MAPPING THE FUTURE: HOW ADDIS ABABA DIGITIZED ITS TRANSIT SYSTEM FROM THE GROUND UP
TEAM MEMBERS THAT WORKED ON MAPPING ADDIS ABABA:
AGRAW ALI BESHIR is an urban planner at World Resources Institute (WRI) Africa.
ALAZAR TECKLE is a digital mapping specialist and founder of AddisMap.
ESTHELYNE DUSABE is a transport specialist at WRI Africa.
IMAN ABUBAKER is an urban development expert at WRI Africa.
RABRA HIERPA is a software developer who helped lead data collection and mapping for Addis Ababa’s first GTFS transit dataset.
AGRAW ALI BESHIR is an urban planner at World Resources Institute (WRI) Africa.
ALAZAR TECKLE is a digital mapping specialist and founder of AddisMap.
ESTHELYNE DUSABE is a transport specialist at WRI Africa.
IMAN ABUBAKER is an urban development expert at WRI Africa.
RABRA HIERPA is a software developer who helped lead data collection and mapping for Addis Ababa’s first GTFS transit dataset.
COLLABORATORS:
AddisMap
Addis Ababa University
Addis Ababa Transport Authority
Transport for Cairo
World Resources Institute Africa (WRI)
AddisMap
Addis Ababa University
Addis Ababa Transport Authority
Transport for Cairo
World Resources Institute Africa (WRI)
“Data has been a huge concern for African cities,” says Agraw Ali, an urban planner at World Resources Institute (WRI) Africa. “Most lack appropriate data to represent their public transport services, which results in several hurdles for them to improve their services.”
At the heart of the effort were Agraw Ali, Alazar Tekle, and Rabira Hierpa—each with a personal stake in how Addis moves. Alazar, a longtime open-source mapping advocate, had spent more than a decade working on digital maps. Rabira, a recent computer science graduate, joined the project through WRI’s early data mapping initiatives, hoping to connect technology with civic impact. Agraw, a planner with roots in the city’s development challenges, helped steer the project with a focus on equity and local ownership.
LEARNING FROM NAIROBI, GROUNDING IN ADDIS
Needing essential data on their transit system, Addis Ababa’s Transport Authority asked World Resources Institute (WRI) Africa to help them learn the process of creating digital data. As a global research organization focused on cities, the WRI was familiar with a similar initiative in Nairobi, Kenya, undertaken by the Digital Matatus, and suggested using their methodology. To collect and format data, they would need to organize a team of students and young professionals. This led to a partnership with Addis Ababa University.
Incorporating local students was important to ensure that the knowledge building that came from both participating in the data collection and analyzing the data itself would remain in the community. This differs from the more common practice of hiring consultants to collect data––a practice that often results in reliance on outsiders for the development of an essential community resource. To support local capacity and avoid reinventing the wheel, WRI invited Transport for Cairo—a team with direct experience creating transport data in an international standard for Cairo, Egypt—to serve as technical advisors to the team.
This model of cross-city knowledge sharing illustrates the power of building networks to generate and support initiatives worldwide. Learning from Cairo’s experience, the Addis team was able to leapfrog early technical hurdles and focus on building tools tailored to its own context. It’s an important reminder that open-source infrastructures and south-south collaboration can help cities move faster and further—together.
To understand why this mattered, you have to picture Addis Ababa.
Sprawled across a series of hills at an elevation of over 2,300 meters, Addis is one of Africa’s largest and fastest-growing urban centers. Its population of more than 5 million is projected to nearly double in the coming decades. Its streets are dense with life: formal housing, interwoven with informal settlements, and narrow roads packed with pedestrians, vendors, taxis, and livestock.
The city’s public transit network is a hybrid. The formal bus system (originally two agencies, Anbessa City Bus and Sheger Mass Transport, now consolidated under the Sheger name) is managed by the government. Its large buses operate on fixed routes and offer the city’s most affordable fares. Minibuses, by contrast, operate as a demand-based paratransit system. Run by private individuals or associations, they are faster, more direct, and slightly more expensive. An average ride on a minibus might cost 10 to 15 birr (roughly $0.20 to $0.30 USD), not insignificant in a city where average monthly incomes hover between 3,000 and 4,000 birr (about $50 to 75 USD).
FOURTY-ONE STUDENTS, ONE MAP
Armed with Android phones and GPS trackers, the team of 41 students fanned out across the city to collect detailed route and schedule data from both formal bus and informal minibus operators. It wasn’t easy. “The rainy season made it hard to collect accurate GPS signals,” Rabira notes, but the team persisted, “revisiting routes that had to be redone.”
The team faced additional barriers, from suspicious security officers to long ride times to commuting home after dark. Despite these, they successfully compiled the data into the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS)—a global standard used to power trip planning apps and public transit dashboards. By the end of the project, Addis Ababa had become part of a small network of African cities to have a GTFS-compliant map of both its formal and informal transport systems. This small network would grow across Africa, with Addis leading the way.
