
## The Challenge

Movement in Kampala, Uganda’s capital and home to [1.5 million citizens](https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/3759kayemba.pdf), is no simple [chore](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjfW_HX9WtM&t=1448s&ab_channel=HOPEConsults%28U%29Ltd).
On an average day, [two thirds](https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/3759kayemba.pdf) of trips are completed by privately operated taxis or Matatus; while the majority of the remaining trips are provided by motorcycles or “Boda Bodas”. The former are 14 seater microbuses, and the latter are motorcycles operating privately. At the time of the project, none of these modes were regulated. In addition, of the 2,100km road network on which they operate, only 500kms were paved. Even though the Kampala Capital City Authority is currently paving its roads, the lack of transport regulation resulted in an over-supply in the paratransit
sector causing daily traffic congestion, [business losses](https://www.theigc.org/project/the-cost-of-congestion-in-kampala-uganda/) and immobility all over the city. Over the course of a year, Transport for Cairo has been working on a paratransit and street usage study in preparation for the  Bus-Rapid Transit (BRT) pilot project system. The BRT system is envisioned by the government to help alleviate congestion in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA).

![Old taxi Park in Uganda’s Capital Kampala. Credit Wambi Micheal /IPS](./imgs/Wambi.jpg "Old taxi Park in Uganda’s Capital Kampala. Credit Wambi Micheal /IPS")

## The Process

For 10 weeks, the TfC team mapped the public transport network, and provided the operational data necessary to understand the paratransit services in the GKMA area. Through Route Observer (RO), a mobile app developed by TfC, we collected a total of 3200 hours of data points on 1492 trips and 587 routes all over the GKMA. The first steps included using both the data collected during the pilot mapping and secondary sources in order to identify origin and destination points.

![Route Observer Application: The first steps in choosing an onboard assignment](./imgs/app.png "Route Observer Application: The first steps in choosing an onboard assignment")

Then a standardized list of terminals was periodically uploaded to our Route Observer Dashboard application in order to create assignments for the field researchers. When a field researcher picks an assignment and starts recording on the RO app, the app records both the GPS trace
of the trip as well as travel time.Then using Route Snapper, a software developed in-house by TfC,
incoming raw traces are processed in batches and migrated to the
“Processed Trips” layer in the database.

![Raw Trace (Dotted Blue) overlaid with its processed trace aligned with OSM (Red)](./imgs/raw-traces.png "Raw Trace (Dotted Blue) overlaid with its processed trace aligned with OSM (Red)")

After data collection, the team created a virtual network of stops in order to model the transportation network. This dataset contributes to the creation of a GTFS with estimated travel times (GTFS feeds are used for trip planning and transport network analysis to evaluate multimodal transport options). Finally, we created a Kampala Bus Map designed to follow the geographic arrangement of the city, while abstracting and simplifying it. The streets shown on the map are simple to read and understand. They are divided into four categories based on street hierarchy, with each category having a different opacity level based on the street’s usage importance. Only the most important streets, defined by the frequency of usage as well as the streets on which the trips are placed, are shown on the map.

    ![Kampala Transit Map Progress](./imgs/final-map-1536x513.jpg "Kampala Transit Map Progress")

## Today

Because we know the value of capacity building, we partnered up with World Resource Institute (WRI) and conducted an OpenStreetMap workshop (Mapathon) last January at Makarere University, College of Engineering Design Art and Technology. We worked to raise awareness towards the need for a data management system that can be maintained by locals in order to achieve the most sustainable results in the long run. In collaboration with WRI, the aim of the workshop was to build capacity for students and fresh graduates working with Open Data and OpenStreetMap and to raise awareness on the impact of such platforms and concepts on society. Presenters from Addis Ababa Transport Authority and Accra Ghana talked about their experience in independent data creation and storage. The workshop also incentivized participants to become contributors and active members of their relevant local mapping communities, owning the process of creating and maintaining the data.

