Integrated Real-Time Information System for Public Commuting: Perspectives of Stakeholders in South Africa

Cities are becoming more compact due to rapid urbanisation and changes to land-use policies. Increased pressure is placed on public transport systems worldwide due to increased urbanisation and motorisation. Efficient and sustainable urban mobility is the goal of many urban cities in the world. Recently, many transportation systems in developed countries have attempted to transform into integrated systems [1]. The possibilities for urban transport in these developed countries (e.g. Europe, North America, Japan) include trains (tram, light rail, subway, underground, metro), buses, ferries, water taxis, and smart transportation systems. As a developing country, the need for an integrated transportation system to boost urban mobility in South Africa has been identified [2].

According to the study [3], South Africa is experiencing population growth, necessitating increased infrastructure development. The population surged by 7 million from 2001 to 2011, underscoring the need for solutions that accommodate growth without compromising service quality and efficiency. The transportation sector is one critical aspect which requires attention to keep up with the demand and rapid growth of the population within urbanised areas. This situation has caused widespread issues such as traffic congestion, traffic-related deaths and injuries, pollution, and higher energy usage [4]. The high cost of fuel and traffic-related problems have also made using purely private commuting transportation undesirable [5]. Public transport systems, especially those that enable citizens to gain access to real-time information on available travel options at any given time, will significantly benefit commuters using the public transport system. Such a system will enable commuters always to make the best value-based decisions. A commuter can determine the best transportation option available for travel per time depending on critical factors such as estimated arrival time at the destination, cost, safety, and convenience. An integrated real-time information system (IRIS) can improve public transportation by providing commuters with real-time travel information to support decision-making on routes and available travel options. Real-time traffic data can help improve the commuters' experience by providing them with information on the status of a vehicle, including occupancy, speeds, and estimated arrival time. Commuters can also be provided insights into inconvenient traffic congestion so that motor vehicles are redirected to alternative routes [6]. Currently, the existing channels for accessing real-time information are mobile applications, display screens and websites. These are usually inaccessible during peak times or provide static information for commuters. Also, the data is not integrated, which makes it difficult for commuters to have a complete view of the transport system.

An IRIS can improve customer satisfaction by conveniently harnessing information sourced from multiple systems’ sources into a unified platform where travel information on all transportation alternatives can be conveniently obtained by commuters at any given time [7]. Although multimodal trip planners are becoming more important in modern transport systems, real-time navigators and studying how they affect travel behaviour still need improvement. In France, a project called Optimod'Lyon pioneered developing a real-time travel navigator on a smartphone that integrated all modes of transportation (car, public transportation, bike, bike-sharing, foot, car sharing, and carpooling). The SMART-Way smartphone application created in 2010-2011 through an EU-funded project was the first for public transportation, allowing users to access travel information on the move within Europe. Other cities worldwide, such as Zurich, Vienna, London, and Kuwait City, have created projects similar to the Smart-Way smartphone application [8]. However, these digital projects are still very few and are limited to developed countries. Such concepts have yet to be replicated in developing countries even though many developing countries have big cities that require IRIS. Some solutions operate in silos and do not allow integrated multimodal-based trip planning.

Public transport is the backbone of the South African economy, as it plays a crucial role in transporting the workforce and providing access to economic hubs in line with other countries. According to the study [9], a significant distinction exists between mobility and accessibility planning. Mobility planning focuses on enhancing transportation network performance, while accessibility planning maximises individuals' access to various opportunities, such as employment, services, education, entertainment, and goods. However, South Africa's transportation system is inefficient due to the lack of mobility and accessibility planning. This paper reports an investigation of the stakeholders' perspective for IRIS in the context of South Africa to lay a good foundation for the design and development of an IRIS if such were to be created in the immediate future. Thus, the research questions of the study are:

1. What challenges affect the provision of real-time information for public commuting decision-making in South Africa?

2. What are the requirements for an IRIS for public commuting in South Africa?

The research questions seek to collect data at the operational level, focusing on internal stakeholders involved in the operation of the IRIS and the external stakeholders (the commuters will interact with its services).

