Paper short abstract:

This paper designs a digital transport platform which integrates a formal government funded bus rapid transport system with an informal mini-bus taxi system. The paper argues that bus stations and mini-bus taxi stops play an important role in the innovation of Johannesburg's public transportation.

Paper long abstract:

What if the categories 'formal' and 'informal' did not exist in our urban lexicon? What if all we saw was a city, a hodge-podge of interrelated economic activities some more successful than others? How would suspending these binary lenses allow us to imagine, create and design a transport system in Johannesburg? Drawing on the workings of the Rea Vaya, a bus rapid transport system with bus stations strategically located on the main internal road arteries of the city and mini-bus taxi systems in inner-city Johannesburg, this paper designs a digital transport platform that integrates the Rea Vaya and mini-bus taxis in Johannesburg. The Indlela digital platform provides consumers with multiple payment options, comprehensive transportation information, route planning opportunities and alert notifications to fulfill their journeys within the city. By simulating this platform, this research provides a potential policy solution to Johannesburg's fragmented transport system. It also integrates the formal and informal divides through which we conceptualize the city. A city in which the Rea Vaya - a government funded transportation system - is considered formal, while the mini-bus taxi industry operated by individuals is considered informal. Indeed suspending these binaries allows us, if only for a moment, to be free of our value judgments of these categories: where formal systems are considered superior and organized, and informal one chaotic and inferior. Taking off our bifurcated lenses enables innovation that draws on the best aspects of both these systems.