UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLIC TRANSPORT NETWORK IN PLACE
In many cities in Africa, public transportation is only licenced by public authorities then run independently by private entities. This means that often, authorities cannot ensure effective services to travellers. Private owners, while providing a valuable service, tend to prioritise their business interests first. However, they would all benefit from an optimised and well managed transport network .
Authorities want to ensure fair mobility with services reaching as many travellers as possible, while service providers seek fast routes and filling times to optimise their fuel and expenses for positive returns.Therefore, although travellers in Africa want to go far, and fast, like everywhere in the world, they are stuck in the middle with uncertainties at many levels: they cannot confidently say how far they have to walk to catch a bus, when it will show up or how long the journey will take to their destination.
However, these challenges have solutions: Public transport authorities, when equipped with the right tools, can ensure reliable services for the travellers.
They can act as bridges between the service providers and the users to ensure equitable distribution of services.
Among the many indicators on public transport efficiency, there are three key ones. Frequency. Accessibility. Reliability. How can authorities assess and gauge them especially in a complex public transport network: many routes, many operators with diverse transport modes?
Gisaïa developed arlas.city to help address this very challenge. arlas.city is a timely solution which offers public transport decision-makers the opportunity to get a global view of the system in place. It merges, realigns and visualises public transport data that is often in silos, over time and space.
Africities presents us with the possibility to meet the relevant public transport stakeholders: authorities, operators and researchers who can take advantage of our project HAKIKA, to develop a robust public transport data bank and explore these data for decision making. HAKIKA is a word in Kiswahili that means: ‘to be sure’.