![Abdelrahman Meligy, Project Manager, giving Makarere University students one of the workshop sessions](./imgs/workshop.jpg "Abdelrahman Meligy, Project Manager, giving Makarere University students one of the workshop sessions")


In Kampala, Uganda, citizens rely completely on informal transportation, in the form of matatus or boda bodas, for all their transportation needs. This reliance, coupled with a lack of regulation, has resulted in over-supply in the paratransit sector. Transport for Cairo was able to complete 10 weeks’ worth of data collection using our Route Observer application. We observed 1492 trips and 587 routes operating out of Matatu stages across GKMA. Video feeds were used for traffic counts and machine learning algorithms were used to classify vehicles across selected sections for analysis.

Kampala Paratransit Street Usage Study


The process started in early 2016 with a group of friends who had a passion for mapping transportation in Cairo. The initial step was collecting all the needed data. The main purpose back then was to generate the data for creating a digital map for Cairo. To create a printable map, we had to handle the raw data with delicacy; we needed to maintain its richness while at the same time design a simple and readable map. We came up with multiple drafts to create the elements that constitute the current map. Finally, we left the office to test and get feedback from the ground. However, the process of development is a continuous one. Following is a brief description of each step along the way to creating this map.

## Data Collection

Because the map is a representation of what exists on ground, we had to start from the field. The first phase of creating the map was fieldwork. Data collectors started working on ground to gather the transit mode routes, stops and times. Each data collector rode different transit modes and traced the path of the trips using a mobile app. The data was sent back to the office where it was processed by our Geographic Information Systems (GIS) team.

## Handling the Data

Due to the massive amount of data collected from the field and the huge number of transit modes operating in Cairo, we needed to decide what information was essential for the commuter and what wasn’t. Given the nature of Cairo’s traffic, identifying the stops was the most challenging part. Based on several criteria, like the stops that are at the intersection of two main streets or of two routes, we chose which stops were important enough to get represented on the map. Another challenge was the representation of the routes. There are lots of vehicles that operate on the same path from the same transit mode. However, they have routes that are slightly different from each other. The high number of routes made visualizing all of them impossible on such a map. Our solution was to filter and combine several routes that operate on the same path so as to make the map more readable and commuter friendly.

This challenge was also solved by splitting the map into two separate ones, namely, ‘Getting around inside 6th of October’ and ‘Getting out of 6th of October’. The first map shows the internal transit modes, which in this case are the Box and Tomnayas, and the second shows the transit modes that operate from 6th of October to the rest of Cairo, which in this case are the microbuses and CTAs.

## Visual Design

The first step to create the map was to create the base map with all streets and districts. Our aim was to simplify it as much as possible while retaining the most important roads and landmarks. We simplified the district and streets as well as all the routes that will be shown on the map. All lines drawn on the map are now either vertical, horizontal, or at 45-degree angles. This makes the map more appealing and comfortable to the eye. Finally, our artistic touch was all that was missing. Last but not least were basically design choices, which colors to use, line thickness, shapes, fonts and layout. This process took a lot of research and trial and error to achieve a fairly homogeneous construction and an easy-to-read and usable map.

## Translation & Feedback

After finishing up the design of the map we worked on translating to both Arabic and English versions to maximize the target audience. And because everything new needs testing and feedback, we created two channels of feedback up until now. One was on social media, where we tested the map and its readability by the commuter. And one was on ground, where we did a survey in 6th of October City which included interviews with professionals, commuters, students and drivers. This helped us finalize and improve the map.

![](./imgs/map-1.png "6th October Intra-city Transit Map")
![](./imgs/map-2.png "Inter-city Transit Map")


Back in 2016, the TfC team set out to create a map of the 6th October transit network. To make a map ready for printing, we worked for months. It took a lot of effort, time and resources to get where we are. For those of you who are interested in knowing more about the process of creating the map, this article is for you.