A Student Team Taking on Medan's Transport Gaps
Medan's public minibus network, known locally as angkot, moves thousands of residents daily, yet reliable route information has been hard to come by and the experience of using it varies sharply depending on who you are. A student-led initiative called Transgo Medan is working to change that, producing a visual map of angkot routes across the city while pushing for a system that is safer for women and genuinely accessible to people with disabilities.
The project runs from January to July 2026 as part of the Future Leaders in Sustainable Transport (FIRST) programme, a national initiative operating across six Indonesian cities. FIRST is coordinated by the World Resources Institute (WRI) Indonesia and the Institute for Natural Resources, Energy, and Environmental Management (IREEM), with support from UK PACT (Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions). As first reported by QS GEN, Medan is one of the six participating cities.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration at the Core
The Transgo Medan team consists of five students: Muaz Al Fatah Fadhani, Zaky Atila C. Hutabarat, Putri Wadda Nabila, Amanda Wibowo, and Widya Suci Yulandari. They come from different academic programmes and universities, including the Architecture Programme at Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU). That mix of disciplines, spanning communication, urban planning, and environmental studies, allows the team to approach public transport from multiple angles rather than a single technical lens.
Mentoring the group is Dr. Yovita Sabarina Sitepu, Head of the Communication Studies Programme at USU's Faculty of Social and Political Sciences. Her role goes beyond academic supervision. She guides the research process, evaluates campaign materials, connects the students with relevant partners, and supports their fieldwork directly.
What the Project Actually Does
The team's activities are practical and public-facing. They run social media campaigns to raise awareness of sustainable transport, conducted a mini field study during a Car-Free Day event in Medan, and are developing the visual angkot route map itself. The map is intended to give riders, including those who currently avoid public transport because of unclear information or safety concerns, a clearer picture of how to get around.
Dr. Yovita has been direct about the broader goal. She has expressed hope that more Medan residents will recognise the importance of reducing carbon emissions, and that government will follow through with transport infrastructure that is both environmentally sound and inclusive. Student-led movements engaging with environmental issues in a hands-on way remain relatively rare in the city, which is part of what makes this project notable.
The initiative operates under the motto "Connecting Roads, Easing Journeys," framing route clarity not as a technical nicety but as a matter of civic equity.
Why It Matters for Hosts
Independent accommodation operators in Medan often field questions from guests about how to get around without a private vehicle or ride-hail app. A publicly available, accurate angkot route map would give hosts a concrete resource to share, making it easier to recommend affordable local transport and position their property as genuinely accessible to budget-conscious or car-free travelers. Operators who follow the Transgo Medan project on social media will be among the first to access the finished map and can incorporate it into their guest communications as soon as it is released.
Details about the Transgo Medan project and the FIRST programme were first reported by QS GEN, published 28 July 2026.
First reported by Medan Travel.