An effective public transport system is crucial to a city’s social, environmental and economic sustainability. Having accurate movement data on their citizens and operators will allow the city to make targeted service interventions and future infrastructural investments. Fare reductions, improved accessibility, service, and infrastructure are only possible when the city has a thorough understanding of where, how, and when transport is used, and retains the funds needed for such improvements. Public transport can more readily adopt alternative fuel sources (such as hybrid buses) and have a much higher carrying capacity; strategic urban planning around public transport prevents sprawl and maximizes urban green space. All of these goals are dependent on having a reliable, safe, predictable public transport system that commuters trust and use, and which meets their transport needs. By providing tools that allow cities to better coordinate across modes and commuters to make informed, convenient transport choices, WhereIsMyTransport aims to make public transport use in South Africa, and across the emerging world, a normal part of everyday life. Reliable schedules and safe routes are key to user buy-in, and converting commuters from private vehicles to public transport requires a transport system that they can trust. Making public transport an intuitive first choice for movement would go a long way towards promoting social equity, carbon reductions, and smart investments, and our open platform lays the technological groundwork for that transition. Our platform for integrated transport data unlocks access to opportunities making it possible to provide passengers and other members of the transport ecosystem with information in the same way they make mobility decisions: from A to B, not on a single system or a single provider. Dissatisfaction with public transport is very high in emerging regions where information such as routes, arrival times, and fares is largely communicated by word of mouth. Without the tools to power information communications, public transport is stigmatised as a mode of necessity rather than choice. The associated inconveniences drive people to take more autonomous, but resource intensive, modes of transport such as private cars. Transport activity accounts for almost 25% of global emissions. More alarmingly, resource inefficiencies and growing personal motorisation rates in emerging economies will, by 2030, result in 80% higher levels of total transport-related energy and carbon emissions as compared to 2007 levels. Our integrated transport data platform encourages people to use public transport through access to reliable journey information and it also optimises movement networks to improve transport resource efficiency. The platform enables governments to better allocate their budget spending to target complex transport planning issues. In South Africa, this can mean reducing transport uncertainty which costs $104bn a year, alleviating congestion that costs $4.4bn annually, and giving vulnerable user groups (especially females) the necessary information to plan safe and reliable journeys. Moreover, in Africa up to 80% of all public transport users rely on informally-run transport. Integrating informal and formal transport can facilitate effective management of routes and help identify areas where people are excluded from access to reliable transport. Access to reliable information can increase institutional capacity to effectively implement transport policies and projects.

Who are we? WhereIsMyTransport provides an open platform for transport data in emerging cities across Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, integrating formal and informal modes. Our work has been recognised by the Financial Times/IFC, the WWF, and the Global Grand MobiPrize. How is our solution realised?

• Cities implement our solution in parts as their capacity and needs arise.
  • Data comes from existing operators or is collected by WhereIsMyTransport and partners:
  • Available live tracking data is connected to WhereIsMyTransport
• The platform is licensed to the City or relevant authority, enabling:
  • new mobile apps or websites developed by third parties.
  • Integration with existing apps or websites through chosen implementation partners or system integrators.
  • The city may choose to white-label WhereIsMyTransport’s journey-planning app, Findmyway, instead.
• Real-time communication tools are licenced by the city or local operators, allowing them to send targeted messages about delays, changes, or updates to passengers through social media, apps, or other end-points.
• Once real-time information is connected, the operators and city have access to real-time ETAs and can begin generating schedule adherence reports.

The heart of the WhereIsMyTransport solution is our open platform, which is available to cities ‘as-a-service.’ Our other products, such as the tools for real-time direct communication with passengers and reporting and analytics, are also licenced ‘as-a-service.’ WhereIsMyTransport provides all the technical capability, regular updates, full-time support, and maintenance and hosting. We have also developed a ‘toolkit’ for mapping and generating the initial data on any transport network, making it possible for any city to be added to our platform in a matter of months. This toolkit includes a mobile app for capturing routes, stops, fares, etc, backend tools for processing and validating the data, along with snapping it to the actual road network, as well as project management methodologies for mapping informal and ‘dark’ networks that are common in emerging cities.

We work with integration partners in the cities where we deploy, to ensure our systems are fully integrated with the city's existing infrastructure. We work through alliances of cities or are directly approached by them. When choosing where to increase our data presence and conduct informal mapping projects, we select cities based on the interest on the ground, the presence of existing partners, and available complimentary data. Over the next 2 years we aim to map all the informal transport systems in African cities over 2 million people, and we will also be implementing in a number of cities. We also hope the community of develoepers buildling on our platform will continue to grow, making clear the value of Open, integrated, queryable data for all.
Regarding exhibition space if we are selected for the Tech Demonstrator: we would require a small exhibition space (10sqm would be sufficient), several monitors and associated cables, and wifi (we will run demos on our personal machines). We will also need some stands/tables for those monitors, one other table, and a few chairs. We would bring our own banners. We are currently:

• actively reaching out to and engaging with cities around adopting the platform
• working to grow the data we support, for formal and informal networks (including mapping informal networks as mentioned)
• increasing the community of developers building apps and end points on our platform on that new expanded data
• introducing more channels and tools for passengers to engage with their service providers, their cities, and contribute real time data updates to the system