Development of Sao Paulo Integrated Bus Rapid Network: 2002-2013

Development of Sao Paulo Integrated Bus

Rapid Network: 2002-2013
Adalberto MALUF

Abstract
When Curitiba invented the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) back in 1974, Sao Paulo was in the
midst of planning its first exclusive bus corridors. However, after 30 years of prioritising
car-oriented infrastructure, combined with little investments in public transportation,
Sao Paulo once again finds itself on the edge of urban collapse. After eight years of
promises and few deliveries on monorail solutions, investments to improve bus operation
are, once again, back on top of the political agenda all over Brazil, including Sao Paulo.
But, can bus priority programmes deliver a cost effective solution for mobility?

Introduction first subway lines in 1974, public transportation

Sao Paulo is the most important economical
hub in South America and a vibrant city
with more than 11.2 million people. The City
grew from a 20,000 inhabitants in 1854 to a
metropolis of six million by early 1970. Local
planning authorities were not able to control
urban development and the City periphery
grew fast and disorganised. Nowadays,
Sao Paulo’s metropolitan region (RMSP) is
home to 22 million people and still lacks
an effective mechanism to integrate urban
development policies, especially when trying
to harmonise policies between different
levels of governments (City – State - Federal)
and thematic sectors (Housing - Transport -
Land use).
Around 43.7 million trips happen in Sao
Paulo every day and 29.79 million of those
are motorised trips, according to Sao Paulo’s
Mobility Survey 2012 (Governo Estado Sao
Paulo 2013). Despite the creation of the City’s
has been losing passengers every year from
1967 (first Origen-Destiny - OD survey1) to
2002. However, in 2003/2004, the creation
of an exclusive bus corridor programme (Sao
Paulo Interconnected) changed the negative
trend by delivering 150km of bus corridors and
peak hour lines. According to the 2007 OD
survey, public transportation grew from 44.7%
(in 2002) to 55.3% (in 2007) of all motorised
trips. Out of this number, buses accounted
for 75% of all public transportation trips.
Additionally, 88% of subway and metropolitan
train users arrived on buses (compared to 82%
in 2002), which meant most people utilised
buses in some part of their trip. However, due
to significant investments in infrastructure
for private cars between 2008 and 2012,
car ridership grew 19% compared to 13%
for buses. As a result, public transportation
lost 1% modal share to 54.3%, but it was
still larger than the 45.7% for private modes
of transportation.

