Priorização das características de qualidade do transporte público por ônibus sob a ótica dos usuários do transporte individual motorizado: aplicação do método QFD

Abstract

In recent years in Brazil, there has been a movement of prioritization of modes of collective transportation systems by bus. Part of this process is due to the problems of mobility faced in Brazilian urban centers (traffic congestion, traffic accidents and environmental pollution). However, the reality is the fall in the attractiveness of public transport, due to the quality of the service offered and the strong growth of motorized individual transport (automobiles and motorcycles). This work aims to identify the main quality attributes of collective transportation by bus and its priority from the point of view of users of individual transportation in the city of Belo Horizonte. An opinion survey was conducted with these users to assign a degree of importance to the attributes of quality of collective transportation, previously selected according to their recurrence in the literature consulted. The method of successive intervals made it possible to check weights to the attributes of quality obtained in the research. The priority of attributes of quality, from the point of view of individual transport users, presented this order: travel time, safety, comfort, structure of stopping places, accessibility, fare, boarding time, information system and aesthetics of vehicles. In the application of the QFD - Quality Function Deployment Method, a Quality Matrix was developed whose correlation allowed the prioritization of quality characteristics, which meet the standards of the users consulted. The correlation of the Quality Matrix, carried out by specialists in the area of urban transport, resulted in a list composed of twelve categories and thirty four characteristics of quality of public transport, ordered according to the priority given by the target public of this study. It was concluded that the physical integration, waiting time at transhipments and the priority of collective transportation in the road system are the most relevant items. These items guided the elaboration of an Improvement Plan composed of actions and strategies to promote the quality of collective transportation. The Improvement Plan grouped quality characteristics into three levels of transportation planning: strategic, tactical and operational. The methodology developed was applicable for the transport sector and the proposed objectives. The QFD method has proved to be an important public transport planning tool for management bodies, which allows analyzing and promoting improvements in the quality of the service offered.