WhereIsMyTransport mapping minibus-taxis across Cape Town

Information about the metro’s minibus-taxi network such as the routes, fares, and frequency of the taxis to and from the taxi-ranks in Cape Town, Bellville, Wynberg, Mitchells Plain, Khayelitsha Site C, Nyanga, Retreat, Elsies River, Claremont and Mowbray, is now available through the WhereIsMyTransport platform.

This information is integrated with the routes, schedules, and fares for the formal public transport services in Cape Town such as the MyCiTi bus service, the Golden Arrow Bus Service, Metrorail and university shuttles on the WhereIsMyTransport platform.

“Cape Town is the first city in the world to benefit from a dataset which includes all there is to know about the formal and informal public transport modes. We are very excited about the possibilities and solutions that the mapping of the minibus-taxi network offers us and our commuters. The next challenge is figuring out how to give commuters easy access to this information,” says the City’s Mayoral committee member: Transport and Urban Development Authority, councillor Brett Herron.

Hackathon

To best utilise and harness the information that is now available about the minibus-taxi industry in Cape Town, the City’s Transport and Urban Development Authority (TDA) co-sponsored the hackathon which took place in Woodstock recently. The hackathon was part of the Global Public Transport Hackathon Series.

Participants had access to the public transport data on the WhereIsMyTransport platform and was tasked with the challenge to create products and solutions that aim to increase the use of public transport in Cape Town; increase the use of multiple modes of transport by making it easier and more appealing to transfer and combine different modes of transport; and by making public transport more attractive, safer, healthier and easier to understand.

‘Minibus-taxis are by far the most common mode of public transport in Cape Town. Thousands of commuters board a minibus-taxi every day of their lives to get where they need to be. This is remarkable when one considers that the minibus-taxi industry provides an unscheduled transport service and that there is no central source of information about the routes and frequency of the service in the public realm,’ said councillor Herron.

Integration challenge

One of the TDA’s biggest challenges is to integrate the minibus-taxi routes with the other modes of public transport in Cape Town. Commuters have identified this lack of interchangeability or flexibility between the minibus-taxis, trains, MyCiTi bus service and GABS as a big frustration.

An integrated public transport system where commuters can transfer effortlessly from one mode to another in reaching their destinations is key to a modern and efficient world-class city.

‘We are excited to see the innovations that the participants will come up with to empower the people of Cape Town to plan their journeys and to reach their destinations with ease,’ he said.