JOURNEYS | May 2014 47

Development of Sao Paulo Integrated Bus Rapid Network: 2002-2013
Buses have long been the most important
public transportation mode in Brazil and they
represent 87% of all trips in transit (Associação
Nacional de Empresas de Transporte Publico
[NTU], 2012). There are around 100,000 buses
running in 2,020 cities amongst official bus
systems in Brazil, consuming close to three billion
litres of diesel per year, which amounts to more
than 6% of the total diesel consumption in the
country. Between 2003 and 2010, total travel
time in major Brazilian cities increased by 20%
(Associação Nacional de Transporte Publico
[ANTP], 2010). Severe traffic congestions
are now a reality not only in large cities, but
also in most mid-size cities around Brazil.
Therefore, improving public transportation
by giving priority to buses in the streets is a
cost effective way to increase operational
bus speed, reduce fuel consumption and
CO2. It also improves the quality of the transit
systems due to less wait time and the higher
capacity to carry more users on the network.
History of Sao Paulo’s Transportation
Plans
In 1920, Sao Paulo had 258km of tracks and 600
trams operating in the City. They represented 84%
of public transportation trips (Vasconcellos 1999)
for the 888,000 inhabitants at that time. In 1927,
the first plan for a subway network was rejected by
the City councilors, instead, they chose to expand
roads in order to accommodate new cars in
the City.
In 1930, the highway plan “Plano de Avenidas”
shaped Sao Paulo’s important highways and
48 JOURNEYS | May 2014
future developments for almost 70 years.
Although the plan was initially envisioned to
prepare for a future subway network along
the main highways, it became a car-oriented
strategy for urban growth. This expanded the
land surface for informal urbanisation, and
paved the way for the growth of metropolitan
area peripheries. Lower density, urban sprawl,
developments were created all over the City with
very little coordination and official monitoring.
Unfortunately, the public transportation
component of the plan was never delivered.
Between 1926 and 2013, the City of Sao Paulo
had more than 36 different urban and mobility
plans to prioritise public transportation, however,
few of them were delivered as planned. After
the creation of the subway network proposal
in 1968, certain plans such as the 1968 PUB
(Basic Urban Plan), the 1971 PMDI (Plan
Metropolitan Integrated Development) and 1976
PIT (Integrated Transport Plan) were developed
to organise and optimise urban mobility at
a metropolitan scale. However, only a few
components of these plans were ever delivered.
SISTRAN (the metropolitan system for urban
mobility, 1974) was one of the most important
and ambitious of those plans. It proposed the
creation of a network of priority bus corridors
(BRT) with electrical buses (trolleybuses, at
that time) aiming to increase bus speed and
re-organise the entire bus system. During this
time, Sao Paulo implemented their first bus
corridors, right after Curtiba. However, despite
the plans, a lack of integration between the City
 Development of Sao Paulo Integrated Bus Rapid Network: 2002-2013
and state of Sao Paulo, combined with changes in
administration and prioritisation of car circulation
meant that public transport did not get enough
Figure 1: History of Sao Paulo’s busy and subway system
Period Bus Priority Schemes
1946 Creation of CMTC (Municipal Bus Company)
1947 55% ridership in buses and 65% in tram
1949 First 30 trolleybuses started to operate
1968/76 First integrated plans (Traffic-Transport)
PAIT; PIT; SISTRANS and Transport-Urban
Development), PUB; PMDI developed
1974 First bus coridors introduced. Total 39.7km
1977 Comodoro Operation (bus convoys) corridor
1980- PAI Program to Accelerate Trolleybuses.
1986 370 newer generations added.
Total: 326km of wires and 600 trolleybuses
1989 Plan of Transport and Traffic proposed 28
extra bus corridors.
1991 City municipalizes transport system and
purchase extra 1,000 buses. CMTC with
27% modal share.
2001 Special Operation “Bus free line.”
2002 Build 3 bus corridors and 7 terminals. 55%
trolleybuses were replaced for diesel buses.
2003 Delibered a new bus corridor program “Sao
Paulo Interligado”. One more bus corridor
and 5 terminals built.
2004 Seven (7) new exclusive bus corridors and 4
terminals. Total: 190km and 23 terminals
2005 Introduced “Bilhete Unico” integrated smart
card system. Two extra (2) bus corridors
2002 - Bus ridership increases from 45% to 55%
2007 of motorized trips due to bus corridors and
smart ticket
2008 - BRT projects replaved for monorail but
2012 were later cancelled. Investment on urban
highways and subway. Record congestion.
2012 2012 Guidelines for Municipal Mobility Plan
and SP 2040 Plan focus investments on BRT,
low carbon fleets and non-motorized modes
2013 Delivered new bus corridors to make up a
total of 291.4km. Once again, bus increases
number of passengers and likely to pass car
again as first mode of transportation.
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support for an integrated urban development
process in association with new transit corridors.
new transit corridors.
Period Rail Transit Systems
1930 Plan of Avenues propose expand City
with highways and in future with light rail
together
1930s Only highway part plan is delivered
1993 Sao Paulo had 258kms of trams, 84%
model share and 1.2 million trips/day
1941 Light Railway proposes to build subway
network. Rejected by City Councilor
1968 TRAMS were closed
1969 Subway network Plan for Sao Paulo. First
subway line built in 1974. Until 1997, only
50kms subway built (1.5km/year)
1985 PAM (Metropolitan Development Plan) to
improve bus operation
1977 New plan for elevated “light rail”.
Only one small line build. Later abandoned
and opened as elevated BRT
1999 PITU 2020 (updated PITU 2025 in 2006)
2005 Single ticket for buses, subway and
metropolitan train.
2008 New urban highway (Marginal);
metropolitan ringbelt and other roads.
4 monorail projects launched.
2008 Total: 62km with 58 stations metro Trains:
264km.
2009 State investments on public transportation
reduced to 53% compared to 80% average
between 2004-2008
2012 None of new subway line (monorails) was
delivered as promised. Some monorail
proejcts cancelled. Prive skyrocket.
2007- State invests billions new urban highway,
2012 rodoanel (metropolitan ringbelt) and
monorail. Car purchase incentives adopted.
2012 Car ownership total 4.2 million. Car trips
increases 10.5 to 12.6 million trips/day and
passed buses (12.5 million trips/day)
2012 Mobility Survey shows increase in subway
and train ridership. Total trips: 5.3 million
trips (3.2 trains and 2.1 subways) compared
to 12.5 million in buses.
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Development of Sao Paulo Integrated Bus Rapid Network: 2002-2013

