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The creation of the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) in the mid-2000s provided a new data format for cities to organize and share digital information on their public transport systems. GTFS feeds store geolocated data on public transport networks, including information on routes, stops, timetables, and service levels. The GTFS standard is now widely adopted by thousands of transport authorities and a wide variety of software applications for different purposes, including trip planning, timetable creation and accessibility analysis. Yet, there is still a lack of tools to parse GTFS data when the objective is to analyze the complex spatial and temporal patterns of public transport systems. This paper presents {gtfs2gps}, a new general-purpose computational tool to easily process static GTFS data that allows one to analyze the space–time trajectories of public transport vehicles at fine spatial and temporal resolutions. {gtfs2gps} is an open-source R package that employs parallel computing to convert GTFS feeds from relational text files into a trajectory data table, similar to GPS records, with the timestamps of vehicles in every trip. This paper explains the package functionalities and demonstrates how {gtfs2gps} can be used to articulate key concepts in time geography to explore and visualize the spatial and temporal patterns of public transport networks. We also present a case study looking at how {gtfs2gps} can be used to examine socioeconomic and spatial–temporal inequalities in access to public transport, providing key information to monitor cities’ progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals. The paper is accompanied by a computational notebook in R Markdown to support reproducibility of the results in this paper and to replicate the analysis for other contexts where GTFS data are available. Given the widespread use of GTFS, {gtfs2gps} opens new possibilities for researchers to examine the time geography of public transport systems in urban areas across the globe.

The first case of COVID-19 was detected in Brazil on 25 February 2020. We report and contextualize epidemiological, demographic and clinical findings for COVID-19 cases during the first 3 months of the epidemic. By 31 May 2020, 514,200 COVID-19 cases, including 29,314 deaths, had been reported in 75.3% (4,196 of 5,570) of municipalities across all five administrative regions of Brazil. The R 0 value for Brazil was estimated at 3.1 (95% Bayesian credible interval = 2.4–5.5), with a higher median but overlapping credible intervals compared with some other seriously affected countries. A positive association between higher per-capita income and COVID-19 diagnosis was identified. Furthermore, the severe acute respiratory infection cases with unknown aetiology were associated with lower per-capita income. Co-circulation of six respiratory viruses was detected but at very low levels. These findings provide a comprehensive description of the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic in Brazil and may help to guide subsequent measures to control virus transmission. Brazil has one of the fastest-growing COVID-19 epidemics in the world. De Souza et al. report epidemiological, demographic and clinical findings for COVID-19 cases in the country during the first 3 months of the epidemic.

Public transport policies play a key role in shaping the social and spatial structure of cities. These policies influence how easily people can access opportunities, including health and educational services and job positions. The accessibility impacts of transport policies thus have important implications for social inequalities and for the promotion of just and inclusive cities. However, in the transportation literature, there is still little theoretically informed understanding of justice and what it means in the context of transport policies. Moreover, few studies have moved beyond descriptive analyses of accessibility inequalities to evaluate how much those inequalities result from transport policies themselves. This is particularly true in cities from the global South, where accessibility and equity have so far remained marginal concerns in the policy realm. This thesis builds on theories of distributive justice and examines how they can guide the evaluation of transport policies and plans. It points to pathways for rigorous assessment of the accessibility impacts of transport policies and it contributes to current discussions on transportation equity. A justice framework is developed to assess the distributional effects of transport policies. This framework is then applied to evaluate recent transport policies developed in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in preparation to host sports mega-events, such as the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, which included substantial expansion of the rail and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) infrastructure. This research presents ex-post analyses of the policies implemented between 2014 and 2017 and ex-ante analysis of an as yet unfinished BRT project. It evaluates how the planned transport legacy of those mega-events impacted accessibility to sports venues, healthcare facilities, public schools and job opportunities for different income groups. The results show that there were overall accessibility benefits from the expansion in transport infrastructure between 2014 and 2017, but these were generally offset by the reduction in bus service levels that followed an economic crisis that hit the city after the Olympics. Quasi-counterfactual analysis suggests that, even if the city had not been hit by the economic crisis, recent transport investments related to mega-events would have led to higher accessibility gains for wealthier groups and increased inequalities in access to opportunities. Results suggest that those investments had, or would have had, greater impact on inequalities of access to jobs than in access to schools and healthcare facilities. The evaluation of the future accessibility impacts of the unfinished BRT corridor, nonetheless, indicates that such project could significantly improve access to job opportunities for a large share of Rio's population, particularly lower-income groups. Spatial analysis techniques show that the magnitude and statistical significance of these results depend on the spatial scale and travel time threshold selected for cumulative opportunity accessibility analysis. These results demonstrate that the ad-hoc methodological choices of accessibility analysis commonly used in the academic and policy literature can change the conclusions of equity assessments of transportation projects.

