Urban public transport systems are traditionally designed for passenger mobility, while their latent operational capacity remains under-theorized as a strategic resource for urban logistics. Although recent research has explored freight–passenger integration and shared infrastructure efficiency, the field remains dominated by descriptive case studies and operational feasibility assessments. There is a lack of structured analytical frameworks capable of supporting systematic, multi-dimensional decision-making under technical, economic, and institutional uncertainty.
This study addresses this theoretical and methodological gap by proposing a Stage-Gate diagnostic framework grounded in Engineering Methods and Design Science Research. Rather than treating freight integration into Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems as an isolated operational experiment, the framework conceptualizes it as a sequential uncertainty-reduction architecture. The model structures feasibility assessment through five validation gates: (G1) contextual and territorial eligibility, (G2) physical and operational feasibility, (G3) service compatibility and interference control, (G4) logistical and economic performance, and (G5) governance, regulation, and scalability. Each gate incorporates explicit criteria, measurable indicators, and decision thresholds, enabling analytically grounded go/no-go decisions prior to implementation.
The framework is empirically applied to the TransCarioca BRT corridor in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, using timetable analysis, occupancy patterns, and identification of idle operational windows. Our findings reveal stable off-peak capacity that can be strategically reallocated to middle mile logistics without compromising passenger service levels. Beyond empirical validation, the study contributes a formal decision architecture that advances the theoretical foundations of infrastructure sharing and freight–passenger integration by operationalizing uncertainty management within capacity-constrained urban systems.
By integrating decision-structuring logic, governance analysis, and infrastructure efficiency into a unified validation model, this research provides both conceptual advancement and a transferable methodological artefact for planners and policymakers.
