Transparency in public transport

About BuzuRadar

An independent project to transform public records of Rio's mobility into maps, historical series and explanations that anyone can verify.

Mission

Evidence over spectacle

BuzuRadar exists to make transport operations more readable. The objective is not to turn every fluctuation into a complaint, but to separate what was observed, what is incomplete and what requires confirmation from other sources.

Maps and indicators are presented with period, origin and limitations. When a conclusion depends on a hypothesis, this must be made explicit. When information changes, the update date matters as much as the published number.

The project

Five surfaces, one responsibility

Live map

Most recent bus and BRT positions, indicating the age of the data and the transmission status.

Open map

Route directory

Routes, stops and static information to consult each service at a permanent address.

View routes

Audit

History, coverage, observed supply and comparisons built on the records preserved by the website.

Open audit

Data bulletins

Automatic weekly summaries published only when minimum quality criteria are met.

View bulletins

Blog

Editorial explainers and analyzes based on documents, public data and contextual research.

Read articles

Editorial principles

How BuzuRadar publishes

01

Describe before concluding

Absence of GPS is not automatically treated as absence of a bus. The text first informs the available signal and its quality.

02

Separate steps

Announcement, consultation, notice, contract, work, testing and operation are different stages. Tracking preserves these distinctions.

03

Show sources

Articles have links and date of consultation. Specific indicators refer to the methodology and limits used in the calculation.

04

Fix in a traceable way

Documented errors are fixed, and time-sensitive content displays when it was updated.

05

Do not fill gaps with invention

When the source does not allow an answer, BuzuRadar reports uncertainty instead of manufacturing precision.

Sources

Where does the information come from

The operational positions come from public sources made available by SMTR through BuzuRadar infrastructure. Routes, stops and planning use static data and official documents, including GTFS and operational plans.

Articles can also be used on public portals, academic research and civil society organizations. The provenance of each relevant statement is indicated in the content itself.

Limits

What Data Alone Doesn’t Prove

Records do not automatically measure capacity, demand, individual experience, revenue or regulatory timeliness. A missing position may result from a communication failure, and an observed vehicle does not guarantee that the entire trip was completed.

BuzuRadar metrics do not constitute an official assessment. Complaints and requests for inspection must go through the competent channels.

Publication

Manual and automatic content remain separate

Blog articles are manually researched and edited. Weekly bulletins use deterministic rules and prewritten templates. An edition is only published when coverage, freshness, and the number of routes meet the defined thresholds.

The intended editorial cadence combines automated weekly bulletins with two manually edited articles per month: one evergreen article and one analysis linked to a recent change, investigation, or data series.

Responsibility

Who maintains

BuzuRadar is maintained independently by Raphael Medeiros. The project assumes responsibility for the maps, calculations, texts, editorial criteria and presentation published in this domain; the source data belongs to the respective bodies and providers.