Uber movement, a digital data sharing website has been unveiled. The portal is aimed at helping urban planners and the public to better understand the transportation needs of Nairobi County.
Launched by taxi hailing company – Uber, the portal derives its data from Uber trips in Nairobi. It will be freely accessible through the taxi app’s public and free data-sharing tool, now accessible countrywide.
Users will be able to utilize smarter ways to investigate the impact of occurrences such as floods and electoral processes while on traffic. This is because it has filters for specific dates and times.
In statement during the launch Jordan Gilbertson, the uber movement Global product manager said. “You can see just how much of an impact a flooding event had on travel time conditions throughout the road network,”
Urban planners with benefit from the data sharing website as data will be taken from the trips that riders have taken with Uber. This means it will be more effective for the urban planners to evaluate where investments in transportation infrastructure should be made.
“The data is intentioned to give planners a sense of what is happening in the network and then inform traffic management solutions and interventions. It is a planning tool,” said Maina Gachoya, a representative of the Institute for Transportation and Development policy.
However, despite its urban planning benefits, there exists some challenges. Firstly, Uber is mainly used in higher income areas. This means data gathering might be restricted to these areas, as opposed to low income areas. Additionally, the concept of potential partners might charge for their data, especially when making their data even more scalable.
Kenya is the third African country to get access to transportation data though Uber Movement, after Egypt and South Africa.
Discussion about this post