Routes are not documented or easily understood by commuters, and it is difficult to embark on trips in areas not serviced by bus or rail - which accounts for large parts of the urban landscape.
Although the GoMetro mobile app has documented and delivered schedule results on Metrorail routes in Cape Town, and recently added MyCiti and Golden Arrow information into the mobile service, minibus taxi information has remained difficult to capture and produce. As a result, the transport team at GoMetro felt that South Africa's transport is not truly integrated until minibus taxi routes are documented and mapped as part of the formal information system of a city's transport system - and that such is accessible to commuters.
GoMetro has been innovating a new mapping technique for minibus taxi and bus route mapping using smartphones and ground teams with the aim of creating truly integrated public transport information in South African cities.
As a proof-of-concept, for three months at the end of 2014, GoMetro mapped all transport routes around Bellville. The GoMetro Bellville Map has been generated by using the GoMetro mapper app - a mapping technology developed by GoMetro - by a team equipped with smartphones. Over the course of 100 days, the team rode all buses, trains and taxis that access the Bellville Public Transport Terminal in order to build a complete map of public transport to and from Bellville.
"The objective of this pilot project was to prove to ourselves and the transport sector that mapping of all transport in a consolidated fashion is possible. We have used our mapping technology for the benefit of the residents of Bellville and the surrounding areas," Wesley Diphoko, GoMetro head of Mapping, says.
The GoMetro Bellville Integrated Map has information about where commuters will find transport to and from the Bellville area. It displays the routes of all modes of transport, presenting how commuters can access the rest of the greater Cape Town area from Bellville Transport Hub, as well as what second-degree connections can be made from Bellville. It also illustrates fare cost information for all modes of transport in Bellville as of February 2015.
"The world is urbanising at an incredible pace, and there are over a thousand cities globally that are struggling with the exact same dilemmas that South African cities are. The production of this Integrated Transport Map for Bellville is not only a showcase of the value GoMetro offers cities in South Africa, but also other areas such as Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Nigeria and Turkey," Justin Coetzee, CEO of GoMetro says.
Over the coming weeks, the map will be distributed to large employers, university campuses, transport hubs, community centres and the general public in the Bellville area. It is GoMetro's intention that the distribution of this map will improve the accessibility and mobility of the Bellville area, and increase economic activity in the revitalisation of an important node in Cape Town.