Thus, the main objective of this study is to identify the challenges associated with implementing an IRIS for public commuting in South Africa and the specific expectations of such an IRIS after its implementation from the perspectives of critical stakeholders — commuters and transportation service providers.

As a contribution, this paper highlights the importance of understanding the requirements of an Integrated Real-Time Information System (IRIS) in the South African context from stakeholders' perspectives. By examining these requirements, the study aims to provide valuable insights into how an IRIS can be designed and implemented to address the specific needs and challenges of South Africa's transportation system. Our study also extends the discussion on integrated real-time transport information systems, a critical need in developing countries which has not received much attention thus far in the literature. Practically, the study provides a good foundation for the design and development of IRIS in South Africa and other developing countries in the immediate future. The limitation of this study is that the identified challenges of the IRIS are specific to Cape Town, and some observations may need to be more generalisable to public commuters in other cities in less developed provinces/areas of South Africa due to contextual differences. However, the observations will be relevant to other major cities in South Africa (Johannesburg, Durban) and big cities in other developing countries in Africa and beyond.

The rest of this paper is structured as follows. Section 2 presents the literature review, which provides the study's theoretical background and a review of related work. Section 3 describes the study's adopted methodology, while Section 4 outlines the study's findings. Section 5 presents the discussion of findings, while the study is concluded in Section 6 with a summary and an outlook of future work.

This section presents background on critical aspects relevant to this study and reviews related work.

This study explored the various challenges affecting the provision of real-time information for public commuting in South Africa to understand the stakeholder requirements for an IRIS for public commuting in a developing country such as South Africa. We undertook a qualitative study where data was collected through interviews with PTOs (public road transport, rail transport, private road transport, taxi association) and co-design sessions with commuters within the Western Cape province of South Africa.

The findings suggest that the growth and improvement of the public transportation system in developing countries like South Africa have long been plagued by several challenges. These include unreliability, safety, and socio-traffic problems like accidents, crowding, and congestion. At the same time, infrastructure is deteriorating due to insufficient investment projects and neglect. From the commuter perspective, we found that the critical requirements for an IRIS in the South African context are capabilities for searching information, multiple payment methods, support for multiple languages, and identifying the live location of vehicles on interactive maps. In addition, private transport operators (PTOs) require features such as managing drivers and fleet and customer reviews, which aid them in their administrative duties.

The findings also suggest that implementing an IRIS can benefit commuters by providing real-time information to support decision-making on modes and routes. However, to get the best experience from such a system, the features need to be well understood from all stakeholders' perspectives. The stakeholders also expressed several concerns regarding the IRIS, which include low digital literacy of commuters, lack of access to high-end digital devices, delay in the arrival times of buses, undue interference in the operations of PTOs by government, unfavourable fare increases; accuracy and currency of information from the IRIS; revenue sharing amongst PTOs; availability of taxi after regular working hours; poor state of infrastructure; unhealthy competition amongst PTOs; the impact of enforced standardisation and accountability on operations of PTOs; complexity of sourcing from different PTOs; and system downtimes due to regular power failure (load shedding).

This study makes an academic contribution by providing insights into the nature of public transport in South Africa and the critical requirements for designing and developing an integrated real-time information system (IRIS). The practical contribution of this study is that its findings offer significant insight into enhancing South Africa's transportation landscape. Also, the recommendations of this study will contribute to the formulation of policies that will advance infrastructure development and improve public transport service delivery standards for the benefit of commuters in South Africa and other developing countries.

In future work, the identified requirements will be used for prototype development and implementation of an IRIS. We will also conduct exploratory studies on the potential for its adoption and uptake by South African PTOs, commuters and government agencies. As a future research direction, we shall explore how emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and blockchain could enhance the IRIS's functionality and effectiveness and elicit stakeholder requirements for the IRIS. Further investigations will focus on evaluation studies involving commuters, public transport organisations (PTOs), and government agencies in South Africa. Specific focus will include assessing the impact of IRIS on commuters’ behaviour and traffic congestion management. We will also conduct evaluation studies regarding the usability of the IRIS, interoperability assessment (INAS) of PTOs based on the IRIS, and the influence of the IRIS on public transport efficiency, safety and effectiveness.