Leveraging GIS technologies to improve passenger safety along minibus taxi transit facilities in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies are useful tools that can be leveraged by public transport operators and planners for improving public transport safety. Although having made a significant input on bus-based public transport systems, GIS has recently been adopted for improving informal minibus taxi services. GIS has been applied in modelling minibus taxi movement patterns and mapping vehicle safety. Little research exists on auto-passenger collisions in public transport (Wang and Cicchino, 2020) such as minibus taxis services. By leveraging the capabilities of GIS such as geocoding capabilities, Geographic Positioning System (GPS) data collection methods and Google Earth navigation tools passenger safety can be addressed by understanding the patterns such as auto-passenger collisions. In this essay, a methodology has been suggested for use in determining auto-passenger collisions at minibus taxi facilities and routes. Possible expected indicator includes auto-passenger collision frequency. The proposed method in this paper was amended from an existing methodology for hazardous bus stops identification developed by Pulugurtha and Vanapalli (2008). The amendment was done based on how an available GPS data for minibus taxis collected from Rustenburg Local Municipality can be used.