The potential of social media to demarcate the catchment of commuters of the Gautrain public transit system

Abstract: The paper systematically analyses the phenomena of being smart in light of the growth of information and communications technology being incorporation into urban development. In a setting where technological advancements are taking hold of every aspect of peoples’ lives this paper explores the potential of geographical location data derived from social media platforms can be used to demarcate the catchment area of the Gautrain. The study demonstrates how social media data can be used to analyse the variations in the catchment area of the various nodes with the Gautrain system, with the use of word counts and linguistic measures to interpret posts made on web 2.0. Consequently the users’ opinions about the Gautrain were used to interprete the variations in volumes of commuters over a 6 month period. The results of the study will assist in identifying areas of potential expansion and areas in need of intervention, hence highlighting points of interest within Gauteng catchment area