This study analyzes trends in average commute times in Brazil between 1992 and 2009. It distinguishes between the nine largest metropolitan areas plus the Federal District of Brasília and describes how differences among these areas vary according to income levels and gender. This paper is based on the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), a source of data hitherto little used for transportation studies in Brazil. PNAD data is not conceived strictly for transport planning but is the only large-scale survey in Brazil with annual information since 1992 on commute time at national and subnational levels (states and metropolitan areas). Five main findings are stressed. First, travel to work trips tend to be 31% longer in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the two largest metropolitan areas (MAs) in the country, than the in the other MAs. Second, workers in the poorest population segment (1st income decile) spend on average 20% more time on commuting than the wealthiest decile; 19% of the former make home-towork trips longer than 1 hour against only 11% in the wealthiest group. Third, this gap in commute time between rich and poor is spatially contingent; it is large in Belo Horizonte, Curitiba and Federal District but almost nonexistent in Salvador, Recife,Fortaleza and Belem. Fourth, the data reveal worsening conditions for urban transport since 1992 as reflected in longer average commuting times. However, these worsening conditions have been more pronounced in the 1st income decile and especially the 7th-10th deciles. As a result, the overall differences across income groups have actually weakened during the period 1992-2009. Finally, the gender gap in average commutingtimes has been reduced considerably over the period considered with only small gaps remaining in the extreme income groups. The present study highlights that trends in average commute times in emerging economies, such as Brazil, need not follow the same trajectories as in the Global North. It also shows the importance of not focusing on national trends only; this will obscure important differences between urbanregions. From a policy perspective, the paper shows the usefulness of the PNAD data for monitoring urban mobility conditions in Brazilian major MAs. Yearly variations in commuting time can among others be used to assess the effects of mass transport investments on urban transport conditions. Este texto tem como objetivo analisar o tempo que a população gasta em deslocamentos urbanos casa-trabalho no Brasil no período compreendido entre 1992 e 2009. A análise enfatiza as diferenças encontradas entre as nove maiores regiões metropolitanas (RMs) do país mais o Distrito Federal (DF), além de destacar como estas diferenças variam de acordo com níveis de renda e sexo. O estudo se baseia nos dados da Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domícilios (PNAD), gerados pelo Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), uma fonte de dados até hoje pouco explorada em estudos sobre transporte urbano no Brasil. A PNAD não é uma pesquisa desenhada com o propósito de investigar a fundo o tema do transporte urbano; no entanto, esta é a única pesquisa amostral de larga escala feita no país com informações sobre o tempo de deslocamento casa-trabalho disponíveis anualmente - desde 1992 - tanto para o nível nacional quanto para o subnacional (estados e regiões metropolitanas). Destacam-se cinco principais resultados: i) o tempo de deslocamento casa-trabalho, que no ano de 2009 era 31% maior nas RMs de São Paulo e Rio de Janeiro se comparado às demais RMs; ii) os trabalhadores de baixa renda (1o decil de renda) fazem viagens, em média, 20% mais longas do que os mais ricos (10o decil), e 19% dos mais pobres gastam mais de uma hora de viagem contra apenas 11% dos mais ricos; iii) esta diferença de tempo de viagem entre ricos e pobres varia entre as RMs, sendo muito maior em Belo Horizonte, Curitiba e no DF, e quase nula em Salvador, Recife, Fortaleza e Belém; iv) os dados apontam para uma tendência de piora nas condições de