell times.  One specific feature related to such layout is the precision docking maneuver required to minimize vehicle/platform gap and its associated accident hazard, even more critical for multiple unit vehicles.  The use of wedge-shaped lane dividers as an aid to vehicle steering proved only partly successful, which prompted SPTrans to search for electronic docking devices for that specific use.  Currently, the most promising solutions seem to rely on the emission of high frequency radio signals by linear antennae buried into the pavement.  The signals are converted on-board into mechanical steering impulses to help guide the bus through the critical platform docking process.  It should be noted that findings on this specific subject are, so far, inconclusive.

VLP Looks At Electronic Guidance

Trunk routes with demands too high for normal corridor service, but not high enough to warrant the implementation of rapid transit facilities, are to be served by a novel medium capacity transit mode dubbed the VLP, of which a network of over 100 km  has already been proposed.  VLP infrastructure consists of a fully segregated, narrow cross-section, bi-directional transitway, and the associated electric overhead/feeder system.  The typical vehicle is to be an automatically guided, double-articulated, twin-motor trolleybus with redundant power management systems to ensure extremely reliable operation.  A test vehicle so configured has been undergoing field trials for some time now.

For the first VLP route, already under construction, lateral rails and side rollers mechanically connected to the bus steering mechanism provide guidance.  However, other guide systems have been envisioned, and the possibility of electronic rail-less guidance is open for investigation.  Vehicle convoys of two and three units are to be run in response to demand requirements, and electronic coupling of convoy components has also been considered.  No further studies have been conducted on the subject, but our current belief is that possibilities may be limited by cost restraints and also by the lack of field-proven, reliable, off-the-shelf technology.

For More Information ...

... contact Hughson de Castro, System Planning Division, SPTrans, at hughson@sti.com.br.

[Top]