Rio Bus Stop - Redesign

The idea of this project is to develop a device that can improve the quality of life of people who need to use daily public transport, in this case, buses. In addition to this device, the project seeks to add other elements considered vital to the current urban mobility situation.

1. What is the idea?

Through brainstorming done among the Team, the incorporation of an information display system was established. This system will bring functionalities such as: information about the weather, traffic in other areas of the city and news in general. The system will be implemented in an area other than that intended for advertising, thus maintaining its usability and financial return.

Other solutions, with equal weights among themselves, were also established, such as:

1 - Stations with wireless internet network, allowing easy access to the developed application; visualization map of the bus lines that pass through the stop and their routes, to help users, including tourists – with bilingual information – and efficiency holders, with the use of the Braille system in an information device and a space reserved for the physically handicapped – both following accessibility signage standards;

2 - External display connected to the city hall's geolocation system (monitoring via GPS), informing the bus number, location and time of arrival at the stop; efficient internal lighting system;

3 - Providential improvements in point signs (associating colors of the regions to them, with better visualization for users and drivers), at points.

Why is it being developed? (present research overview that justifies the relevance of the idea)

From research with primary and secondary sources on the problem of urban mobility in the current days in the city of Rio de Janeiro, it is possible to observe a great neglect of management when referring to collective public transport, in this project in particular, the bus. Data show an increase of about 4 minutes in the average time spent on the route by long distance runners, and a reduction of 5km/h in average speed in the urban perimeter. Direct consequences fall on drivers, passengers, but mainly on those waiting at bus stops, as they often do so under adverse conditions. When looking at the bus stops scattered around the city, a possible lack of planning and clear investment is noted. These are quite limited in terms of the real needs of their audience, with confusing information and little practicality in their functionality.

Relevance of the project

According to the website “Rio Como Vamos”, the bus is the most used means of collective public transport by the population of the city of Rio de Janeiro - in 2011 there were 931,299 passengers transported against 179,893 in second place, which is the Metro.

From these data some explanations were found: the lowest fare; the greater availability of the road network and, consequently, the greater number of bus stops throughout the city; the absence of alternatives due to lack of planning and investment. And from these explanations, we began to outline our objective in relation to the Intelligent Bus Stop project, because we knew the point between ideas and the arrival of the public power.

After analyzing and researching the entire structure of the transport system in the city of Rio de Janeiro, we understand that some improvements could be implemented using basically existing information systems and services, such as: twitter; climatempo website; Google Maps; geolocation system; paypal; to provide users with greater satisfaction when waiting for the bus by providing news on traffic in real time, on the weather, forecast and time, on the arrival time of the lines at the stop, in addition to the possibility of recharging the RioCard by cell phone with free app, free Wi-Fi and accessibility at stops for the visually and physically impaired.

By opting for integration with pre-existing systems, we managed to have a project with low budgetary impact, thus being easily replicated; and since we will maintain advertising space, the initial investment in physical facilities will eventually pay off. And the relevance of our project lies precisely in the ease of implementation of the proposed alternatives, which would be responsible for generating greater comfort and practicality for users, positively impacting society. The project also includes specific care for accessibility for the visually and physically impaired.

Design Team

Carlos Eduardo P. dos Santos

Marianna Vale

Ricardo de Mello ( Rico Mello)

Roberta Fortes