transporte urbano desde 1992, aumentando os tempos de deslocamento casa-trabalho; no entanto, esta piora tem sido mais intensa entre as pessoas do 1o decil de renda e especialmente entre a população mais rica (entre 7o e 10o decil), diminuindo as diferenças de tempo de viagem entre faixas de renda no período analisado; e v) a diferença do tempo médio gasto nos deslocamentos casa-trabalho entre homens e mulheres diminuiu consideravelmente desde 1992, com pequenas diferenças ainda presentes nos grupos extremos de renda. Observa-se neste trabalho que as tendências observadas no Brasil não seguem necessariamente aquelas observadas em países desenvolvidos. Destaca-se também que análises que se concentram nas tendências nacionais tendem a ocultar importantes diferenças regionais. Sob uma perspectiva de política pública, este texto aponta o potencial de utilização dos dados da PNAD para o monitoramento das condições de mobilidade nas principais regiões metropolitanas do Brasil, uma vez que as variações anuais nos tempos de viagem casa-trabalho podem contribuir para a avaliação dos efeitos de determinadas políticas e investimentos sobre as condições de transporte.

The public policies on mass transit and other economic policies have been unable to avoid increasing mass transit costs and urban bus fares, which places a burden on a majority of the population depending on public transit. This study analyzes the variations in urban bus fares and households income, as well as their effects on the demand of paying commuters in 9 large Brazilian cities between 1995 and 2008. The study shows that a gap between the rise of urban bus fares and the population's income led to a decrease of more than 30% of the paying demand between 1995 and 2003. According to the price elasticity estimated in this study, the demand for bus services has exhibited elastic behavior since 2001. Since then, the gradual increase observed in population income seems to buffer against the persistent fare increases. The recovery of the average household per capita income since then seems to support a reversal of downward trends in the number of paying passengers and an increase access to public bus services. The number of paying passengers increased about 9.5% between 2003 and 2008.The evolution of the sector's main costs complement the study, permitting an analysis of the many factors that have caused the continuous increases of bus fares in metropolitan Brazil during this period. The study concludes highlighting some public policies that could provide a better economic environment for the provision of efficient and affordable transit services. Este estudo analisa as variações nas tarifas de ônibus urbanos e na renda das famílias entre 1995 e 2008, avaliando seus efeitos sobre a demanda de passageiros pagantes nas nove maiores cidades brasileiras. Observou-se que o aumento dos preços de alguns dos principais itens que compõem a estrutura de custos do setor contribuiu para um aumento das tarifas em cerca de 60% acima da inflação medida pelo Índice Nacional de Preços ao Consumidor (INPC). Ao longo desse período, o aumento no preço das tarifas foi absorvido com diferentes intensidades pela demanda de passageiros pagantes, podendo-se destacar dois períodos: o primeiro, quando houve aumento das tarifas acompanhado por uma depreciação da renda das famílias, entre 1995 e 2003, culminando com a queda de mais de 30% da demanda de transporte público urbano (TPU); e o segundo, ocorrido desde meados de 2003, quando o aumento dos custos permaneceu, mas houve certo amortecimento dos seus efeitos sobre a demanda devido ao crescimento da renda da população. Isso refletiu na estabilização da demanda do TPU e, mais recentemente, na inversão da tendência de queda observada anteriormente. O estudo busca reacender o debate sobre políticas de melhoria e redução dos custos do transporte público de forma a aproveitar o atual contexto econômico do país em que se faz possível aproveitar as condições gerais da economia para dar uma trajetória mais sustentada à recuperação do transporte público.

