BOX 6.5 Case Study: Digital matatus

BOX 6.5

Case study: Digital matatus54

Digital matatus is a crowdsourced tool for the spatial mapping of informal bus routes. It is a collaborative effort between Kenyan and American universities, alongside the involvement of the Nairobi tech sector. Using mobile routing applications, the project captured transit data for Nairobi so as to design a new transit map for the city. The open source database can be accessed, modified, and reused by anyone. Due to Nairobi’s inconsistent and unreliable transit data, digital matatus developed a standard protocol and methodology to create a route map in conjunction with a general transit feed specification (GTFS) compatible data structure. Designated students rode matatus routes and collected data with mobile devices. Afterwards, data was cleaned and formatted into GTFS. This free and accessible dataset enabled the tech community to develop five mobile applications that provide transit routing information to the general public. Transparent and accessible open source databases will help promote free flow of information and ideas, which will be crucial for the creative technological development within a community. By enabling the availability of digital public goods, local governments can ensure that the data will ultimately benefit the public.