1001 Smart Cities
🇬🇭 Accra

AccraMobile: Mapping the Trotro Network

🤖 AI-generated summary · ◆ 7 sourced claims · 🔎 Last verified

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

7 sourced claims on this page, none individually verified yet — turn on “Sources in the text” to see each one.

How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page

✎ Corrected 27 Aug 2026 Record revised. · 2 revisions in all What changed →

The GTFS export is still downloadable. Its service calendar ran out on 31 January 2020, and nobody has re-surveyed a route since 2017: the trotro network survives because volunteers hold it, not an agency.

Outcome🎯 Succeeded
Evidence🏛️ Official
what does this mean?The strongest source is the operator's or the city's own reporting — an official report, dataset or press release. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →
Run byAccra Metropolitan Assembly - Department of Transport (with AFD)
Scale🏙️ City-wide
FundingAgence Francaise de Developpement (AFD)

Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,167 documented projects · 🏙️ 7 more in Accra · 🚌 Public transport guide · 🚲 Mobility projects

Almost 80% of motorised trips in Accra are made on trotros, 10-to-19-seat minibuses run by private operators along fixed lines and stops. In 2015 Ghana gave four Accra municipalities their own transport departments, and Concordia University students identified the roughly 300 lines that make up the network and assessed the level of service on 60 of them. A second campaign from 19 July to late September 2017, run with the consultancy Transitec, the Jungle Bus team, the French development agency AFD and Ghana's OpenStreetMap community, sent six contributors into the field to record stops and routes directly into OpenStreetMap; a GTFS feed is generated from that data with OSM2GTFS.

Completed 📅 2015–2017

📊 Impact

The network is in OpenStreetMap, where Ghana's mapping community still holds it, and the derived GTFS is published in the World Bank's data catalogue and remains downloadable — it is the basis of the Trotro App, a passenger app maintained by the Trufi Association. What it no longer describes is the present: the feed served today carries a service calendar that ran out on 31 January 2020, and no route has been re-surveyed since 2017.

🎓 Lesson

The mapping was funded as a project, not as a duty, and nobody was left holding it. The instructive part is what survived anyway: the data outlived its funder because it was put somewhere anyone can edit, and an app still runs on it. The part that did not survive is the thing only an agency can do — going back out to check whether the routes still exist.

🚲 MobilityPublic transportOpen data

Sources

↗ World Bank Data Catalog - Accra, Ghana: General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS)Updated 19 January 2023The catalogue record under which the derived GTFS is published. The page carries no publication date, only a revision stamp of 2023-01-19.
↗ OpenStreetMap Wiki - AccraMobile3The project page documenting the 2017 field campaign, its partners and the mapping protocol. A continuously edited wiki page with no publication date.
↗ La Fabrique des Mobilites - Accra MobilityA project record describing the three phases and the share of motorised trips carried by trotros. A continuously edited wiki page with no publication date.
↗ Transitland - Accra Trotro GTFS feed (currency check)A feed registry entry, used to check the service calendar of the feed served today. No publication date is recorded for this page.
↗ GitHub - AFDLab4Dev/AccraMobility (project data repository)AFD's own repository for 'the project Accra Mobility (previously Accra Mobile)': maps, GTFS and papers. The repository is marked deprecated and points onward to DigitalTransport4Africa's GitLab. No publication date is recorded for this page.
Show 1 more sourcesShow fewer
↗ Trufi Association - Trotro App, AccraPublished 22 November 2021The community journey planner built on the AccraMobile3 OpenStreetMap data, launched 2019 and described as 'mapped, developed, and updated by the Accra OpenStreetMap community'. Nothing in this entry rests on the app-store listings it links to.
Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 7 claims with their sources · the forensic record

Evidence Passport · public beta 7 addressable claims, 6 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The passport is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.

Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 7

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-d8c36da283e9be95 quantitative
Almost 80% of motorised trips in Accra are made on trotros, 10-to-19-seat minibuses run by private operators along fixed lines and stops
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The project record states that in Accra almost 80 per cent of motorised trips use trotro lines, and describes the vehicles as 10 to 19-seater minibuses operated by private operators organised along stops and fixed lines.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. La Fabrique des Mobilites - Accra Mobility
Claim 2 clm-8c694ab0a99f0eb3 quantitative
In 2015 Ghana gave four Accra municipalities their own transport departments, and Concordia University students identified the roughly 300 lines that make up the network and assessed the level of service on 60 of them
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The record states that in 2015 Ghana's government provided Departments of Transport in four municipalities of Accra, and that in phases 1 and 2 Concordia University students identified the routes and the 300 lines composing the network and then qualified the level of service for 60 of those lines.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. La Fabrique des Mobilites - Accra Mobility
Claim 3 clm-3bcd44bee7c711b2 quantitative
A second campaign from 19 July to late September 2017, run with the consultancy Transitec, the Jungle Bus team, the French development agency AFD and Ghana's OpenStreetMap community, sent six contributors into the field to record stops and routes directly into OpenStreetMap; a GTFS feed is generated from that data with OSM2GTFS
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The project page states AccraMobile3 was launched in July 2017 to map all Accra's trotro lines into OpenStreetMap for the Department of Transport, names the Jungle Bus team, AFD, Transitec and the local OSM community, dates field collection from 19 July to late September, records that bus stops were collected in the field by six OSM contributors, and states a GTFS is created from the data with OSM2GTFS.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. OpenStreetMap Wiki - AccraMobile3
Claim 4 clm-8db001e4d9f6d255 descriptive
The network is in OpenStreetMap, where Ghana's mapping community still holds it, and the derived GTFS is published in the World Bank's data catalogue and remains downloadable
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The project page records the data as living directly in OpenStreetMap with the local community as a partner; the World Bank catalogue publishes the derived GTFS, and the project repository holds the project data.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. OpenStreetMap Wiki - AccraMobile3
  2. World Bank Data Catalog - Accra, Ghana: General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS)
  3. GitHub - AFDLab4Dev/AccraMobility (project data repository)
Claim 5 clm-ae3f2cb5c45e298b descriptive
it is the basis of the Trotro App, a passenger app maintained by the Trufi Association
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Trufi Association lists the Trotro App for Accra as one of its projects, an app for navigating Accra by public transport.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Trufi Association - Trotro App, Accra
Claim 6 clm-2f3e77615495db1c quantitative
the feed served today carries a service calendar that ran out on 31 January 2020, and no route has been re-surveyed since 2017
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The feed registry entry shows the served feed's service calendar ending on 31 January 2020; the project page documents the 2017 campaign as the field survey and records no later one.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Transitland - Accra Trotro GTFS feed (currency check)
  2. OpenStreetMap Wiki - AccraMobile3
Claim 7 clm-4568a69cc229a4bf descriptive
the data outlived its funder because it was put somewhere anyone can edit, and an app still runs on it
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The project deliberately placed the network in OpenStreetMap rather than in an agency system, and the Trufi Association's passenger app is built on it.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. OpenStreetMap Wiki - AccraMobile3
  2. Trufi Association - Trotro App, Accra
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-08-27-editorial-review effective 2026-08-01 · created 2026-08-27

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:993a992162818607cdfd8c077e2ee6e29917753c8f75d12a110f471ad5fb2dad
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
7
of 7 claims mapped
6
source dossiers
1
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
Accra Metropolitan Assembly - Department of Transport (with AFD)
Actor types
city-government
Funding model
grant
Funding description
Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD)
Cost
Not recorded
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

6 source dossiers

World Bank Data Catalog - Accra, Ghana: General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) datacatalog.worldbank.org · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-2844ab14ba680aca
Publisher
Name not classified · datacatalog.worldbank.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
2023-01-19
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-01
Dossier created
2026-08-27
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The catalogue record under which the derived GTFS is published. The page carries no publication date, only a revision stamp of 2023-01-19.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
OpenStreetMap Wiki - AccraMobile3 wiki.openstreetmap.org · 4 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-10b09f400d09c8ea
Publisher
Name not classified · wiki.openstreetmap.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-01
Dossier created
2026-08-27
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The project page documenting the 2017 field campaign, its partners and the mapping protocol. A continuously edited wiki page with no publication date.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
La Fabrique des Mobilites - Accra Mobility wiki.lafabriquedesmobilites.fr · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-630cbec950e3b541
Publisher
Name not classified · wiki.lafabriquedesmobilites.fr
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-01
Dossier created
2026-08-27
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

A project record describing the three phases and the share of motorised trips carried by trotros. A continuously edited wiki page with no publication date.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Transitland - Accra Trotro GTFS feed (currency check) transit.land · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-dc984be4605e8fba
Publisher
Name not classified · transit.land
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-01
Dossier created
2026-08-27
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

A feed registry entry, used to check the service calendar of the feed served today. No publication date is recorded for this page.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
GitHub - AFDLab4Dev/AccraMobility (project data repository) github.com · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-aec6b3b49478ced5
Publisher
Name not classified · github.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-01
Dossier created
2026-08-27
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

AFD's own repository for 'the project Accra Mobility (previously Accra Mobile)': maps, GTFS and papers. The repository is marked deprecated and points onward to DigitalTransport4Africa's GitLab. No publication date is recorded for this page.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Trufi Association - Trotro App, Accra trufi-association.org · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-286005af3358fc3c
Publisher
Name not classified · trufi-association.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2021-11-22
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-01
Dossier created
2026-08-27
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The community journey planner built on the AccraMobile3 OpenStreetMap data, launched 2019 and described as 'mapped, developed, and updated by the Accra OpenStreetMap community'. Nothing in this entry rests on the app-store listings it links to.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Known limits of this passport
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.

Continue exploring

Compare this project

🇰🇪 Digital Matatus Open Mapping Framework · Nairobi Same technique, opposite afterlife: Nairobi's feed is still maintained; Accra's stopped when the consultants left. 🇬🇭 Aayalolo: Accra's BRT That Became a Quality Bus Service · Accra Two answers to the same trotro network in the same city - map it, or try to replace it. 🇰🇪 The Matatu Cash Light Fare Mandate · Nairobi Both digitised informal minibus networks without touching how drivers get paid — Accra mapped routes, Nairobi tried cards.

Explore the wider context

🔑 Your Smart City Is Owned by Someone Else📖 GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification)📖 Building performance standard (BPS)📖 Bus rapid transit (BRT)
📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “AccraMobile: Mapping the Trotro Network” — Accra, Ghana. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/accra-open-transit/ (last verified 2026-08-01). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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