2016 Road and Waterway Links shows how Brazilian cities link each other through passenger transportation

The urban network of public intercity transportation in Brazil has 65,639 pairs of links among 5,423 municipal headquarters. São Paulo is the city that provides the highest number of trips: it is possible to buy tickets for 1,477 different cities from there. São Paulo has also the highest vicinity (56.34) and intermediation (28.31) indexes.

The two-way journey between the municipalities of Carpina and Paudalho in Pernambuco is that with the highest frequency in Brazil (2,855 weekly departures). The trip between Fortaleza and Pelotas is the most expensive in Brazil (R$931.26). The cheapest journeys cost R$1.00 between the municipalities of Baião and Mocajuba in Pará, between the cities of Cristiano Castro and Palmeira do Piauí in Piauí and between the municipalities of Espírito Santo and Várzea.

These are some of the figures included in the 2016 Road and Waterway Links publication, an unprecedented study on the Brazilian urban network seen through links by public passenger transportation. The data were collected in bus and waterway terminals, ticket sale points, bus stops and places of alternative transportation in all the Brazilian municipalities.

The publication presents every pair of city linked through public transportation services; the weekly frequency of trips by type of vehicle; costs; and travel times, building a national framework of interconnections between municipalities, pointing out the most accessible points in the territory and also the localities less accessed by transportation services. The data can also be accessed through the application especially designed for the survey. The complete publication can be accessed here.

The spatial distribution of the high-frequency links in Brazil reflects, to a great extent, the hierarchy of the urban network. The major cities and the state capitals count on a huge power to attract the population, evidenced by the concentration of high-frequency links.

In the North Region, the distances between the municipal headquarters are long and the transportation is mostly by waterway, which is much more slow. As a result, the frequency of the links is more sporadic and rare (227,866 weekly departures).

The big number of short-distance transportation within the Northeast reverses the demographic relation with the Southeast. Regardless of being the most populated region, the Southeast delivers less weekly departures of vehicles (969,396.75) than the Northeast (1,311,789.00). The South and Central-West regions delivered 578,401.75 and 304,043.25 weekly departures, respectively.

The three states that delivered the biggest number of available trips (two-way) are São Paulo (467,532.25), Minas Gerais (397,978.25) and Bahia (342,730). Among the cities of higher hierarchy, the population arrangement of São Paulo (49,725) stands out, followed by Belo Horizonte (26,069). The two pairs with the highest frequency links in Brazil are in Pernambuco: Carpina and Paudalho (2,855 weekly departures) and Cabo de Santo Agostinho and Escada (2,424), since they are located in the inbound and outbound routes of a number of lines coming from other cities in the interior of the state to the capital Recife.

Waterway links point out isolation of some states in North Region

Waterway links, whose travel frequency is quite lower than road links, are most exclusively located in the North Region, denoting the relative isolation of the municipalities in this region.

Roraima and Amapá are perceived as the most isolated states by surface transportation. They are characterized by the strong presence of road transportation in the interior, yet with weak connections with the remaining urban network. Amapá depends on Macapá to link outside of the state, and this link is exclusively by waterway transportation.

Transportation agents without CNPJ are mostly in Northeast

The transportation agents that did not inform a CNPJ are like a proxy for the informal/alternative transportation. 221,371 links of agents that did not inform a CNPJ have been noticed. They are mostly concentrated in the Northeast (203,241 links without CNPJ). The most frequent lines are those towards the capitals, coming from their surroundings.

The South is the region with the highest level of formality in the survey (467 links without CNPJ). The Central-West (2.100 links without CNPJ), some lines in Mato Grosso (405) and in Mato Grosso do Sul (469) have the link Brasília-Goiânia (723) as a pair of high-frequent cities.

Mercosur countries are major destinations of international lines

International bus lines are mainly destined to the Mercosur countries, reflecting the economic and cultural links with Brazil. The main destinations are Buenos Aires (Argentina), Montevideu and Punta del Este (Uruguay), Ciudad del Este and Asunción (Paraguay) and Puerto La Cruz (Venezuela), suggesting that tourism is one of the major activities responsible for this movement.

