T-TRIID Final Report – Project Balega

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5o (2018), emissions from transport have grown significantly faster than other contributing sectors over the past 50 years. To address this issue, the Applied Research HighVolume Transport Programme, run by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), launched the Transport-Technology Research Innovation for International Development (T-TRIID) funding programme.

Transport technology, in terms of this document, is the use of electronic data through new technology, in order to enhance travel experiences, for both people and goods, and to utilise vehicles in a more efficient manner. One application of this is Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS). This report sets out the feasibility project which sought to apply a MaaS product, Moses, a taxi-share technology, in South Africa to improve transport availability and reduce carbon emissions. The project was delivered in partnership with GoMetro, a transport technology planning application company based in South Africa, with the support of Snap Out, a user and market research consultancy. This project is called Project Balega and looks to explore the application of the product, Moses, in South Africa.

South Africa is the world’s 14th largest emitter of greenhouse gases, with transport being one of the main contributing factors. The Project took a case study approach, with a focus on Gauteng, in South Africa to explore the feasibility of applying Moses to existing transport systems. Gauteng has had a number of transport developments, including the introduction of Gautrain and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems. Data on minibus taxis is being generated and enabling routes to be mapped out in the Gauteng area. Moses helps rail passengers with their onward journey through the use of shared taxis, potentially in the case of South Africa, to aggregate minibus taxis to enhance end-to-end journey options. At the outset of the Project, a literature review was conducted to ‘map-out’ travel behaviour, transport systems, women’s safety, accessibility and carbon emissions. This identified gaps in knowledge that needed to be explored by primary research.

To explore how Moses could operate in Gauteng, South Africa, a mixed method approach was taken. Quantitative data was collected through GoMetro, through a survey approach, using their app to map out minibus taxi routes, specific to the needs of the Project. This data was analysed to calculate carbon emissions and to identify the potential extent to which Moses could impact on these, taking into account vehicle quality and route optimisation. It was found that if routes were optimised and vehicles were upgraded, carbon emissions would change significantly, from a current fleet omitting approximately 60,000 gCO2e compared to an optimised fleet of new vehicles omitting approximately 40,000 gCO2e, a potential 40% gCO2e saving. However, the practical implementation of this would require significant support from Government both in terms of governance and finance to provide incentives for minibus taxis to adopt new routes and upgrade their vehicles. In addition to this, an online survey was conducted by Snap Out, and it was found that for public transport, the key concerns were safety, convenience, reliability and availability.

A qualitative approach was also taken, the aim of this was to understand existing travel behaviour in more detail. To this end, interviews, observations and stakeholder meetings took place, more information about these are in the appendices. There were interviews with low-income and middleto-high-income communities to explore the way in which they use and choose to use local transport requirements. Value proposition prototypes were discussed to understand what operational model would be of interest and could benefit the Gauteng population. It was found that there was a divide in transport use, particularly for two particular types of transport users: 1) those 5 that owned cars and those that did not; and 2) those that had bank accounts and a bank card and those that did not, which impacts on how people use and pay for transport. Observations identified the utilisation of BRT buses and Gautrain in an area with multiple transport options, to see how people were trip-chaining between Gautrain and taxis or minibus taxis. It was observed the many transport modes were under-utilised and digital tools were limited in providing information to plan transport routes. The interaction between rail passengers and the ways in which onward transport modes were selected was also observed. For minibus taxis in particular, it was found that transport decisions were made based in-person, with minibus drivers using hand-signals and person-toperson discussions to define their routes.

Overall, there were opportunities found for transport technology companies, particularly those in the MaaS sector, which specialises in providing end-to-end, or first-and-last mile journey options. For example, people are already accustomed to sharing vehicles, aside from buses and trains and there is an emerging market for transport using technology such as e-hailing. More data is becoming available that could be used by transport technology companies to provide optimised and personalised transport services. Turning smartphone data on to seek travel information and book e-hailing services is already happening in South Africa, meaning that citizens with smartphones could access MaaS services online.
There are many opportunities to improve the effectiveness and adoption of shared mobility in South Africa and the wider Africa continent. We recommend that the insights and opportunities uncovered in this research project are used as the basis of a larger demonstrator project to prove the benefits in a real-world deployment. There is an opportunity to deliver impact in collaboration with interested local and national transport operators.