The network isn't written down
In most paratransit cities no one holds a list of routes, stops or terminals. Before anyone can plan, the network has to be found on the street.
From Street Reality to Strategic Intelligence
Behind every overcrowded matatu and hand-painted route sign lies critical transit intelligence. Our platform captures this data with precision and speed, creating the GTFS feeds, datasets, and strategic insights that transform how cities move.
The problem
Why transit data is hard to get right
Field data that won't hold up
Surveys started in the wrong place or at the wrong time, and records lost on the way back, surface weeks later in cleaning — too late to collect again.
Large teams, no overview
Dozens of researchers coordinated over chat groups and spreadsheets: no one can see who is where, who is late, or what is left to collect.
What you can run
Network surveys and traffic counts, on one platform
Each survey family has its own planning, field app and review — not a generic form with different labels.
Network surveys
Find the routes, ride them end to end, and time their departures — to build a network model of a city's paratransit.
- Route identification at terminals
- Onboard surveys: trace, stops, boardings
- Frequency surveys: departures and headways
Traffic counts
Classified vehicle counts at junctions and corridors where there are no cameras, planned and staffed post by post.
- Counting locations on real road geometry
- Schemes for when and how often
- Every post staffed and followed
Census surveys
Questionnaire campaigns in geofenced zones, with quotas.
How a programme runs
From plan to network model, in one system
Five stages, each with the screens that do the work.
- 01
Plan
Coverage targets by route and time, and a dispatch planner that flags overloaded days and impossible orders before anyone leaves.
- Coverage targets per route and interval
- A day plan per researcher
- Warnings before the day starts
- 02
Collect
Observer, the field app: guided surveys that start only at the right place and time, and keep every record offline.
- Surveys open on arrival
- Every stop, boarding and departure
- Nothing lost without signal
- 03
Monitor
Field Ops shows every researcher on a live map, and who is late, at risk or missing — while it can still be fixed.
- An attention list, ranked
- A case's full story
- Replay a researcher's track
- 04
Validate
Every onboard trip is reviewed — its trace, its stops — and accepted or rejected before it reaches you.
- Trace and stops side by side
- Accept or reject, with a reason
- Map-matched to the road network
- 05
Deliver
A network model of routes, terminals and stops, with headways from frequency surveys and origin–destination flows from onboard surveys.
- Routes, terminals and stops
- Headway distributions
- Origin–destination flows
- 01
Plan
Coverage targets by route and time, and a dispatch planner that flags overloaded days and impossible orders before anyone leaves.
- 02
Collect
Observer, the field app: guided surveys that start only at the right place and time, and keep every record offline.
- 03
Monitor
Field Ops shows every researcher on a live map, and who is late, at risk or missing — while it can still be fixed.
- 04
Validate
Every onboard trip is reviewed — its trace, its stops — and accepted or rejected before it reaches you.
- 05
Deliver
A network model of routes, terminals and stops, with headways from frequency surveys and origin–destination flows from onboard surveys.
Observer, the field app
Field data you can trust — checked where it is collected
At the right place
A survey starts at its terminal — or not at all.
At the right time
Every observation carries a time you can rely on.
Nothing lost
Built for places with no signal.
Every record accountable
Know who recorded what — and review it.
Built and used by
RouteLab is the system Transport for Cairo built and uses to run its own surveys — supported by the engineers who build it.
Run your next survey programme on RouteLab
Start in the app, or tell us about your project and we'll walk you through it.