The major links depart from higher hierarchical centers and/or state capitals, like São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Florianópolis, Porto Alegre, Manaus and Boa Vista, towards the capitals of other countries or tourism centers. Border cities are only crossed by these lines, as their international connectivity is weak.

Northeast concentrates higher number of links with reasonable prices

The highest minimum costs are mostly in the Southeast and South, where transportation sections converge to state capitals, like the population arrangements of Belo Horizonte (average cost of R$0.26 per minute) and Florianópolis (also R$0.26 per minute), as well as medium-sized cities, like Uberlândia in Minas Gerais (R$0.24 per minute), Ribeirão Preto in São Paulo (R$0.19 per minute) and Joinville in Santa Catarina (R$0.27 per minute). The average cost per travel time to São Paulo is R$0.22 per minute. As a result, a two-hour travel to São Paulo costs, on average, R$26.44.

The Northeast concentrates the links whose relation between fare price and travel time is more accessible and cheaper, forming a cloud of mostly short-distance links to the capitals. The cheaper links are concentrated in low-income areas, otherwise it would inhibit the mobility to the cities. The municipality of Itapipoca (CE) has the cheapest average cost (R$0.10 per minute).

Costing R$931.26, the trip between Fortaleza and Pelotas is the most expensive in Brazil. The cheapest journeys in Brazil cost R$1.00, taking place between the municipalities of Baião and Mocajuba in Pará, between the cities of Cristiano Castro and Palmeira do Piauí in Piauí and between the municipalities of Espírito Santo and Várzea.

São Paulo is the city with the highest number of road links (1,477) and with the highest indexes of vicinity (56.34) and intermediation (28.31).

It is an indicator that shows the number of municipalities that are directly linked with a particular city. São Paulo was the municipality with the highest value. It is possible to buy tickets for 1,477 different cities from there. São Paulo is followed by Belo Horizonte (643), Goiânia (606), Campinas (596) and Brasília (576). These figures suggest that cities mostly geometrically-central located in the territory have a greater chance to have a high number of links.  

The vicinity index measures how much each point in the network is directly connected with the others, being more easily accessible.

The network of passenger transportation involves a physical movement of vehicles and persons. As a result, the geometric position of the cities also influences its importance, evidenced by the fact that Brasília (49.40); Campinas, in São Paulo (49.02); and Goiânia (48.87) have higher indexes than Rio de Janeiro (48.22). São Paulo recorded the highest value (56.34), quite above the other urban agglomerations.

The distribution of the values shows that the cities in the Center-South of Brazil have, on average, a much greater centrality in the network, pointing out that the geographic localization and the economic and demographic weights are correlated with the importance of the urban centers as significant points of the transportation system.

Regardless of their size, economic dynamism and hierarchy in the urban network, it is noticed that the capitals in the Northeast have their vicinity indexes close to those of the medium-sized cities in the Southeast.

The intermediation index shows the points in the network that mostly appear as 'halfway' and have to intermediate a big number of links between the other centers. Once again, São Paulo appears as the main core (28.31) and, again, the issue of the mostly geometrically-central position appears relevant, as Belo Horizonte (7.20), Goiânia (5.44) and Brasília (4.52) posted the highest indexes.

In the North, Belém (3.03) emerges as the main inter-mediator center, since it is the great contact point between the road transportation – mainly traveling through the Belém-Brasília highway – and the waterway transportation, carried out through the Amazon River.

Feira de Santana, in Bahia (2,15), has a significant centrality in the transportation network as it is located in an intersection of highways, and Salvador, the capital, is slightly more marginal.

320 municipalities with no regular transportation

320 municipalities were classified as not collected, either because they have no public transportation and the population uses private transportation only, or there is public transportation, but it is irregular, either timely or spatially. Among the examples, cities in the North Region whose ships, with biweekly or monthly departures, have no exact days for departure, municipalities that work under the 'lotada' system, where vehicles depart when there are passengers, or even carriers that do not use fixed routes. Transportation is available in the municipalities classified as not collected, yet they are weak and precarious transportation systems, hindering the data collection.

Social Communication
30 june 2017