First Smart City in Brazil features engineering mobility technology

São José dos Campos renews its contract with the Information Technology company to maintain the INFOBUS system, which provides information on municipal bus lines

São José dos Campos, which is 87 km from São Paulo, became, in early 2022, the first Smart City in Brazil to be certified by ABNT (Brazilian Association of Technical Standards). The city underwent a rigorous process, which took into account 276 indicators contained in sectors such as urban services, quality of life and sustainable practices.

The certification's main objective is not only to highlight the technological application factors, but also to detect good management practices that directly contribute to the population's quality of life. Only 79 cities in the world have this certification.

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One of the indicators to arrive at this classification is urban mobility. Since 2014, the city of São José dos Campos has had a partnership with Engineering, a global information technology company and consultancy specializing in Digital Transformation, which is responsible for the INFOBUS system for registering lines, routes, pick-up and drop-off locations and Public transport timetable. In 2022, the contract between the public agency and the technology company was renewed for another 12 months.

For Rodolfo Alves, head of the transport planning division of the city of São José dos Campos, the system also supports sustainability issues, as the tool helps in the design of new routes. The user has arrival forecast information according to the timetable. 

“In addition, the population has accessed what happens in the bus operation and everything that makes it easier to move through Google using the smartphone or even the computer. The user can check what time the bus will pass. In addition, there is also an electronic ticketing system and GPS installed in the cars to supply the systems and inform the citizens of José, who are demanding”, adds Alves. São José dos Campos has 101 lines in operation, with 328 buses running at around 2,500 stops, with around 130,000 people using public transport daily.

“The system is connected to Google Maps via API (Application Programming Interface) and allows, in addition to information about the transport chain, changing routes in cases of road closures due to works, tree falls, traffic lights in flash and events, among others”, explains Wanderson Magalhães, Transport and Traffic market account at Engineering.

INFOBUS was born at the time of the World Cup in Brazil, in 2014, with the need to take fans to the stadiums. “In the past, updating bus routes was something done annually, but with the advent of GPS and smartphones, this process started to occur in real time. The success of the system in the World Cup was so expressive that it enabled adhesion to cities like São José dos Campos”, concludes Fernandes, adding that today the system is also available in Belo Horizonte, Ribeirão Preto and Rio de Janeiro.