2002 – 2012 Strategic oriented solutions have given an extra life for
Development Master Plan the bus systems in Sao Paulo, where the bus
ridership have more than doubled from less
Strategic Development Master Plan than 4.5 million trips/day in late 2003 to more
(PDE 2002) than 9.5 million trips/day by 2007.
Sao Paulo’s 10 years Strategic Master Plan
(PDE) was approved in 2002. It had planned
Transit-oriented solutions have
a network of 117km of bus corridors by
given an extra life for the bus
2006 and 169km by 2012, which would total
systems in Sao Paulo, where
325km of exclusive bus corridors and 18
the bus ridership have more
new bus terminals. The City also launched a
than doubled from less than 4.5
new Municipal Plan for Transportation and
million trips/day in late 2003 to
Traffic (PMTT) and by early 2004, the new more than 9.5 million trips/day
exclusive bus corridor programme “Sao Paulo by 2007.
Interligado” or “Interconnected Sao Paulo”
was also launched.

Between 2003 and 2004, around 71.2km of Figure 2: Exclusive bus corridor
exclusive left-side bus corridor, plus 79km of
right-side bus corridor and nine new terminals
were delivered. They added to the existing
39.7km of bus corridor and 14 terminals, to
a total network of 111km of exclusive left-side
corridors and 79km of right-side bus corridors.
In April 2004, an integrated smart card system
called “Bilhete Unico” or the “Single Ticket”
was also introduced. The system allowed users
to hop onto any bus in a two hour period
paying only a single integrated fare.

Together, both “SP Interligado” and “Bilhete

Unico” increased the total modal of public
transportation on all motorised trips to 55% by
2007, effectively reversing the negative trend
from 1997 (51%) to 2002 (44%). These transit-
Photo by: Elisa Rodrigues (SMT)

