Nairobi County Government has launched a system that would assist commuters to know which matatus among those plying the 130 routes, they should board and where to locate them.
The technology, DigitalMatatus which is expected to decentralise the public transport system, was on Tuesday launched in London where Governor Evans Kidero was attending the City Lab London 2015 Conference.
At the meeting sponsored by former New York Mayor, Micheal Bloomberg, Kidero said that roughly 3.5 Million people in Nairobi depended on matatus everyday but had little information concerning the different routes.
“Providing this information via Google Maps (as provided by Digitalmatatus) will not only increases accessibility to the transit system, but will serve as a model for how to create information on public transport. More importantly, this essential data will now be available for transportation planning initiatives in a city that struggles with congestion,” said Kidero.
The technology born out of a joint project by the County Government, University of Nairobi and the Columbia University will be accessible through smart phones by downloading the information.
“Right now, the data is being used by five apps in Nairobi and goes to show that the city is the leading communications hub in Africa,” Kidero remarked.
Nairobi City suffers from persistent congestion problem attributed to the rural-urban migration. However, the devolved system of the Kenyan Government and measures like this among other projects by the Capital's administration, are in the pipeline to help ease traffic.
