Integration of the intermunicipal public transport systems of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil: analysis of the demand declaration

ABSTRACT

The analysis of transport demand is one of the main forms of public transport management and significantly impacts tax revenues and public management. This study evaluates the demand for intercity public transport in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte, from January 2019 to July 2022, in three categories of users: full tickets, half tickets, and gratuities. The hypothesis is that the integration of demand systems can identify underdeclaration bias by crossing declared demand data in the Transport Information Management System (GISIT) and the actual demand data from the Electronic Ticketing System obtained by the TDMax Reports software. Access to public transport databases was provided by the Departamento de Estradas de Rodagem do Rio Grande do Norte (DER/RN). The results reveal an underdeclaration of the demand for public transport in the state, observed in 41.74% of the fleet.

Keywords:
public management; tax revenues; passengers; underdeclaration; database