Assessment of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on public bus transportation in the city of Rio de Janeiro

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58922/transportes.v34.e3135

Keywords:

Public bus transportation; COVID-19 pandemic; Interrupted time series.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused changes in travel behavior due to social distancing measures. This study aims to assess the effects of these changes on the demand for public bus transportation in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Using public data, time series modeling techniques and exploratory analysis were applied. The analysis of the time series of the number of passengers transported revealed a reduction of 704 million passengers compared to the projected values from the counterfactual scenario without the pandemic between March 2020 and December 2022. Additionally, there has been a continuous increase in the fleet of individual vehicles over the past years and an 8.4% reduction in the average monthly vehicle flow after the pandemic compared to the previous period. During the early pandemic months, there was a greater adoption of remote work. These findings highlight some impacts on travel patterns resulting from the health crisis.

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Published

2026-09-03

How to Cite

Maciel Wagner, G. and Guimarães Marujo, L. (2026) “Assessment of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on public bus transportation in the city of Rio de Janeiro”, Transportes, 34, p. e3135. doi: 10.58922/transportes.v34.e3135.

Issue

Vol. 34 (2026)

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2026 Gabriela Maciel Wagner, Lino Guimarães Marujo

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Last update: 11/27/2025