Tracing a path to knowledge? Indicative user impacts of introducing a public transport map in Dhaka, Bangladesh

• Main Authors: Zegras, P. Christopher (Contributor), Eros, Emily (Contributor), Butts, Kuan (Author), Resor, Elizabeth (Author), Kennedy, Stephen (Author), Ching, Albert (Author), Mamun, Muntasir (Author)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press, 2016-01-06T02:45:49Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

The smartphone exemplifies the rhetorical smart city movement. This paper examines one potential use of smartphone technology-mapping public transportation services in a megacity of the Global South. We examine the potential user impacts of introducing a smartphone-generated and analogue-delivered schematic bus map in Dhaka, Bangladesh. After distributing the map, we used a web-based survey to investigate impacts on users' knowledge, as measured by their stated understanding, navigation and perceptions of the system. While a small and biased sample, the results suggest that the map fills a knowledge gap, provides useful and valued information and may stimulate 'exploration' of the city and its bus system.
Singapore. National Research Foundation (Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology Center. Future Urban Mobility Program)