UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

Concept Note
Title: Survey & Modelling Of Harare’s Public
Transportation System Case Study: Zimbabwe
United Passenger Company (ZUPCO)
Proposed Supervisors: Prof. L. Vassileva
Mr. W. Gumindoga

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Student Name: Xavier. T. Chidewe

Student Registration Number: R174635K

26 May 2021

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Introduction and Background
Travelling within Harare using the public transportation systems that are currently in place is
difficult. This difficulty is characterized by long lines at bus terminuses, where majority of
the people in these long lines will be commuting members of the public and students coming
from various institutions of learning within Harare. This is a point of distress for the users of
public transportation systems, which has led to the prominent rise of illegal taxis that go by
the name mushika mushika in Harare. The illegal taxi drivers will be driving recklessly which
endangers the safety of the motoring public that shares the roads, pedestrians and their
passengers, which are usually over the capacity of the illegal taxi they will be using.

This project aims to investigate the causes of the inadequate public transportation system
within the country’s capital city of Harare and come up with a model of an adequate
transportation system.

Problem Statement
Public transportation within the capital city of Zimbabwe, is inadequate to efficiently service
the commuting public. This is shown by the long winding queues of people that are seen
every day at various bus terminals. Due to the high demand that is met with inadequate
supply, users have to wait for periods of 30 minutes or longer at a bus terminus before getting
a bus to transport to their desired destination.

Justification
The results of a survey of the current system of public transportation in Harare will be
analyzed to identify the issues making it inadequate for the travelling public in Harare. A
model to solve the issues identified from the survey can be created using the findings of the
survey.

Objectives
Main Objective:
To survey and model an efficient public transportation system for Harare, Zimbabwe.

Specific Objectives
 To determine the current public transportation demand characteristics within Harare.
 To forecast the public transportation demand within Harare for the year of 2022.

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  To determine the current public transportation supply characteristics within Harare.
 To create a public transportation model that satisfies the forecast demand
characteristics with a satisfactory factor of safety.

Project Scope
This project’s aim is to create a public transportation model that may be used within Harare
to improve ease of travel via public transportation. This will be achieved by:

 Collecting data on the former and current public transportation demand and supply
characteristics within Harare.
 Forecasting the public transportation demand within Harare for the year of 2022.
 Grouping and analyzing the public transportation demand and supply characteristics
within Harare.
 Creating a model of a public transportation system that can sustain the forecast public
transportation demand.

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