New App Maps Out Addis Ababa’s Public Transport Routes

Seven-year-old company Bandira AddisMap Enterprise (BAME) has launched a public transport route management app after comprehensively mapping out the capital’s public transport network.

Boosted by a $30,000 fund secured by winning the Digital Transport 4 Africa Innovation Challenge two years ago and a collaboration with the Trufi Association, an international NGO promoting easier access to public transport, the platform is developed for people who need to go somewhere in the city but don’t know which public transport to use.

The app, AddisMap Transit, includes the Light Railway System (LRT), 199 Anbessa and Sheger Bus routes across 1,220 stations, along with 247 minibus taxi routes and 953 stations.

The startup, which provides innovative Geographic Information Systems (GIS) solutions to businesses, governmental organizations, tourist attractions, and the general public, has made the platform free to use on Android and iOS. It offers urbanites optimal transport alternatives, helping users find the best way to get from point A to point B.

Alazar Tekle, project manager at BAME, said a vast area of potential expansion was identified during the data collection period. He called on developers to utilize the open data, disaggregated by factors such as gender and safety, to further improve Addis Abeba’s public transport management.

“Our revenue targets rely on long-term integration with other systems,” Alazar told Shega. He expects wide adoption of the application to align closely with the increased focus on public transport by the City Administration. “People will be spared from taking three minibusses if one bus can get them there,” Alazar said.

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The app, released as open-source on GitHub, extracted the transport routes from OpenStreetMap (OSM), leveraging open-source code developed by Trufi that converts OSM data to General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS), a standardized format used by public transit systems to publish their schedules and geographic information, making it easier for applications to understand and use the data.

According to Turif, accurately mapping public transport routes using OpenStreetMap (OSM) is an advanced skill that is challenging to execute accurately. With funding from the DT4A Innovation Challenge, AddisMap Transit mapped, remapped, and validated the data in OSM.

BAME, formerly known as YeneGuzo, is also looking to enable real-time bus arrival data on the app in the short term. Established with a modest capital of 250,000 birr from a pool of friends, BAME now aims to enrich its commercial prospects with more value-added services. However, the developers acknowledged that the app’s availability in just two languages (Amharic and English) could be limiting in the capital’s peripheries.