In June this year Google bought Waze a popular real time crowd sourced traffic app, for over $ 1.1 bn. A small group of 8 developers and graphic designers at Hive Colab have a developed a mobile web app based on the same idea for the local market. Roadconexion is a new mobile web application that lets you access real-time traffic information on all major roads and the app is currently for use in Uganda only.
The mobile web App which first won the Tech4Governance hackathon last month has been launched today and Lynn Asiimwe, the lead developer on the project said she hates being in traffic and that’s the reason why they built the App. The App currently runs on all major mobile browsers and lets mobile road users submit road status such as road repairs, accidents, traffic jam on almost any road mapped on Google maps. User’s simply login using their Twitter or Facebook accounts for the first time, after which they receive real-time traffic information from other road users.
Mid this year we saw Ma3route a Kenyan based real time crowd sourced traffic silimar app won the Pivot East Competition in the Mobile Utilities category. And we also hope Roadconexion will be boasted by the local Ugandan population. Every web App has prospects for a native mobile app and Roadconexion is no exception, the team hopes to roll out Android and iOS versions of the App with in the coming weeks and monetize once they reach critical mass of users.
The app allows seamless login with twitter or Facebook plus an option of signing in with a Roadconexion account. Basically you will rely on the data given by several users about traffic jam, accidents and other road related incidents. The draw back here of course is accuracy of the information people post. So just be honest while posting any information. Currently the app is full of test reports since it has just gotten out of beta and we look forward to see it evolve.
To Get started visit www.roadconexion.com on your mobile device or tweet your traffic updates with the hashtag #rdxug and the App will automatically pick them up. Also follow them on Twitter and Facebook. You can click to expand in the gallery above for more about the app UI.