This study analyzes trends in average commute times in Brazil between 1992 and 2009. It distinguishes between the nine largest metropolitan areas plus the Federal District of Brasília and describes how differences among these areas vary according to income levels and gender. This paper is based on the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), a source of data hitherto little used for transportation studies in Brazil. PNAD data is not conceived strictly for transport planning but is the only large-scale survey in Brazil with annual information since 1992 on commute time at national and subnational levels (states and metropolitan areas). Five main findings are stressed. First, travel to work trips tend to be 31% longer in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the two largest metropolitan areas (MAs) in the country, than the in the other MAs. Second, workers in the poorest population segment (1st income decile) spend on average 20% more time on commuting than the wealthiest decile; 19% of the former make home-towork trips longer than 1 hour against only 11% in the wealthiest group. Third, this gap in commute time between rich and poor is spatially contingent; it is large in Belo Horizonte, Curitiba and Federal District but almost nonexistent in Salvador, Recife, Fortaleza and Belem. Fourth, the data reveal worsening conditions for urban transport since 1992 as reflected in longer average commuting times. However, these worsening conditions have been more pronounced in the 1st income decile and especially the 7th-10th deciles. As a result, the overall differences across income groups have actually weakened during the period 1992-2009. Finally, the gender gap in average commuting times has been reduced considerably over the period considered with only small gaps remaining in the extreme income groups. The present study highlights that trends in average commute times in emerging economies, such as Brazil, need not follow the same trajectories as in the Global North. It also shows the importance of not focusing on national trends only; this will obscure important differences between urban regions. From a policy perspective, the paper shows the usefulness of the PNAD data for monitoring urban mobility conditions in Brazilian major MAs. Yearly variations in commuting time can among others be used to assess the effects of mass transport investments on urban transport conditions.

texto tem como objetivo analisar o tempo que a população gasta em deslocamentos urbanos casa-trabalho no Brasil no período compreendido entre 1992 e 2009. A análise enfatiza as diferenças encontradas entre as nove maiores regiões metropolitanas (RMs) do país mais o Distrito Federal (DF), além de destacar como estas diferenças variam de acordo com níveis de renda e sexo. O estudo se baseia nos dados da Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domícilios (PNAD), gerados pelo Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), uma fonte de dados até hoje pouco explorada em estudos sobre transporte urbano no Brasil. A PNAD não é uma pesquisa desenhada com o propósito de investigar a fundo o tema do transporte urbano; no entanto, esta é a única pesquisa amostral de larga escala feita no país com informações sobre o tempo de deslocamento casa-trabalho disponíveis anualmente - desde 1992 - tanto para o nível nacional quanto para o subnacional (estados e regiões metropolitanas). Destacam-se cinco principais resultados: i) o tempo de deslocamento casa-trabalho, que no ano de 2009 era 31% maior nas RMs de São Paulo e Rio de Janeiro se comparado às demais RMs; ii) os trabalhadores de baixa renda (1o decil de renda) fazem viagens, em média, 20% mais longas do que os mais ricos (10o decil), e 19% dos mais pobres gastam mais de uma hora de viagem contra apenas 11% dos mais ricos; iii) esta diferença de tempo de viagem entre ricos e pobres varia entre as RMs, sendo muito maior em Belo Horizonte, Curitiba e no DF, e quase nula em Salvador, Recife, Fortaleza e Belém; iv) os dados apontam para uma tendência de piora nas condições de transporte urbano desde 1992, aumentando os tempos de deslocamento casa-trabalho; no entanto, esta piora tem sido mais intensa entre as pessoas do 1o decil de renda e especialmente entre a população mais rica (entre 7o e 10o decil), diminuindo as diferenças de tempo de viagem entre faixas de renda no período analisado; e v) a diferença do tempo médio gasto nos deslocamentos casa-trabalho entre