Real-time Location

Based Tracking and

Route Prioritization for
Public Transportations in
Addis Ababa

Prepared By 2019
ADIL ABDU
FIRAOL DIDA
For the purposes of this document, we have modeled Sheger Mass Transport Agency’s “Sheger City Bus”
as a public transportation of Addis Ababa.
We would like to thank Sheger Mass Transport Agency for their cooperation.
CONTENTS
1. Background ............................................................................................................................................... 1
2. Statement of the Problem .......................................................................................................................... 3
3. Project Objective ....................................................................................................................................... 3
3.1. General Objective ......................................................................................................................... 3
3.2. Specific Objective ......................................................................................................................... 3
4. Scope of the Project .................................................................................................................................. 4
5. Function Requirements ............................................................................................................................. 4
6. Motivation ................................................................................................................................................. 5
7. Significance of Project .............................................................................................................................. 5
8. Beneficiaries ............................................................................................................................................. 6
9. Business Plan ............................................................................................................................................ 6
10. Role Description ..................................................................................................................................... 6
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................................. i
 BEMENGEDE
Real-time Location Based Tracking and Route Prioritization of Sheger Buses

1. Background

Ethiopia, and her capital city Addis Ababa, have one of the fastest growing population in the
world. With the number of people living in Addis Ababa drawing close to 4 million (Nations,
2016), it is becoming one of the most crowded cities in the world. In fact, based on data collected
from the United Nations in 2016, recorded in “The World’s Cities Data Booklet”, Addis Ababa
was cited as the 128th most populated city in the world. Couple this with the accelerating
number of personal vehicles within this infrastructurally poor country (d'Automobiles, 2015)
along with the ever so evident increase in socio-economic function in and around the city, the
middle-class community living in this city is finding it ever more difficult to get an easily
accessible transport service.
It was under this dilemma that the Sheger Mass Transport Service Enterprise made available
close to 150 buses in 2016. These public buses, called the “Sheger City Bus” were aimed at
servicing the general public of Addis Ababa with each City Bus potentially holding a capacity of
100 commuters. With the city’s administration’s Road and Transport Bureau agreeing to roll out
150 more buses by the end of that year, Sheger Bus was proving to be a key variable in tackling
the transportation issue within our city. (Asrat, 2016)
With this mass rollout, Sheger Mass Transport Service officially started their public service back
in 2016. Each of these buses have LED screens attached to their heads, with information on each
of the bus’s current routes. They show where the bus started its route from and where they are
heading to. The buses also have station points throughout the city, where they drop and also add
passengers on board along their route.
What is apparent in this system of operation though, is the lack of disconnect between passengers
and Sheger Buses. The route information provided by each bus has obvious flaws to its design.
One apparent issue is how route information is provided to potential passengers. These
passengers seeking a ride to their desired destination would have to wait for a Sheger Bus to roll
around where they are in order to know whether that specific Bus is heading along their route or
not. These passengers have no other means of getting on board these public buses beside waiting

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at these station points, blindly hoping for Sheger Buses to come around. And even when the
buses manage to reach the station point the passengers are patiently waiting at, the buses’ routes
won’t definitely be appropriate the all the passengers waiting at the station.
Another point is potential passengers’ lack of information on traffic activity. This is significant,
especially for waiting passengers who have no idea what time their desired Sheger Bus might
reach the station point they’re waiting at, as the routes the buses are travelling through might
either be crowded, road’s been blocked, a road accident has occurred or several other reasons
that might derail the Sheger Bus from reaching their station points on time. This would mean
passengers waiting for Sheger Buses would again have to sit and hope and wait for their Bus to
come on time.
These issues mentioned above are just an overview of some of the avoidable, on-field problems
facing Sheger Buses when servicing their customers. The system we envisioned would create an
automated structure for passengers in need of Sheger Buses, where they wouldn’t have to wait
blindly for Buses to come around, nor tediously seek the Bus the wish to board without any prior
knowledge of where the bus might actually be. Our idea was to provide an automated route
checking service and provide this information to Sheger Bus passengers. Equipped with this
system, Sheger Bus passengers would no longer have to wait around at station points any more
second than they have to.
With the Sheger City Buses already equipped with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and
security cameras, it is clear that beyond achieving its aim of providing a public transportation
service, the buses have enormous capability in bringing a smart, dependable, consistent and
friendly service.
It is with this thought that the concept of Bemengede was born. Bemengede is a system that
provides a real-time data on Sheger Buses in and around the city. The system is made for
passengers seeking the service of this City Bus and is aimed towards providing these passengers
with accurate data on Sheger Bus routes and live locations. Through the use of the buses pre-
installed GPS systems, we aim to build a platform where passengers seeking to get on board a
Sheger City Bus would have the knowledge of where each bus is; and depending on their desired
destination, which bus they wish to board, how long they’d have to wait to board the nearest bus
and more information that would help facilitate the passengers’ overall experience with the
Sheger City Bus.

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2. Statement of the Problem

In Ethiopia, getting location-based information is a difficult task. Even though we use systems
that use location daily, we underuse the concept of location. This might be caused by simple
ignorance or lack of knowledge of location. Having this in mind, we have seen most of the
population use public transport but none have considered to know the real time location of the
bus they are waiting for. We have found that this is one of the problems. The system is not fully
automated. It is automated in the sever side but not on the client’s side. There is no automated
system that helps passengers get real time location-based information about their desired buses.
Another set of problem the current system present is the long line of queues we see at every bus
station. As the public doesn’t have any information as to when the buses they’re waiting for
might arrive, if it will arrive at all, they reluctantly must form a line and wait for taxis or buses to
roll around. This means the people in those stations waste their valuable time and energy when
they could’ve put it to good use; instead they wait in the sunny outdoors, risking themselves to
thieves.

