GrabTaxi, the largest mobile taxi booking app firm in Southeast Asia, announced Monday it has joined hands with the World Bank to study solutions for improving traffic and ease congestion in several regional countries, including Viet Nam.

The two will work to figure out ways to prevent traffic gridlocks and increase road safety in big cities where the taxi-hailing app is present, including Cebu, Manila, Davao City, Jakarta, Ha Noi, and Ho Chi Minh City.

Motorcycles, buses, and cars cause traffic congestion on a road in Ho Chi Minh City.

Traffic congestion and road safety are affecting the life quality and economy of taxi drivers and passengers in developing countries, including Viet Nam, according to GrabTaxi.

GrabTaxi and the World Bank will provide an open-source platform called OpenTraffic for transport authorities in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Viet Nam, allowing them to monitor traffic in real time and collect road safety data.

With the collected data, the transport authorities will be able to make the right policies to better manage the traffic.

The cooperation is a response to the Open Transport Initiative launched by the World Bank Group’s Transport and ICT Global Practice, which is aimed at building safer, cleaner, and cheaper traffic systems.

GrabTaxi, considered the biggest rival of ridesharing app Uber in Southeast Asia, is working with transport authorities in 20 big cities in six countries, including Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, and Viet Nam, where the taxi-hailing app is online.

(Source: tuoitrenews)