Mobility and Integration of Public Transport Systems in Latin America

Abstract

Mobility and the integration of public transport are concepts that are consolidating more and more on a global scale and Latin America it is not the exception. The need to establish more inclusive and sustainable public transport programs has brought larger cities in Latin America to seek new ways to enhance mobility and integration of transport systems. In this paper, we analyze the level of mobility and integration of public transport systems in eight Latin American cities. For each city we applied the mobility integration index introduced by Cohen [1] and Kamargianni [2] considering key factors including ticket and payment integration, use of information and communication technologies (ICT), institutional integration, clean energy transport and mobility packages. The study indicates that Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City and Buenos Aires have made most advances in implementing a more integrated and mobile public transport system, with São Paulo, Santiago de Chile and Curitiba showing an intermediate level of integration and Lima and Bogota struggling to achieve higher levels of mobility. While the study indicates that integrated mobility programs are taking off in Latin America, faster development is limited by multiple factors including a lacking vision on inclusive and sustainable public transport, resistance from transport operators, limitations in ICT infrastructure and limited financial resources to embark on mayor mobility programs in the region. Given that this research is limited to a comparison of Latin American cities and to advance with much needed mobility in the region, it is recommended to conduct further research and derive lessons learned from smart cities with more advanced levels of mobility in public transport in Europe or Asia.