Commuters in Nairobi can now access the routes of the over 20,000 matatus (public buses) operating in the city, with the Transit App.
The app which was populated with data made available by the University of Nairobi, Columbia University’s Center for Sustainable Urban Development, Groupshot, and MIT’s Civic Design Lab in a collaborative research called “Digital Matatus”.
In a post by the company, the app is said to have an “adjusted … interface to match Nairobi’s needs, including frequency-based schedules and regional color coding.”
In-app features such as bus schedules, bus stops and routes are all available offline, thereby ensuring that commuters do not need to rely on network connection for access at anytime. The app also features a trip planner which provides commuters with the most efficient route to their destinations.
However, the app cannot give real-time updates on bus movements or routes in Nairobi and is at this time just a guide. However, Transit App is working on the feature, according to the blog post.
Transit App is available both on the Google Play Store for Android devices and on the App Store for iOS.