A SECOND WAVE: MADE IN ADDIS
A second mapping initiative launched in 2023, guided by Alazar Tekle and his team from AddisMap. A local Ethiopian mapping initiative, AddisMap began more than fifteen years earlier to promote open-source mapping—especially using OpenStreetMap—for the city of Addis Ababa. Funded by WRI’s Digital Transport 4 Africa Innovation Challenge, the update aimed to reflect the rapid changes in the city’s mobility landscape. Construction, new routes, and shifts in service patterns made regular updates necessary. This time, the team trained staff from the Addis Ababa Transport Bureau to collect the data, thereby embedding capacity within the city to ensure ongoing maintenance.
“A major winning point was enabling the capacity of the Transport Bureau operators,” says Alazar. “We helped field workers become data collectors. They’re already out there every day, so it made perfect sense.”
The team also developed AddisMap Transit, a trip-planning app that lets residents search routes, view maps, and get estimated travel times. Built on open-source software from the Trufi framework and OpenTripPlanner, the app has been downloaded thousands of times. Gathering user feedback remains a challenge, but the team has organized street campaigns and live demos to connect with riders and improve the interface.
“We used to see the London bus map and other systems across Europe and we were jealous,” Alazar remembers. “Coming a long way from that and being able to digitize and make [Addis transit] accessible…that’s a huge achievement.”
But the impact extends well beyond the app itself. Rabira gives an example of how the data has inspired others: “I have a friend who co-founded a mapping service based on the data we collected. They’re now working on an addressing system for the Ethiopian postal office.”
Today, this extended mapping effort provides a foundation for smart mobility in Addis Ababa—a foundation that can support future electric bus fleets, bike infrastructure, and data-driven policymaking. It also provides a powerful model for other cities on the continent, of a homegrown, open-source, multi-sector effort that digitizes a city’s daily rhythms and makes them navigable for all.
“Now the city understands the value of having digital, standardized data,” Agraw confirms. “They’ve since received support from donors like the World Bank to digitize their whole system, including depots and ticketing.”
Thanks to this project, Addis Ababa doesn’t just move, it maps its future.
Armed with Android phones and GPS trackers, the team of 41 students fanned out across the city to collect detailed route and schedule data from both formal bus and informal minibus operators. It wasn’t easy. “The rainy season made it hard to collect accurate GPS signals,” Rabira notes, but the team persisted, “revisiting routes that had to be redone.”
The team faced additional barriers, from suspicious security officers to long ride times to commuting home after dark. Despite these, they successfully compiled the data into the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS)—a global standard used to power trip planning apps and public transit dashboards. By the end of the project, Addis Ababa had become part of a small network of African cities to have a GTFS-compliant map of both its formal and informal transport systems. This small network would grow across Africa, with Addis leading the way.
A SECOND WAVE: MADE IN ADDIS
A second mapping initiative launched in 2023, guided by Alazar Tekle and his team from AddisMap. A local Ethiopian mapping initiative, AddisMap began more than fifteen years earlier to promote open-source mapping—especially using OpenStreetMap—for the city of Addis Ababa. Funded by WRI’s Digital Transport 4 Africa Innovation Challenge, the update aimed to reflect the rapid changes in the city’s mobility landscape. Construction, new routes, and shifts in service patterns made regular updates necessary. This time, the team trained staff from the Addis Ababa Transport Bureau to collect the data, thereby embedding capacity within the city to ensure ongoing maintenance.
“A major winning point was enabling the capacity of the Transport Bureau operators,” says Alazar. “We helped field workers become data collectors. They’re already out there every day, so it made perfect sense.”
The team also developed AddisMap Transit, a trip-planning app that lets residents search routes, view maps, and get estimated travel times. Built on open-source software from the Trufi framework and OpenTripPlanner, the app has been downloaded thousands of times. Gathering user feedback remains a challenge, but the team has organized street campaigns and live demos to connect with riders and improve the interface.
“We used to see the London bus map and other systems across Europe and we were jealous,” Alazar remembers. “Coming a long way from that and being able to digitize and make [Addis transit] accessible…that’s a huge achievement.”
But the impact extends well beyond the app itself. Rabira gives an example of how the data has inspired others: “I have a friend who co-founded a mapping service based on the data we collected. They’re now working on an addressing system for the Ethiopian postal office.”
Today, this extended mapping effort provides a foundation for smart mobility in Addis Ababa—a foundation that can support future electric bus fleets, bike infrastructure, and data-driven policymaking. It also provides a powerful model for other cities on the continent, of a homegrown, open-source, multi-sector effort that digitizes a city’s daily rhythms and makes them navigable for all.
“Now the city understands the value of having digital, standardized data,” Agraw confirms. “They’ve since received support from donors like the World Bank to digitize their whole system, including depots and ticketing.”
Thanks to this project, Addis Ababa doesn’t just move, it maps its future.