Implementation of a Web-Based Real-Time Public Bus Tracking System for Lusaka

Passengers who travel by bus in Lusaka often lack dependable, route-specific information about where a bus is and when it will reach their stop. This project, undertaken by a group of three students, set out to implement a web-based real-time public bus tracking system for Lusaka that gives passengers route-based journey information and an estimated arrival time, and gives drivers a view of the passengers waiting along their route. The project began from a proposal that assumed simulated GPS data. After supervisor feedback, the design was changed to use real coordinates and speed from a driver’s GPS-enabled mobile device. Development was iterative and incremental, informed by requirements analysis, a study of the interaction concepts of the Yango application adapted to predefined bus routes, and a review of related systems. The system was built as a web application with browser interfaces for passengers and drivers and a Django REST Framework server. It imports static GTFS route, stop, trip and stop-time data, authorises drivers to operate their assigned buses, maintains the trip, position, speed and status of each bus from its GPS updates, manages passengers’ waiting requests, and estimates arrival times from road durations obtained from the OSRM routing service. It was verified functionally through automated tests of the server-side logic and manual checks of the deployed passenger and driver flows. The three intended features, Real-Time Bus Tracking, Journey Planning and Arrival Time Prediction, were implemented at prototype level. The evidence is limited. No operational bus fleet or operator data feed was available, so the GPS positions could not be verified as those of an operating bus, and no field trial, user study or performance benchmark was carried out. The system is therefore a verified prototype, not a proven reduction in waiting time.