3. Project Objective

3.1. General Objective

The general objective of this project is to develop a mobile application for Sheger Bus.
3.2. Specific Objective
The following are list of specific objectives that will help to accomplish the general objective
stated above.
 Gather information about the current system.
 Study about standardization.
 Investigate existing techniques for mapping buses.
 Study the current system and determine problems that could be improved.
 Selecting standards for routes.
 Design a new system that resolves the problem that were on the existing system.
 Document each phase.
 Develop an application for Bemengede.
 Test the software developed.

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4. Scope of the Project

This project undertakes a detailed study and requirement gathering on the problem. After the
problem is studied in detail and all the required information is gathered, design and
implementation of Bemengede will follow. The system that we intend to develop will perform
the following tasks:
 Bemengede will operate where there is internet connection.
 Bemengede enables clients to get information about routes.
 Bemengede enables clients to get real-time location information of bus.
 Bemengede provides alternative routes based on prioritization of either time or fare.
 Bemengede performs analysis on predicting the speed of the bus which it will use it for
time prioritization.
Again, due to the aforementioned limitations this project will be not
 Provide Bus information if the buses are not active.
 Provide Route information if the routes are not standardized.
 Perform deep analysis when predicting the speed of the bus.

5. Function Requirements

Functional requirements define a function of a system or its components, where these functions
are described as set of inputs, the behavior and outputs. And the expected Bemengede system
shall have the following set of functional requirements:
FR-1: The system shall track active Sheger Buses.
FR-2: The system shall track Sheger Buses route.
FR-3: The system shall save record of active Sheger Buses.
FR-4: The system shall save record of Sheger Buses route.
FR-5: The system shall track passenger’s location.
FR-6: The system shall prioritize routes and buses based on passengers’ choice.
FR-7: The system shall let the administrator create, update and delete Sheger buses.
FR-8: The system shall let the administrator create, update and delete Sheger buses routes.

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6. Motivation

Some of the motivation behind our idea to build the “Bemengede” system are listed.
 The ever-evident tedious process of trying to catch a public bus.
 The public’s lack of information on the buses around the city.
 The lack of optimal infrastructure of the city that makes transportation very hard to find.
 The fact that public buses were a popular means of transportation to the majority of the
population of Addis Ababa.
 Most of all, the issue that drove us the most to build this system is how we shared this
issue with the residents of Addis Ababa and saw firsthand the flaws in the current system
and how it can be improved.

7. Significance of Project

In the current situation of Ethiopia, due to the heavy taxes and expensiveness of cars people tend
to use the public transport more often. Ethiopia’s public transport providers set their buses to
specific routes and provide that information on the buses or posts their number on a plate at the
station. Client should be well aware of the stations or watch out for the buses to know where they
are heading. Our application, Bemengede, fills the gap created between the providers and the
client. By providing a real time location-based information; client can have the information on
hand without the pioneer knowledge of where the stations are or the numbers assigned to the
buses since the application provides both information. No more “የባስ ሰልፍ” i.e. If there is no way
of knowing when the bus arrives at the station the only option you have is to wait for X amount
of time at the station. But Bemengede will provide the estimation of arrival time of each buses to
their station. If a bus’s arrival time is estimated to be 10 minutes to arrive at a certain station and
a passenger near that station has the advantage of using Y minutes before the bus arrives within
those 10 minutes, and Y is less than the estimated time (10 minutes), then the passenger can use
those 10-Y minutes to good use, instead of waiting in line to no avail. Simply, passengers don’t
have to wait in line for the buses.
As for the technological importance, by providing the location of the buses it will help the
Sheger Bus organization to manage their buses more efficiently.

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8. Beneficiaries

The new system will provide benefits to:

Sheger Bus: Company will be able to effectively manage their buses.
Passengers: Will be able to get real time information about the buses.
Researchers: Will be able to use the route information since its standardized.
Decision makers: Road and Transportation minister will be able to perform analysis on public
buses i.e. buses providing services regularly.

9. Business Plan

Bemengede has both free and premium offer for its customers. The free version will include all
the functionalities with routes and station data but limited to only a single vendor (public
transport service providers such as Sheger City Bus, Anbessa Bus, Alliance Bus). The free
version will include in-app advertisements. Bemengede’s premium offer provides its customers
all the vendors data, enabling the prioritization algorithm become more efficient. The premium
version has no in-app advertisements.
The in-app advertisements will be maintained be Google AdSense. Google AdSense is a program
through which website publishers in the Google Network of content sites serve text, images,
video, or interactive media advertisements that are targeted to the site content and audience. The
Bemengede app can generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis.
The overall Business Model is currently under review. And the Bemengede application is still
under development phase of handling free and premium users.

10. Role Description

Adil Abdu Admin Website Developer

[email protected]
+251912272145

Firaol Dida Android Application Developer

[email protected]
+251912397377

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REFERENCES

Asrat, A. (2016, 10 03). Business, Ethiopia Online. Retrieved from Ethiopia Online:
http://onlineethiopia.net
d'Automobiles, T. O. (2015). World Vehicles in Use - All Vehicles. OICA.
Google, I. (2018, 08 22). Home: Grand Transit Feed Specification. Retrieved from Grand
Transit Feed Specification Website: https://gtfs.org/
Nations, U. (2016). The World's Cities Data Booklet.