Comments on: Traffic Updates by SMS in Nigeria

By: namdar

namdar — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:56:39 +0000

thats intresting idea
if any body has a good study or powerpoint or doc. about traffic mobile(if we use this solution we take a relax or save same GAS,TIME,…

namdar007@yahoo.com
WBR

By: Ojulari Hakeem

Ojulari Hakeem — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:37:56 +0000

Actually I had the same intention last year concerning traffic report using LBS technology. The posing problem was that I could nt figure out how the real time traffic situation would be reported to the main central server. What I think could solve the problem is using GPS transeivers with GIS info. or getting the a service provider.

By: Charles Ugwuh

Charles Ugwuh — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:59:10 +0000

This service is DOA! It only makes sense when you have a flurry of alternative routes that can be used e.g. when you can go off highway to local roads that might be freer (even though they’ll be governed by more traffic lights).

However, anyone who lives in Lagos knows that this isn’t the case. If I live in Ajah, and you provide a service that tells me there’s slow traffic from before Palms Shopping Center to Lekki Phase II, what exactly are my options? And being everyone knows what time rush hour is, they kill time in the vicinity and start their home commute later in the day from 9pm.

So why exactly would I pay for this? What’s the value I get from a service telling me about a traffic situation I already know will be there, and I can do nothing about? I think it’s one of those services that sounds very ingenious in implementation, but the logistics are daunting, and the consumer uptake is just not there because it’s just not needed (that much).

I would suggest that you refocus the service to something folks might actually think of paying for, like real estate listings, visual classifieds, entertainment and buzz, etc.

By: Simon mcIntyre

Simon mcIntyre — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:41:53 +0000

Just a quick update on our service, we now provide updates via twitterand via facebook we also now have an online interface for interrogating our database with regards to historical information (http://traffic.enownow.com/historical.php)

By: What are the benefits of bulk SMS? | Email List Service Providers

What are the benefits of bulk SMS? | Email List Service Providers — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 14:35:31 +0000

[...] Traffic Updates by SMS in Nigeria (whiteafrican.com) [...]

By: Simon Smethurst-McIntyre

Simon Smethurst-McIntyre — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:54:05 +0000

We’re actually going to be collaborating with beat 99.9 FM and Classic 97 FM. Listen out for it on the next few weeks.

In conjuction with them we’ll also be launching an FM RDS Traffic Management Channel service for sat nav devices in the near future.

By: Brian Herbert

Brian Herbert — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:49:37 +0000

I’m really enjoying this discussion! I would like to see some collaboration between the radio station and anyone implementing this technology. Still, most people get their information from the radio and having them report on slower moving traffic, and not just specific traffic incidents, would be a great way to disseminate information.

By: Mbugua Njihia

Mbugua Njihia — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:08:38 +0000

“In Nigeria the networks will take anything between 40 and 75% of a premium SMS’s cost to a subscriber for themselves (pull or push) leaving you a tiny margin for profitability and driving the industry standard (and therefore what the networks will allow you) per SMS cost higher. ”
makes me go grrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

the idea of gps on taxis etc sounds workable, just gave us an idea of an additional module for Sembuse in the future. Crowdsourced and gps info would make the info more accurate.Maybe the firms that own all these billboards at roundabouts could invest in cams that allow them to monitor and they can them supply this info to interested parties, say a call center where pple would call or a traffic info service that updates route information every 5 minutes.If its a call the charge could be a one of flat fee for every call to an automated sys.

….just my thoughts

By: Oguns

Oguns — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:36:02 +0000

Yes i agree a combination of the various mean will mean delivering a good information and if its useful for me today, i will be willing to pull out my phone and send a traffic info in an sms to eNowNow.com since i know some one somewhere will do the same and might help my movement around the city…great ideal!

By: Simon mcIntyre

Simon mcIntyre — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:17:58 +0000

Thanks for the interest in the service and the suggestions, to answer a few things that people have considered

1) Crowd Sourcing is on our list of items to implement. People here already crowd source information socially regualrly getting in touch with friends, family members etc to report especially bad or out of the usual patterns of traffic (major accidents etc). The key challenge for any technology solution here is to replicate that social nature of information in the electronic realm, we’ve not cracked it yet but we’re getting there.
2) GPS is something we’re looking into, there are a number of tracked fleets in Lagos and we’re actually already in discussions with a few people around using this data to log average speeds on certain roads. It’s not a complicated tehchnical challenge but it is a more complicated data sharing and access challenge.
3) In the end I suspect we will use a combination of solutions as has been sugested, GPS for speed of updates, our own network of collectors for specific incidents, data from Lagos State’s own people and we hope one day information from Lagos State’s CCTV network.
4) Yes radio stations to provide limited traffic information, much of it comes from teh Lagos State Traffic Management Authorty (LASMA) we are also in talks with them about combining their internal data with the service. Again they tend to report incidents though, not the speed of traffic, plus it just looks cool overlaid on the map and you can’t visualise on the radio.