RhinoStreet is an alternative to help citizens mostly to have an idea of how much revenue is being made by the road tolls in the country, and juxtapose that with the figures the government presents. Armed with such information, citizens can push to have better, maintained roads and invariably also help prevent road accidents and other related occurrences.The platform would be web-based and allow contributors to share pictures of toll tickets they have bought, or enter amounts spent on toll tickets,while specifying the toll booth they bought it from. These entries would then be aggregated and analysed on a monthly basis considering monies generated at the individual toll booths, to have a sense of how much is being generated by the country's road tolls and mapped to the government's data to ensure accountability, and also ensure that roads in the country are repaired, improved, and maintained, as the open data got is a tool to drive policy-formation. This is believed to also create a data-driven culture which would enhance evidence-based decision-making and policy formation.

1. RhinoStreet – A
Crowdsourcing platform
for Road Toll monitoring
Dominic M. Kornu – 23.10.2019

2.  Roads are in a deplorable state even
though road tolls are paid by
commuters
 Government ‘accuses’ toll operators of
shortchanging it, which makes it
difficult to pay contractors
 Citizens believe there is lack of
accountability and transparency in the
running of the Road Fund
Problem Statement
RhinoStreet – A Crowdsourcing
platform for Road Toll monitoring

3. #FixOurRoadsNow
#CitiCBS
#PointOfView
Problem Statement
RhinoStreet – A Crowdsourcing
platform for Road Toll monitoring

4. The project seeks to:
 Ensure accountability and transparency by the
government, using open data
 Help reduce pilfering by the workers at the toll
booths
 Give citizens a voice in governance and policy
formation
 Improve digital literacy
 Create a data-driven culture
Objectives
RhinoStreet–ACrowdsourcing
platformforRoadTollmonitoring

5.  This research is designed to be exploratory
in nature, while being quantitative as well.
 The main approach taken is to use Open
Data.
 Availability and access, re-use and
redistribution, and universal participation
 The research team have had one-on-one
conversations with drivers and motorists
(from both the private and public sectors)
 Also secondary data was gathered from the
comments of listeners both on the radio and
social media about the deplorable state of
roads and how accountability is missing.
 A questionnaire was also designed to get
some responses to justify why this platform
is a welcome intervention.
Approach
RhinoStreet – A Crowdsourcing
platform for Road Toll monitoring

6. Approach (Cont’d)
RhinoStreet – A Crowdsourcing
platform for Road Toll monitoring
THINKS
SAYS DOES
FEELS
Roads are bad and need
fixing.
Government is not serious about their
safety and welfare
Pays tolls always
There’s no accountability and transparency
in running the Road Fund.
Not paying Road tolls again
Goes on demonstration to get
government’s attention.
It will be good to have an idea
of how much is generated
Open data can help push the
agenda to get roads fixed.

7.  RhinoStreet is a web-based platform and so
has the following technologies employed
HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP for the
interface and the back end operations.
 A user creates an account (i.e registers)
using their email, or Facebook account.
 An action is then chosen from three options:
upload image of ticket and give other
metadata; access visualization of entries
already made; and participate in a
forum/discussion.
 Duplicates would be dealt with using an
Images API. OCR tool would be integrated
to also read the serial numbers off the
tickets.
Tools, Apps, Methods, Concepts,
etc
RhinoStreet – A Crowdsourcing
platform for Road Toll monitoring
Components and functions of a
Crowdsourcing website/platform by Lars
Hetmank, 2013

8.  USSD short code for users without
smartphones to send the serial numbers on
the tickets they buy is also being integrated.
 For mockups and wireframing, the Balsamiq
software/platform was used..
Tools, Apps, Methods, Concepts,
etc (Cont’d)
RhinoStreet – A Crowdsourcing
platform for Road Toll monitoring
RhinoStreet’s Landing page
RhinoStreet’s Registration page

9. RhinoStreet has the following positives:
 Ensure accountability and transparency as regards the Roads
Fund
 Ensure roads are maintained as the citizenry would be armed
with data to push the agenda
 Improve digital literacy: Most of the users have smartphones
but do not know how to use them. This platform is going to help
them learn how to use them and also get some tips on being
digitally literate.
 Improve citizen engagement and activism
 Create a data-driven culture
Advantages
RhinoStreet – A Crowdsourcing
platform for Road Toll monitoring

10.  risk of non-cooperation from the
government agencies and telcos
 suffer from political interference as the
powers that be are not so enthused
Risks
RhinoStreet – A Crowdsourcing
platform for Road Toll monitoring

11. Thank You
Risks
RhinoStreet – A Crowdsourcing
platform for Road Toll monitoring

12. This presentation has been produced with the support of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation. The content of this
publication are the sole responsibility of the author, Ong2.0 – CISV, the University of Turin and its project partners and can in no way be
taken to reflect the views of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation.
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