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'ICT Enabled Pan-City Mega-Carpool' a 'negative cost' solution to traffic congestion in a big city 1. Introduction
Traffic congestion is among the top problems of big cities, not just in India but in most developed/developing countries. The problem is especially acute in cities which did not plan mass rapid transit system (MRTS) during early stage of growth, but later have experienced unexpectedly high organic growth, by which time adequate space is not available to widen roads or set up MRTS solutions. Traffic congestion has several impacts, the main ones being: - Loss of precious man hours in traffic snarls - Loss of precious fuel burnt in idling and crawling vehicles - Vehicular pollution This concept paper proposes a Pan-City 'Mega' Carpool (PCMC) to reduce traffic congestion and vehicular pollution by 50% or more. In addition, the Pan-City 'mega' carpool supplements the public transport system and provides significant diversification benefit against any disruption in public transport due to a terrorist attack or labor unrest. Although the mega carpool scheme proposed here gives examples from Delhi/NCR, it can be implemented in any large urban area of the world where cars are used as a major mode of transport. The scheme has been called Pan-Delhi Mega Carpool (PDMC) Scheme when referred in specific context of Delhi/NCR.
roads, increase traffic speed, and cut down fuel consumption by more than 50 per cent. The maximum effect will be on the vehicular air pollution, which will reduce by more than 50% due to combined effect of reduced number of vehicles and increased traffic speed. The road space saved from cars can be utilized to ply additional buses, thereby strengthening the public Transport system. Apart from fuel savings, the scheme saves wear and tear of vehicles and also reduces driving stress for motorists. The scheme also offers immense social/economical networking opportunities to participants. The pressure on the city government to widen roads, construct more parking lots, and bring costly Mass Rapid Transport solutions would also decrease. The Federal government also benefits in terms of reduced oil subsidy, and oil import bills. The proposed pan-City Mega carpool is therefore a win-win for all key stakeholders - bus commuters, car commuters, government, and general public.
5. Why the existing 'micro' carpools have had only limited success
The present system of about 2 to 5 member 'micro' carpools has several drawbacks/shortcomings due to which car pooling has remain restricted in its spread, in spite of its significant benefits. As discussed later in this paper, the proposed pan-city Carpool removes the short-comings of a micro-pool by removing its basic requirement of 'consistent partners' and thus makes a large-scale adoption of carpooling feasible for an average car-owner. The drawbacks/shortcomings of the existing method of micro carpools are as under. (i) Safety issue: Sharing car with a stranger with unverified credentials can pose serious risk to the life and property of a commuter. Therefore, unless the partners know each other well, they are hesitant to join a carpool. (ii) It is difficult to find reliable partners with consistently matching travel needs: The present system requires some one interested in setting a micro car-pool to find about 3 to 4 car-pool partners who A) Are reliable in all respects and B) Have consistent and matching travel needs characterized by: a) They should live in same/nearby/along-the-way localities. b) They should have their work destination in same/nearby/along-the-way localities on a consistent basis. c) Their timings of going to work as well as of coming back from work should match with each other on a consistent basis. The difficulty in finding such suitable partners is considerable and insurmountable for most people, especially because urban residents have very limited interaction outside work situations. Only the car owners who work in big organizations may be able to find suitable partners living in their locality and working in their organization, with some help from their HR/CSR departments. In fact, car pooling is presently by and large restricted to such persons.
There are websites that have come up during last 3 to 4 years trying to set up carpools, but success of these websites has been very limited. The carpool websites may never be able to realize full potential of ridesharing, because they are promoting a fundamentally restrictive concept - micro carpools. (iii) Unreasonable consistency demand: The micro carpool expects its members to have a rigid and repetitive travel plan every day, because both in morning and evening, pool car would be available only at predetermined place and time. If any member has a change in his/her schedule on a particular day because of any official/social/personal commitment, he/she has to arrange for alternate mode of transport. The member who on a particular day has his/her turn to ply car feels particularly compelled to not change his travel schedule on that day, as any such change will put other members to a lot of inconvenience. (iv) No help for 'during-the-day' and different-from-regular travel destinations: A carpool partner may reasonably have travel needs during day time for which his 'workhome' carpool offers no assistance. Similarly, a carpool partner who has a different-fromregular travel destination on some days gets no help from his rigid carpool. Little wonder that people who have changing destinations or day-time travel needs (such as marketing/audit/inspection personnel) do not participate in a carpool. (v) Feeling shortchanged: Members often end up feeling that they have given more rides than they have availed from other members.
