André DANTAS

Biographical note
André Dantas (BE Civil, ME Transport, PhD, Civil) has over 20 years-experience in the field of transport engineering. Dr. Dantas has provided top quality advisory services to a large variety of infrastructure-related clients such as The Urban Transportation Network Reliability Assessment Techniques in Beijing, China and the Port of Brisbane Motorway upgrade. During his tenure (2002-2010) at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, Dr. Dantas developed applied research projects such as logistics of postal services, energy constrained transport systems and airport cities. Dr. Dantas now leads a team at the National Association of Urban Transport Companies (NTU) that provides technical assistance to over 600 urban transport companies throughout Brazil.

Presentation: Brazilian efforts to minimize the impact of informal transport
The presentation will focus on two distinct approaches to deal with informal transport in Brazil. On one hand, we will show the efforts in order to establish a well-defined legal framework in which illegal transport is regulated, controlled and punished. On the other hand, we will discuss over 30 years of pro-active professionalization of urban transport services, investments and collective representation, which has contributed to several improvements in public transport. At the end of the presentation, we will discuss how further combine these two approaches in order to overcome current barriers and take advantage of opportunities.