Uber has unveiled Uber Movement, a new website to help urban planners, city leaders, third parties and the public better understand the transportation needs of their cities and how best to invest in new infrastructure.
All three major cities in Gauteng, Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane, are officially included in Uber Movement, with data now available.
Uber Movement shows data from the billions of trips that riders have taken with Uber, aggregated into zones covering the standard boundaries used by urban planners, for example Census Tracts and Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZs). This will enable them to more effectively evaluate where investments in transportation infrastructure should be made in their cities.
“Uber Movement is the next step to connecting further with our cities and having the opportunity to recognise its great transportation needs,” says Yolisa Kani, head of public policy at Uber South Africa. “With Uber Movement, we are able to further our mission in creating reliable transportation everywhere, for everyone.”
Uber signed an agreement with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa’s central scientific research and development organisation, which has agreed to share information and experiences with Uber Movement.
“Transport planning is a data intensive undertaking, and the required datasets tend to be expensive to collect and process,” says Dr Mathetha Mokonyama of the CSIR. “Having a platform that serves as a full-day transport network sensor would certainly help with the monitoring of some of the pertinent network indicators.”
Over time Uber will be adding more information, like automatically detecting potholes and utilising telematicdata. Uber will protect the privacy of riders and drivers, so Uber Movement uses only aggregate, anonymous data and cannot be used to access any personally identifiable information.
“We look forward to reaching Uber Movement’s full potential, linking communities to their cities,” says Kani.