may be able to find their travel partners without Central Agency's help). => The Central Agency also keeps account of mileage points earned and used by all members. All Mega Carpool rides are fully logged for enhancing security and for keeping track of mileage points earned/used, as described below: " As soon as a member 'A' takes a ride in the car of a member 'B', she shows her membership card to the Card Reader installed in the car of 'B'. The machine reads the Id. No. of A, the time of start of journey and the location of start of journey (the location is sensed by the machine with the aid of cell-phone tower/GPS/Trunk Radio service provider). The machine then transmits all the three pieces of information and the Id. No. of 'B' to the Central agency digitally, through cell phone/trunk radio/any other available technology. The machine gives a beep sound (or any other suitable indication) to indicate successful completion of this transaction. This ensures the genuineness of both 'A' and 'B' and logs the journey for safety and accounting purposes. " On arrival of her destination, 'A' again shows her card to the Card Reader, and the card reader transmits a message to Central agency to mark location and time of end of journey. The Central agency's computer thus has complete record of journey, for enhanced safety and security of members and for computing mileage points. Based on kilometers traveled, the Central agency's computer credits 'B' and debits 'A' for the Mega Carpool ride. => At the end of every month, all the members are sent an electronic/paper statement giving a summary of points earned, points used, balance points available, and Carbon emissions saved by the member during the month by participating in Mega Carpool. The proposed mega-carpool method is illustrated below.
A micro carpool essentially needs stable partners with rigid and repetitively matching travel needs. This is so because a ride availed by a commuter A from B has to be returned by A to B only. Such a 'one-to-one barter' arrangement can work only if A and B have repetitively common travel destination. However, the difficulty in searching such reliable and stable partners makes the micro carpools very restrictive in practice. In contrast, the proposed Mega Carpool is based on many-to-many barter and dynamic matching, wherein a member can take ride from any member and return the ride to any member, not necessarily to the same member from whom the ride was availed. This flexible arrangement places Mega Carpool on an entirely different paradigm from a Micro Carpool and significantly increases the chance of making successful ride-sharing matches.
(toward service charges of communication service provider plus recurring expenses of centralized agency) may suffice to operate the scheme at break-even level. Sponsorship/subsidy on card reader machine would reduce the initial deposit requirement of members. Selling a fraction of surplus mileage points earned by members to other members who have a deficit of mileage points would reduce/eliminate the monthly charge. Carbon credits: Acceptance of Mega carpool scheme as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Project under Kyoto protocol could entitle it for Certified Emission Reduction points (commonly called carbon credits), which at current market prices would value about Rs. 100 crores per annum as estimated earlier in paragraph 9. CER proceeds could make the PanDelhi Mega Carpool commercially sustainable without needing any recurring financial support.
III.
IV
Corporate
Entrance Fee Rs.10000.00 Annual Fee Per Car / per Corporate Member Rs.1000.00
Corporate
Entrance Fee Rs.10000.00 Life Fee Rs.15000.00 Per Addl.Car Rs.7500.00
TWO WHEELER
Annual Membership Individual
Entrance Fee Rs.500.00 Annual Fee Rs.500.00 Per Addl.Two wheeler Rs.200.00
Corporate
Entrance Fee Rs.2000.00 Annual Fee:Rs. 800.00 Per Addl.Two wheeler Rs.400.00
Corporate
Entrance Fee Rs.2000.00 Life Fee Rs. 8000.00 Per Addl.Two wheeler Rs.4000.00
DOCUMENTS & FEES REQUIRED FOR REGISTRATION OF MOTOR VEHICLES AND RELATED ACTIVITIES---Latest
Entrance Fee Waived for spouse/Dependent family members Note: Do write your name and address on the reverse of the DD/Cheque drawn in favour
of "AAUI, New Delhi".
MMembership Benefits
1. Discount on insurance premium 5 %( limited to Rs. 200/-) plus 2.5% (limited to Rs. 500/-) if vehicle fitted with anti theft alarm system, 2. Instant insurance at AAUI Insurance counter. 3. 10% rebate on labour and serving charges by AA Approved Service Stations. 4. New /Renewal of driving license & assistance in other Transport Authority related tasks. 5. Issue of International Driving Permits. 6. Break-down Service within Delhi/NCR. 7. Monthly Magazine "The Upper India Motorist ". 8. Pollution under control Certificates. 9. Assistance in Disposal of traffic challans. 10. Rebate on car rental and hotel in India and overseas. 11. Casual drivers on call and placement of permanent drivers. 12. Reciprocal service by regional Automobile Associations in India & AAUI international affiliates. 13. Global savings including rebate and road assistance in more than 100 countries. 14. Passport assistance. 15. Carnet De Passages for temporary exportation of vehicles.