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African Bus Routes Redrawn Using Cell-Phone Data
- brixon 13y agoInteresting as long as you don't ignore a whole demographic (e.g. very poor people without phones).
- 16s 13y agoI read yesterday that more people in India have access to a cell phone than to a toilet or running water. I assume they are very poor since they have to poop outside on the street, but they do have cell phones.
- Someone 13y agoEven then, 40% of _households_ does not have a phone (http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/indian-toilet-scheme-wins-geneva-global-innovation-award-article-1.1180696 http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/indian-toilet-s...). That is in line with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_mobile_phones_in_use http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_..., which states there are about 2 mobile phones for every 3 Indians. I think it is safe to bet that, among those using public transport, mobile phone ownership will not be higher. Also, of those with a mobile on those buses, mobile phone _usage_, likely, will be higher for the richer ones.
- delinka 13y ago"Access to" and "owning it oneself" are not necessarily equivalent. If a household of seven has a single cell phone, seven people have "access to" a cell phone.
- Zigurd 13y agoMobile phones and internet access via mobile phones is a pretty high priority, even if the other items on the list are a toilet, a scooter, or a stove. The rationale is that the phone and internet enables you to earn more and get the other items.
- jnye131 13y agoThe population of Cote d'Ivoire is 20 million, Orange have released data from 5 million customers nationwide and they are one of 6 mobile phone operators. That suggests that mobile penetration is quite high in Cote d'Ivoire. Go to Abidjan and you'd see empirical evidence to support this theory too. Cote d'Ivoire is a comparatively prosperous country in West Africa.
- brazzy 13y agoWelcome to the 21st century. Cell phones are a dirt-cheap commodity, not a luxury. If you can't afford a second-hand feature phone, you likely can't afford to ride the bus.
- daredevildave 13y agoI wonder if this was done in, say Poland, would it be titled "European Bus Routes Redrawn Using Cell-Phone Data"? Why is it no-one narrows down descriptions of Africa to below continent-level?
- ippisl 13y agoThey talk about 10% time reduction(probably average). Does anybody know more fine grained statistics ?
- rahulnair23 13y agoHi, I'm from the IBM Research team who worked on this. The reduction is in total system-wide journey times in passenger-minutes (travel time + expected waiting time). The model makes underlying assumptions on how people arrive at stops to do their trips, and how they choose paths through the network. The wait times are therefore related to frequency of services. The statistic is also broken down by each route what happens when the changes (new routes or extensions) are implemented. For some routes, you see increase in ridership (on account of better connectivity), and on some you see decreased ridership (since the new routes offer more competitive paths through the network).
- ihsw 13y agoBased on the research, how different is the proposed more-efficient bus routes from the already existing bus routes? Or more to the point, how correct (or incorrect) were the urban planners in their choice of bus routes? More information like how large the bus route system had grown since its inception -- for example did it grow organically over time in small growth spurts or was it in larger controlled route expansions/reductions -- would be useful as well.
- ippisl 13y agoThanks. Really interesting work. Are you allowed to share some of the data ? If so: Does the time includes time to walk to bus station or an estimate? Is there some histogram of time saved per passenger ? or even something like X% of passengers save a big amount of time ? Do you have a way to estimate time save by adding routes or alternative transport(like jitneys) before making the change? Those are interesting, but i also think if some of this data was available(like for example big time saving for some part of the population), this would have better media coverage.
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- trailfox 13y agoWhy not "Ivory Coast Bus Routes Redrawn using Cell-Phone Data" ? As someone living in an African country I find this headline beyond ridiculous. If this was in Lebanon would we be reading "Asian Bus Routes Redrawn using Cell-Phone Data"?
- TheAnimus 13y agoSame way with many news sources America is the USA. Or Vilnius is Europe, yet St. Petersburg isn't.
- eru 13y agoWhy? You mean St. Petersburg, Florida, or you mean that the Russian St. Petersburg is not part of Europe in the common American conception of it?
- criley 13y agoBecause the headline is written according to the expected understanding of the American reader. "Ivory Coast" is about as descriptive to an American audience as "Africa". I would be shocked if more than a tiny minority of Americans could tell you where the Ivory Coast was outside of "Africa", and I bet many wouldn't even know to place it in Africa, thinking maybe it's in India or SE Asia or something. It's written like that because Americans don't know and don't really care about African geography. >If this was in Lebanon would we be reading "Asian Bus Routes Redrawn using Cell-Phone Data"? We'd probably see "Middle-East", the understood name for that region. We might even see "Lebanon" since its close to Israel and Americans like to feel involved in that scene.
- trailfox 13y ago>Because the headline is written according to the expected understanding of the American reader. Not exactly a high bar it seems...
- freehunter 13y ago
- stedaniels 13y agoIs anyone else slightly annoyed that there is no imagery to show this data on a map? That's all I was actually looking for when I clicked the link. Had a quick look for it and can't see anything. Can anyone else help with a link for the lazy?
- jnye131 13y agoThe paper is being released later this week by the look of it.
- someJunkName 13y agoYes, the article is essentially disappointing without an image of a map showing the current bus routes versus traffic/cell data versus proposed. Are they trying to promote interest in this project by creating a little buzz? Wake me when there is one.