50 JOURNEYS | May 2014

 Development of Sao Paulo Integrated Bus Rapid Network: 2002-2013
Change of administration and
priorities
Both PDE 2002 and SP Interligado (bus
interconnected system) were led by the left-
wing worker party mayor (PT). When a new
conservative administration from the Social
Democrats (PSDB) was elected in 2005, they
decided not to continue pursuing BRTs in
favour of a new pro subway agenda. In 2006,
the State Subway Agency updated the PITU
2025 (Integrated Plan for Urban Transport
made in 1999), aiming to expand the subway
network from 62km to 284km, plus upgrading
the existing 264km of metropolitan trains.
Although 88% of riders were using buses,
compared to less than 22% on subway and
11% on metropolitan trains, the majority
of investments during the following
eight years were focused on rail and on
expanding infrastructure for private modes
of transportation. Total share of investments
on private modes of transportation peaked at
78% and 94% in 2005 and 2006 (Rolnik 2011).
The former pro-BRT agenda in Sao Paulo was
replaced by one with an emphasis on subways.
Despite some minor interventions to prioritise
bus operation in 2008 (reduction of street
parking and restricting trucks to operate inside
the City), the majority of BRT projects such as
Expresso Tiradentes, Celso Garcia and M’boi
Mirim were replaced by monorail projects
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after a programme led by JICA (Japanese
Cooperation Agency) donated monorail
studies to the City.
However, due to legal and financial challenges,
none of the monorail projects were delivered
by 2013 as promised.
2008–2012 Increased traffic
congestion level and the return of
the bus agenda
There are many reasons to explain Sao Paulo’s
recent difficulties in mobility. They include
priority investments made to foster private
motorisation and urban sprawl, the lack of
integration and management at metropolitan
level; institutional integration between
housing, land use and mobility plans, as well as
the lack of effective governance mechanisms.
Passengers left buses in favour of private modes
of transportation. This caused an increase in
the level of traffic congestion between 2008
and 2012. It took the appointment of a new
Secretary of Transportation in late 2011 to
put buses back on the main political agenda.
After which, several BRT projects were re-done
and new guidelines for an Urban Mobility Plan
focusing on buses, as well as the Sao Paulo
2040 strategic planning were launched by late
2012. Both focused on BRT expansion and low
carbon buses.
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Development of Sao Paulo Integrated Bus Rapid Network: 2002-2013
However, street level bureaucracy (led by
Metro officials running the show at the City
Bus Agency – SPTRANS) caused all BRT projects
to be delayed. Urban mobility challenges rose
to the top of the agenda during mayoral
elections in 2012, and the conservative
political coalition led by former Mayor
and Governor of Sao Paulo (strong defender of
Climate Change Bill and Eco-Fleet Programme
The Eco-Fleet project was launched in late
2011 and started to move forward slowly.
Following the approval of Sao Paulo’s
Climate Change Bill, which demanded a 30%
reduction in greenhouse gases and removal
of fossil fuel buses in the City by 2018, low
carbon buses started to hit the road. The IADB
(InterAmerican Development Bank) financed a
programme in four Latin American Cities (Sao
Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Bogota and Santiago)
to prove a business case for low carbon bus
technologies.
The Hybrid and Electrical Hybrid Buses Test
Programme (HEBTP) led by the Clinton Climate
Initiative and the C40 Cities tested 16 different
models of electrical, hybrids and renewable fuel
buses from Brazil, China, Korea and Sweden.
They were compared to normal diesel buses
52 JOURNEYS | May 2014
monorail and subways, against BRT) clinched a
small third position.
The conservative party campaign was once
again promising to deliver monorails. However,
electors in Sao Paulo chose not to support these
solutions again.
as a baseline and the results helped the city
to understand the real costs of bus operation.
The programme also showcased the ability of
low carbon buses to reduce operational costs
(hybrid buses had a small reduction in life cycle
cost, while full electrical had a 30% lower life
cycle cost compared to diesel buses in a 10
year operation cycle).
By early 2013, around 15% of the municipal
fleet was already complying with the
climate change legislation (mainly full
electrical and ethanol buses, or some
type of renewable fuel like diesel made of
sugar cane). Fuel consumption and GHG
were reduced by 9.5% between 2011
and 2013.
 Development of Sao Paulo Integrated Bus Rapid Network: 2002-2013
2013 – 2016 Mobility Action Plan
In January 2013, Fernando Haddad was elected
as the new mayor with a strong BRT agenda
and an urban development strategy called
“Arch of the Future”. His strategic agenda
focused exclusive infrastructure for buses
(BRT) and Traffic Oriented Developments
(TOD) around future corridors. The goal was
to harmonise policies to make jobs closer to
housing and giving priority for buses in the City
streets, which meant shorter trips and more
efficiency in the use of available urban space.
In January 2013, Fernando Haddad
was elected as the new mayor with
a strong BRT agenda and an urban
development strategy called “Arch
of the Future”. His strategic agenda
focused exclusive infrastructure
for buses and Traffic Oriented
Developments around future
corridors. The goal was to harmonise
policies to make jobs closer to
housing and giving priority for buses
in the City streets, which meant
shorter trips and more efficiency
in the use of available urban space.
Sao Paulo’s Action Plans 2
2013-2016 had
many objectives planned to improve public
transportation: 150km of full BRT; 150km
of exclusive bus lines (give priority for buses
programme) and 11 more bus terminals. The
new revision of the Strategic Master Plan (PDE
2014) would also try to balance jobs housing
with mixed-use developments and priority for
non-motorised modes of transportation (NMT).
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The 2013 June Protests
After an increase in fuel prices in early 2013,
the new Mayor increased bus fares by 20 cents
reais (in Brazilian Real about US$0.10). As a
result, hundreds of students took to the streets
to protest against the increase and request for
better public transportation.
The situation escalated when peaceful
protestors, along with reporters were attacked
and caused an uproar. In the following week,
almost one million people were protesting in
the streets of Sao Paulo. The protests spread
to other areas of Brazil and soon people were
clamouring for better quality of public services.
As a result of the protests, public transportation
finally received political attention and became
part of public debates.
Give priority to buses (bus rapid
services expansion)
Before 2012, Sao Paulo had 119km of left
exclusive bus lines and 91km of right exclusive
bus lines. The new Action Plan for 2013-2016
planned for the creation of an additional
150km of bus corridors to improve speed
and reduce operational costs. After public
consultation in early 2013, the number was
expanded to 220km. However, after the June
protests, the Mayor decided to further expand
the programme to 300km to be built in one
year instead of four years as planned before.
In less than one year, Sao Paulo City Hall
constructed 291.4km of bus corridors. A survey
done by IBOPE in September 2013 showed
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Development of Sao Paulo Integrated Bus Rapid Network: 2002-2013

