Helping frontline staff use public transport safely in Bogotá

Congratulations to Andres Castillo, Juan Guillermo Acosta and Luis Javier Bautista (ex-Steer colleague) from our Bogota team, for winning first place in the #MOVID19 Hackathon!

The Hackathon, which took place on 23 March and was sponsored by several organisations including the Government of Bogota, focused on providing solutions to the challenge of running a good public transport service in Bogota without increasing the risk of spreading COVID-19 among transport users.

Analysing data from the 2019 mobility survey of journeys made by essential health workers and optimising currently running bus services, the team developed an online service that enables health workers to request public transport in advance.

As a result of their win, our Bogota team are now working together with the local administration on a pilot implementation of this idea in order to identify the travel needs of staff at a major city hospital and propose alternative routes that will guarantee all frontline staff can use public transport services over the coming weeks.