homens e mulheres diminuiu consideravelmente desde 1992, com pequenas diferenças ainda presentes nos grupos extremos de renda. Observa-se neste trabalho que as tendências observadas no Brasil não seguem necessariamente aquelas observadas em países desenvolvidos. Destaca-se também que análises que se concentram nas tendências nacionais tendem a ocultar importantes diferenças regionais. Sob uma perspectiva de política pública, este texto aponta o potencial de utilização dos dados da PNAD para o monitoramento das condições de mobilidade nas principais regiões metropolitanas do Brasil, uma vez que as variações anuais nos tempos de viagem casa-trabalho podem contribuir para a avaliação dos efeitos de determinadas políticas e investimentos sobre as condições de transporte. This study analyzes trends in average commute times in Brazil between 1992 and 2009. It distinguishes between the nine largest metropolitan areas plus the Federal District of Brasília and describes how differences among these areas vary according to income levels and gender. This paper is based on the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), a source of data hitherto little used for transportation studies in Brazil. PNAD data is not conceived strictly for transport planning but is the only large-scale survey in Brazil with annual information since 1992 on commute time at national and subnational levels (states and metropolitan areas). Five main findings are stressed. First, travel to work trips tend to be 31% longer in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the two largest metropolitan areas (MAs) in the country, than the in the other MAs. Second, workers in the poorest population segment (1st income decile) spend on average 20% more time on commuting than the wealthiest decile; 19% of the former make home-to-work trips longer than 1 hour against only 11% in the wealthiest group. Third, this gap in commute time between rich and poor is spatially contingent; it is large in Belo Horizonte, Curitiba and Federal District but almost nonexistent in Salvador, Recife, Fortaleza and Belém. Fourth, the data reveal worsening conditions for urban transport since 1992 as reflected in longer average commuting times. However, these worsening conditions have been more pronounced in the 1st income decile and especially the 7th-10th deciles. As a result, the overall differences across income groups have actually weakened during the period 1992-2009. Finally, the gender gap in average commuting times has been reduced considerably over the period considered with only small gaps remaining in the extreme income groups. The present study highlights that trends in average commute times in emerging economies, such as Brazil, need not follow the same trajectories as in the Global North. It also shows the importance of not focusing on national trends only; this will obscure important differences between urban regions. From a policy perspective, the paper shows the usefulness of the PNAD data for monitoring urban mobility conditions in Brazilian major MAs. Yearly variations in commuting time can among others be used to assess the effects of mass transport investments on urban transport conditions.

This study introduces a new measure of urban centrality. It identifies distinct urban structures from different spatial patterns of jobs and resident population. The proposed urban centrality index constitutes an extension of the spatial separation index (MIDELFART-KNARVIK et al., 2000). It is suggested that urban structure should be more accurately analyzed by considering a centrality scale (varying from extreme monocentricity to extreme polycentricity) rather than a binary variable (monocentric or polycentric). The proposed index controls for differences in size and shape of the geographic areas for which data is available, and can be calculated using different variables, such as employment and population densities and trip generation rates. The properties of the index are illustrated in simulated artificial data sets. Simulation results for hypothesized urban forms are compared to other similar measures proposed by previous literature. The index is then applied to the urban structure of four different metropolitan areas: Pittsburgh and Los Angeles in the United States; São Paulo, Brazil; and Paris, France, The index is compared to other traditional spatial agglomeration measures, such as global and local Moran's I, and density gradient estimations.