a 93%3 approval rate of the exclusive bus

corridors, and 86% of those who used private The new 291km exclusive bus
cars on a daily basis also approved of the corridor also reduced diesel
consumption by 8.8% per day.
bus corridors.
In one specific bus corridor,
the speed improved 87%, from
The new 291km exclusive bus corridor also
11.5km/h to 21.5km/h. On
reduced diesel consumption by 8.8% per day.
average, the new bus corridors
In one specific bus corridor, the speed improved
improved speed by 46% and
87%, from 11.5km/h to 21.5km/h. On average, saved 38 minutes in traffic for the
the new bus corridors improved speed by average bus user in Sao Paulo.
46% and saved 38 minutes in traffic for the
average bus user in Sao Paulo (Companhia de
Engenharia de Trafego [CET], 2013).

Table 1: Bus speed per city region

Period Before After Change

Location
Peak Hour (km/hour) (km/hour) (%)
SU Morning 11.28 18.8 59
Afternoon 12 17.8 49
SO Morning 12.2 18.3 50
Afternoon 9.5 14.4 51
OE Morning 15.1 22 46
Afternoon 14.2 24.1 70
NO Morning 19.1 23.3 22
Afternoon 20.8 23.5 13
CN Morning 15.1 22.7 51
Afternoon 11.5 21.5 87
LE Morning 15.2 23.1 52
Afternoon 14.8 20 35
SE Morning 16.3 21.2 30
Afternoon 11.8 16.6 40
Marginal Morning 27.1 31.3 15
Afternoon 20 25.5 28

0-15km/h 15-20km/h 20-40km/h

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 Development of Sao Paulo Integrated Bus Rapid Network: 2002-2013
Tackling Traffic Congestion and
Managing Bus Systems
Improving public transportation, particularly bus
operations, returned to the top of the agenda for
Sao Paulo’s public policies. Important milestones
were achieved in the City since January 2013.
They included 24hr bus operations, the addition
of monthly tickets and improved peak hour bus
lines operations.
A new Integrated Smart Mobility Planning
Programme aimed at integrating all platforms
and layers of urban mobility systems is also in
the works. The programme aims to integrate
all data from the GPS of buses, along with the
data from user smart cards (which they get in
the morning, and get back in the afternoon).
This integration would allow real origin/destiny
surveys to be done daily, monitoring traffic
congestions and identifying gaps in operations.
The next step would be to control traffic signals
online to improve bus operations and optimise
the network.
In early 2014, 150km of full BRT projects were
completed with construction about to start on
the remaining. Additionally, more low carbon
buses, with low floor and little noise or pollution,
such as Diesel-Hybrids and Full Electrical Buses will
also hit the roads of Sao Paulo by 2014. Buses are
back as a top priority for City administration, and
they have been delivering low cost and effective
solutions to break gridlock traffic congestions the
City was mired in.
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Conclusion
Improving public transportation has once
again become a top priority in the Brazilian
main political agenda. Major BRT projects
were launched all over Brazil with more than
33 cities building BRTs. After the June 2013
protests, the Federal government announced
an additional US$20 billion (R$43 billion reais)
in investments for 2013/2015 with the bulk of
the funds dedicated towards improving bus
operations in middle and large sized cities
in Brazil.
Sao Paulo’s developments in public
transportation show the complex reality
that developing cities around the world
face to deliver good transportation systems.
Lack of integration between political levels
and thematic areas (Housing – Land use –
Transportation), changes in political parties
affecting investments for buses, subways and
cars, and how the political and economical
elite tend to postpone investment in public
transportation to improve infra-structure for
private cars.
Sao Paulo’s bus priority investments between
2002 and 2004 have more than doubled the
amount of trips on buses from 4.5 million trips/
day in 2002 to 9.5 million trips/day in 2007
and made public transportation (mainly buses)
as the number one transportation mode in
the City. In 2005, a political change caused a
priority shift in investments from buses to cars,
metropolitan trains and subways, all of which
increased between 2008 and 2012.
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Development of Sao Paulo Integrated Bus Rapid Network: 2002-2013

