Observing public transport through the eyes of its users: The case of São Paulo

Since 2019, CAF and IDB have been working together on the Urban Mobility Observatory (OMU), an initiative that links twenty-nine Latin American cities in order to survey mobility data and promote less expensive, systematic and innovative data collection tools.

In a new collaborative exercise between OMU and Moovit (a company owned by Intel and the creator of the world’s number one urban mobility app), around 13,500 of the app’s users in Mexico City, Guadalajara (Mexico), Santiago (Chile), Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo (Brazil) participated last June in a public transport service quality, reliability and safety survey. Respondents were asked to rate their experience travelling on public transport from 1 to 5 points. Although the sample does not represent all public transportation passengers in these cities, the results provide an interesting perspective on differences in the perception of these factors based on transport and user characteristics.

Below are the results of the exercise carried out in the São Paulo metropolitan area in June 2021. Supporting figures can be viewed at next board and the details and results of the survey and the statistical tests can be found here. The results of these and other surveys conducted with Moovit can also be found on the website of our partner, IDB, by clicking here.

For the Moovit survey in the São Paulo metropolitan region, more than 6,200 responses were received from users, 93% of which were for people who reported having traveled by public transport at least once in the last week within the area, with a high percentage (70%) having used public transport for five days or more. In line with the results of the same survey in other Latin American cities, almost 80% of trips were due to “Work”.

As for the modes of transport used, the vast majority of people surveyed used the municipal bus (70%), with the remaining 30% divided between the subway (12%), intermunicipal bus (10%), train (6%) and others (2%).

Overall, the four indicators associated with public transport service quality are above neutral (3 points out of 5)—in principle, an average approval rating from the people surveyed. Ratings related to safety in terms of robberies and assaults had an overall rating just above the average value (3 points), as did those related to comfort. The ratings vary when analyzing male and female user responses for the various modes of transport.

Analyzing the ratings by public transport type, the subway is rated better than municipal buses, highlighting the underground service’s reliability. For this service, safety in terms of robberies and assaults was the indicator rated the lowest by its users, with 3.2 points of 5.

However, the municipal bus, the public transport method most used by low-income respondents, received neutral ratings—around 3 points for all indicators—, among which comfort and personal safety were rated poorly.

Insecurity is a continuing concern among public transport users in Latin American cities, the São Paulo metropolitan area being no exception. 35% of the respondents said they had been victims or witnesses of a robbery or theft on public transport, this number increasing to 38% for female survey respondents. This is also reflected in the significant difference between the ratings of male and female respondents that are related to security (3.2 and 3 points respectively).

A similar pattern is observed when studying the ratings related to safety in terms of sexual harassment on public transport. 19% of the people surveyed reported having suffered or witnessed some form of sexual harassment on public transport in the last year. This proportion rises to 23% for female respondents, with an additional 5% preferring not to answer. Further, the safety rating in terms of sexual harassment and abuse is clearly lower for female respondents than for male respondents, with 3.2 and 3.8 points respectively.

Ratings related to safety are particularly low among train users, of whom, 4 out of 10 reported having suffered or witnessed robberies, thefts or assaults, and 1 in 4 stating that they have been victims or witnesses of sexual harassment.

The survey also provides important information on Moovit users who did not use public transport in the week prior to the survey (7% of all respondents), of which, 98 (24%) nonusers said they had not traveled in the last week. When asked why they had not used public transport the previous week, the main reasons were “COVID-19 measures” (34% of cases), followed by the “reduced travel time” (27%) and “increased comfort” (23%) of the chosen alternative.

Lastly, the survey included a section for Moovit users to express what improvementsthey thought should be implemented in the public transport system. The most frequent suggestions were related to frequency (especially among municipal and intermunicipal bus users), price (more so among subway users), punctuality and vehicle capacity.

The data collected by the OMU helps us to understand some aspects of mobility in the surveyed cities, which do not always have up-to-date and adequate information. In addition, the chosen methodology allows for periodic quick evaluations of indicators to measure results, including a good sample of public transportation passengers, thanks to Moovit’s user base, and the ability to study their behavior over time. In the future, this will provide a very powerful tool for planning and evaluating public policies with constant monitoring.

For more information about the initiative, email at omu_caf@caf.com and omu@iadb.org