MoVinG in NAiRobi COMMUTERS TELL TALES FROM THE STREETS

Explore the Kenyan capital of Nairobi through the eyes of four commuters as they walk, ride motorcycles (boda boda), take buses (matatu), and hire Ubers from the wealthy neighborhoods adjacent to the United Nations to the low-income communities in the city center. Human movement data acquired from Uber, cell phones, and Google’s Traffic API are animated on these walls showing the extent of the city’s congestion. Videos show four people’s daily commute playing in sync as their paths are drawn within this animated map.

Twenty-two people relocate to Nairobi every hour, and this rapid pace of development has meant that transport infrastructure has not caught up with the needs of the public. Threeand-a-half-million people move through this East African capital every day, and the lack of coordinated transportation planning often causes the city to grind to a halt. Nairobi is ranked fourth among cities with the worst commuting experience worldwide, with commuters stuck in gridlock for hours on end. Transportation infrastructure must be addressed to improve the lives and economy of Nairobians.