A professor with purpose: Leticia Dexheimer uses FedEx-EMBARQ research to educate and inspire

Zhou_Jia — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 21:52:41 +0000

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It’s a Tuesday evening in September in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Professor Leticia Dexheimer, PhD, takes her place at the front of a lecture hall before twenty students enrolled in her Transport and Environment course offered through the Universidade Federal de Pelotas (Federal University of Pelotas) at a satellite campus in Porto Alegre.

Leticia has been a professor at the University since 2012, and it’s a groundbreaking time to be in her field.

“The concern of so many cities with sustainable mobility is exciting. All of the investments in cycling networks, bus rapid transit (BRT) systems, and metros—these are efficient modes of transportation, environmentally speaking.”

But even as great advances in sustainable transport are being made in cities across the globe, Leticia cautions her students that many challenges remain.

For example, the public transportation sector faces hurdles in terms of improving fuel and vehicle technologies. In Leticia’s native Brazil, cost is often the most insurmountable. “Brazil is a country with a corporate vision directly related to cost. Vehicle technologies with high costs and delays in return on investment will not be adopted unless made mandatory by law.”

A recent working paper made possible by the FedEx-EMBARQ Mobility and Accessibility Program (MAP) has the potential to play a key role in changing such perceptions. Exhaust Emissions of Transit Buses, published in October 2012 by an international team of FedEx-EMBARQ fellows, compiled a large data set of in-use transit bus emissions for use in analyzing urban bus fuel and technology combinations and their impacts on bus transit fleets. The study examined local emissions in India, Mexico, and Brazil, as well as global emissions, to understand their impact on human health and the environment.

Leticia was introduced to the fellows’ research while serving as a thesis advisor for one of the authors, Magdala Arioli, a Transport Engineer at EMBARQ Brasil. And she believes it could have big implications in her home country. “This research provides an overview of all fuels and technologies available in the market, and provides knowledge for capacity building to bus operators, transit agencies, and more.”

“Many of these groups do not have a deep understanding of various emissions and their impacts. It can help make Brazilian agencies think more long-term in their decisions and also record important information, like cost data for buses.”

Due to the strict focus on cost pursued by Brazil and many other developing countries when it comes to policy and investment decision-making, Leticia emphasizes the importance of the flexibility the study provides by reporting a wide range of bus fleet fuels and technologies. By enabling analysis of various combinations, the data set can help advise bus operators on decisions pertaining to investing in new vehicles and fuels. “The fact that the analysis shows results of choices depending on differing combinations allows companies the possibility of change.”

Leticia suggests two bright ideas for how to encourage smarter, environmentally efficient investment in improved fuels and technologies in Brazil. First, funding could be offered at lower interest rates to fleet overhauling that offers the greatest environmental benefits. Second, “green” fleet improvements could be used as a marketing strategy, appealing to commuters who seek to lessen their environmental impact. With ingenuity, energy, and thorough data—like the set compiled in Exhaust Emissions of Transit Buses—the possibilities are seemingly endless.

In a few more years, it very well may be some of Leticia’s current students tackling the reinvention of bus fleets in Brazil and beyond. For now, she’s committed to using insights gained through the joint FedEx-EMBARQ research to guide them. “I am a teacher of the discipline of transport and the environment. This type of analysis, as well as the results contained in this work, will be part of my teaching plan going forward.”

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Training for safe results: André Justino helps boost operations and driver morale

admin — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 12:52:41 +0000

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On June 8, 2014, André Justino found himself driving Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Marcio Lacerda, Mayor of his native Belo Horizonte, on a tour of the city’s new MOVE bus rapid transit (BRT) system. His journey to the honor officially began fourteen years ago, by starting to work for Cidade BH—one of the bus companies operating MOVE—as an intern. But André’s passion for driving has been a lifelong pursuit.

“When I was 5 years old and got on a bus for the first time, I was amazed. After having worked in other fields, I found what I really like: driving—transporting people. The best part of my work is interacting with people. Our customers, our passengers, become like family members.”

Today, André is a Monitor Driver for Cidade BH and one of the company’s leading driving instructors.

André was recently chosen to participate in a road safety training developed by EMBARQ Brasil, the Transportation and Traffic Agency of Belo Horizonte (BHTrans), and FedEx Corporation as part of the EMBARQ-FedEx Mobility and Accessibility Program (MAP). Like the other 114 participants, he is now responsible for training other drivers that work for his company.

While Cidade BH already had standard training programs in place for its drivers that covered topics like defensive driving, economics, legislation, and care for groups with special needs, including the elderly, André says the biggest assets he gained from the MAP training were audiovisual materials focused on safety.

“When I give the training to my colleagues, I primarily highlight safety. I use a lot of the materials given to us in the EMBARQ and FedEx course, especially the videos. Speaking as an instructor in Belo Horizonte, we had such a lack of teaching materials related to public transport before. Now, our drivers are absorbing the safety training better because they’re able to visualize and anticipate situations they are likely to encounter in their daily work. This has helped a lot.”

André was also impressed by the MAP training’s emphasis on the importance of sharing the road with all users—including pedestrians and cyclists. “We must respect the space of others,” he says, and not let traffic turn into a “war for space.”

André passes this lesson on to the drivers he trains for Cidade BH—about 40 so far, who together operate 15 MOVE vehicles—and he believes their work performance is the better for it. By putting themselves in the shoes of the weakest position on the road, those of the pedestrian, drivers internalize the fact that their consideration and responsibility for the safety of others determines the success of the system.

“Too often, drivers only pay attention to safety after a tragedy. We anticipate those situations before they occur through this training—showing what can happen so drivers know before they encounter bad situations. This training values life—both drivers’ lives and the lives of others.”

And the benefits of stronger safety training don’t just improve bus operations.

“The importance of having courses like this is much broader than we realize. After just four hours in the classroom you can see that drivers leave feeling more valued—it’s reflected even in their personal lives. We see that it decreases stress. We see that drivers are more motivated and committed. Their attitudes improve."

As a result, André reports that passengers and the general public are beginning to see drivers in a more positive light—a factor arguably just as important for the success of a BRT as the more traditionally acknowledged improvements in design, technology, time efficiency, and passenger capacity.

MOVE is expected to carry 700,000 passengers in Belo Horizonte every day once fully operational. Thanks to dedicated trainers like André, it’s good to know that more safe drivers than ever before will be behind the wheel.

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Mobility and Accessibility Program - Brazil

A professor with purpose: Leticia Dexheimer uses FedEx-EMBARQ research to educate and inspire

Training for safe results: André Justino helps boost operations and driver morale