Lastly in 2013, a new Mayor reinvested in
bus corridors as an emergency action when
BRT projects were not completed. More than
291km of bus corridors were constructed
and bus speeds increased more than 50%
on average. The total cost of these 291km of
bus corridors was only US$6.5 million (about
R$15 million reais), as little as U$22,000
per kilometer. These results prove how bus
corridors can be cost-effective solutions with
little infrastructure to deliver great results. With
extra speed, more capacity could be added into
the system during peak and off-peak hours
along with a reduction in fuel consumption
and CO2 emission by almost 9%. Furthermore,
ridership for January-February 2014
increased more than 5.4% compared to the
same period in 2013, proving the benefits of
the exclusive lines.
The faster bus speeds significantly reduced
travel time in Sao Paulo’s bus system (38
minutes for the average bus rider) and
emission of local pollutants. Passengers also
had a reduction in the exposure to pollutants
in the streets, and initial numbers also indicate
reductions in traffic accidents and crime as well
as an increase in land prices, similar to what
other studies have indicated around the world
(EMBARQ 2013).
Once again, buses have delivered a cost-
effective solution for sustainable mobility in
Sao Paulo.
has

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 Development of Sao Paulo Integrated Bus Rapid Network: 2002-2013

Notes References

Origen Destiny (OD) is a modal share survey done

1
Associação Nacional de Transporte Publico (ANTP).
every 10 years by. Intermediary surveys were 2010. “Sistema de Mobilidade Urbana.” Relatório
Geral 2010.
Since 2005, Mayors in Sao Paulo and many cities
2

in Brazil need to approve their Action Plans within
the three first months of government. This project is
part of the Sustainable Cities Platform, led by Nossa
Sao Paulo Movement with hundreds of NGOs
around the country.
IBOPE/Nossa Sao Paulo 2013 Survey.
3
Companhia de Engenharia de Trafego (CET). 2013.
“Avaliação das faixas exclusivas de ônibus.”
EMBARQ. 2013. “Social, Environmental and Economic
Impacts of Bus Rapid Transit.” http://www.embarq.org/
sites/default/files/Social-Environmental-Economic-
Impacts- BRT- Bus-Rapid-Transit-EMBARQ.pdf

Governo Estado Sao Paulo . 2013. “Principais

Resultados: Pesquisas familiares DEZ 2013.” Pesquisa
de Mobilidade 2008-2012

Associação Nacional de Empresas de Transporte

Publico (NTU). Anuário 2011/2012.

Rolink, R and Klintowitz, D. 2011. “(I)Mobilidade na

cidade de São Paulo.” Estudos Avançados, 25 (71).

Vasconcellos, E. 1999. “Circular é preciso. Viver não

é preciso.” A Historia do transporte publico de São
Paulo: Annablue.

Adalberto Maluf is the City Director of the C40 Cities (Climate

Leadership Group) in partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative
(CCI) since 2007 based in São Paulo, Brazil. Adalberto works with
public policy creation and climate change mitigation projects on
urban mobility, traffic oriented developments (TOD) and sustainable
urban strategies. He coordinated the C40 Hybrid Electrical Bus Test
Programme in Sao Paulo. Before joining CCI and C40 Cities, Adalberto
worked for the City of São Paulo (Environmental and International
Affairs Secretariats). He holds a Bachelor degree in International
Affairs and a Master of Science in International Political Economy at
the Institute of International Relations, University of São Paulo (USP).

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