Imagine for a moment that you could peer into the
future what would you look for? Perhaps in your excitement, you'll
want to know how things will turn out tomorrow or even five years
from now. As your glance moves from family to friends and business
relations, the thrill continues with one delightful discovery after
the other until all of a sudden and with a screech, you are stuck
in traffic. You think to yourself for a moment: "why didn't I
look out for the traffic". This is the real world, welcome to
Lagos.
Déjà vu- is the feeling that
you're left with time and again, when stuck in the thick Lagos
traffic. You could have taken that alternative route, if only there
was some foresight, but in Lagos, there really isn't any way of
telling or is there?
The key to unlock traffic surprises in Lagos is being forged by
'star-gazer' and technology innovator, Simon Smethurst-MacIyntre.
Simon holds a masters degree in Astrophysics from the University of
Bristol and has studied the application of complex systems theory
to organisational issues at MIT.
"I remember my first time in
Lagos", he recalls as we enter his office, "we were held up in
traffic for over two hours from the airport on the mainland to my
residence on the island". Now this is a trip that you could make in
30 minutes or less, it doesn't matter whether you drive a Ferrari
or the like, the difference is only one thing- traffic. Simon isn't
one to let a problem to go unsolved: "I knew something had to be
done about this". Whilst working for eNowNow, an information portal
based in Lagos, Simon and his colleagues made up their minds to do
that "something", that will change the lives of road users in Lagos
forever.
And so began the journey to unlock surprises by providing foresight
through real-time traffic information, at no cost to road users via
sms, twitter, facebook and on the eNowNow traffic website.
"It's clear that everyone needs traffic information, not only
the car owners but also commuters especially people at the
grassroots such as office workers or house-wives. So from the first
moment we just wanted to collect real-time traffic information and
get it out there as quickly as possible. That's the reason why we
chose sms, because of its ubiquity".
The service which can be found at traffic.eNowNow.com
is still at the beta stage but it's already gaining traction, with
thousands of people logging in and subscribing for scheduled sms
updates for their daily traffic routes.
So how does it all come altogether? Real time traffic data is
collected by a team of ten motorcyclists that reconnoitre different
parts of the city. Armed with a camera phone, they take pictures of
current traffic situations and send the image via MMS to the
eNowNow's traffic office. The eNowNow traffic servers then analyse
the data to match the geographical location and decode the traffic
situation which is enumerated to either: "slow", "moving" or
"free".
This information is then fed
into the eNowNow traffic conditions database which updates the Live
traffic Map on the eNowNow traffic website. SMS are then sent to
anyone that has subscribed to traffic updates for the corresponding
geo-location. At the same time this information gets posted on twitter and facebook.
Traffic update from this service is also broadcast on two radio
stations (beat 99.9 FM and Classic 97 FM) in the metropolis.
Simon explains that they are working out better ways to collect
the traffic information so that it's more intuitive and up-to-date
as possible. On their list of improvements is crowd sourcing, GPS
tracking of cars to gather intelligent data on their speeds on
certain roads, and also information from the Lagos State's
CCTV.
The eNowNow traffic system also stores historical traffic data
on which you could easily base future traffic predictions but
that's as simple as it gets. Simon sees this historical information
as a data mine on which higher levels of traffic analysis and
modelling can be based. "In the future this historical data could
be used by anyone including the Lagos government to intelligently
model traffic scenarios when proposing road construction or some
other form of maintenance work that ordinarily disrupts traffic
flow. Experts will also be able to predict the ripple effect that
an unforeseen truck breakdown will have on traffic in other parts
of the city."
As the eNowNow team work towards improving this service I can't
help recalling what technologist John Seely Brown points out,
"something subtle happens to a technology when it achieves amenity:
It disappears". It becomes so much part of your everyday life that
you no longer notice it. traffic.eNowNow.com is a service that is
in touch with reality and the people, with the magic it provides to
our everyday life.