Recentes estudos apontam o fenômeno da mobilidade pendular (migración pendular ou commuting) como elemento central na compreensão de dinâmicas regionais de integração urbana. O presente estudo propõe uma tipologia teórico-metodológica composta por três tipos ideais (puros) de deslocamento pendular com base em três processos socioespaciais que originam seus fluxos (concentração urbana, saturação urbana e desconcentração produtiva). Esses processos sintetizariam aqueles elementos que condicionam tanto o padrão espacial dos deslocamentos pendulares quanto o perfil socioeconômico daqueles que realizam estes deslocamentos. O artigo apresenta ainda uma análise exploratória de dados sobre os deslocamentos pendulares na região metropolitana (RM) de Campinas (Brasil) e no aglomerado urbano da Grande Buenos Aires (Argentina) onde se problematiza a necessidade de um prisma crítico capaz de identificar, na base empírica da pendularidade, as suas heterogeneidades internas ocultas por análises estritamente descritivas. Ao final, apresenta-se uma tentativa de operacionalização da tipologia para a RM de Campinas e são feitas considerações nas quais se espera estabelecer alguns pontos iniciais para uma futura discussão teórico-metodológica mais aprofundada acerca do tema. Recent studies point to commuting as a key element to understand regional dynamics and urban integration. This study propose three ideal types (Max Weber) of commuting flows based on its relations with social processes which impact urban structure by affecting residence and job locations in urban space. These processes (urban concentration, urban suburbanization and economic deconcentration) synthesize the elements which affect commuting patterns and commuters' socioeconomic characteristics. The article explores commuting data in metropolitan region of Campinas (Brazil) and in the urban agglomeration of Grande Buenos Aires (Argentina) in a way to point the importance of a framework able to identify its internal heterogeneities hidden by strictly descriptive analysis. The article also presents an attempt to operationalization of the typology for the metropolitan region of Campinas.

The public policies on mass transit and other economic policies have been unable to avoid increasing mass transit costs and urban bus fares, which places a burden on a majority of the population depending on public transit. This study analyzes the variations in urban bus fares and households income, as well as their effects on the demand of paying commuters in 9 large Brazilian cities between 1995 and 2008. The study shows that a gap between the rise of urban bus fares and the population`s income led to a decrease of more than 30% of the paying demand between 1995 and 2003. According to the price elasticity estimated in this study, the demand for bus services has exhibited elastic behavior since 2001. Since then, the gradual increase observed in population income seems to buffer against the persistent fare increases. The recovery of the average household per capita income since then seems to support a reversal of downward trends in the number of paying passengers and an increase access to public bus services. The number of paying passengers increased about 9.5% between 2003 and 2008.The evolution of the sector`s main costs complement the study, permitting an analysis of the many factors that have caused the continuous increases of bus fares in metropolitan Brazil during this period. The study concludes highlighting some public policies that could provide a better economic environment for the provision of efficient and affordable transit services. Este estudo analisa as variações nas tarifas de ônibus urbanos e na renda das famílias entre 1995 e 2008, avaliando seus efeitos sobre a demanda de passageiros pagantes nas nove maiores cidades brasileiras. Observou-se que o aumento dos preços de alguns dos principais itens que compõem a estrutura de custos do setor contribuiu para um aumento das tarifas em cerca de 60% acima da inflação medida pelo Índice Nacional de Preços ao Consumidor (INPC). Ao longo desse período, o aumento no preço das tarifas foi absorvido com diferentes intensidades pela demanda de passageiros pagantes, podendo-se destacar dois períodos: o primeiro, quando houve aumento das tarifas acompanhado por uma depreciação da renda das famílias, entre 1995 e 2003, culminando com a queda de mais de 30% da demanda de transporte público urbano (TPU); e o segundo, ocorrido desde meados de 2003, quando o aumento dos custos permaneceu, mas houve certo amortecimento dos seus efeitos sobre a demanda devido ao crescimento da renda da população. Isso refletiu na estabilização da demanda do TPU e, mais recentemente, na inversão da tendência de queda observada anteriormente. O estudo busca reacender o debate sobre políticas de melhoria e redução dos custos do transporte público de forma a aproveitar o atual contexto econômico do país em que se faz possível aproveitar as condições gerais da economia para dar uma trajetória mais sustentada à recuperação do transporte público.