RouteLab Observer • Transit Data Collection in the 21st Century

4 years ago, I took an elective course designed to prepare us for our Senior Graduation Project. During this course, I came face-to-face with this quote:

Wow. That struck a chord. I don't recall who said it exactly, but it was in response to this Harvard study.

From that moment, it became my mission to do everything in my capacity to inch us closer to a more accessible, sustainable world. Today, I'm lucky to be surrounded by people who share this very same mission at. In the process, we're putting metro, microbuses, tomnayas, matatus, boda bodas, and all forms of transit on the map - for the first time - both at home and abroad.

Overview 🔎

In November of 2019, I joined the Transport for Cairo team on a project to map the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA) for the very first time. At the time, TfC had a custom data collection application capable of conducting Onboard and Frequency Surveys with ease. All that data was uploaded to a database where it would then be accessible using QGIS.

Okay, but how do we keep track of progress? How do we catch and identify issues in the field before unintended knock-on effects begin to transpire? How do we catch human errors as quickly as possible?

We need a dashboard

Soon, what began as a simple dashboard for keeping track of researcher metrics, transpired into a full-on suite of data tools under a unified umbrella we now call RouteLab.

The Observer dashboard grew in tandem as we introduced support for more types of surveys. All in need of data visualisation.

Primary Goal: Shorten the feedback loop between data capture and data validation. We achieve this by: • Providing timely, accurate KPIs on both the short-term (daily) and long-term (project) scales • Surfacing potential errors in captured data automatically (such as illegal use of a mocking applications or invalid GPS traces) • Providing controls for field parameters (geofencing, time-bounding, disabling particular trips) to ensure project completion on time and within budget.

Process 🛣

Dashboards are deceptively easy. Throw up a bunch of data visualizations and call it a day, right? Nope. This dashboard went through many iterations, with cross-team collaborations with Data and Operations to ensure the most valuable metrics, filters, and controls are front-and-center, as well as intuitive & easy to use for both technical and non-technical users.

This process included conducting user research, user-journey mapping, wireframing, prototyping, and finally implementing the designs

Results 🎁

In Kampala, and in only 10 weeks, we were able to map and analyze:

operating out of Matatu stages across Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area using RL Observer.

Since then, we have completed further mapping projects across 3 mega-cities including Cairo, Accra, and Kampala. As well as provided capacity building programs so that local talent can continue to conduct their own transit data collection efforts to multiple cities including Addis Ababa, Kumasi, and Djibouti.

In its current iteration, the RL Observer Dashboard and Mobile app have helped municipalities conduct data collection projects and understand - in some cases for the very first time - how their informal transit system operates. These projects were conducted at 25% the traditional costs, due to the efficiency and effectiveness of RouteLab.

Takeaways 📣

Fall in love with a problem worth solving, and you'll have no issues spending a lifetime iterating on a solution. RouteLab has been under construction, and used internally at TfC, for the past 3 years. To date, we continue to find areas to iterate, improve, and streamline the process further; and it continues to throw exciting problems at us.

Bishoy Maher Product Designer & Front-end Developer