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| Despite getting push from technology startups why has car pooling not taken off in a big way!!! | | CARPOOLING IN INDIA | | Dr. Pragya Khanna
Carpooling is not a new
idea and most of us are
already familiar with it. But the question is, how many of us are using the idea......though, all of us might agree with the benefits it offers.
So, what's stopping us from doing it? Here's an insight!
Four people travel the same way to work every day. Each drives his own car. Why should they not travel in one car instead? They can switch between cars every day, so that each one drives one day and get three days as a passenger. They save money on fuel, feel less fatigued on the passenger day, and generally feel much happier in life. And yes, they do their bit for the environment by saving on fuel emissions.
Carpool also called sharing a ride is shared use of a car by two or more people in order to save money on fuel and also promote social and environmental benefits. It reduces number of cars on road and result in less traffic and less pollution.
A lot of research and analysis on the aspect by different people at different times has suggested that such services are not only difficult to undertake in India but also have a low survival rates in the country. Is it the fault of the services or the consumers or just a plain attitude problem!
First, let's take a look at what kind of people we find on the road.
While travelling you will most often come across bigger vehicles like sedans and SUVs with a single passenger/driver. In Indian cities, where traffic congestion is often a problem, a sight like this is looked upon by many. But it is one's right to choose to travel the way they want in a vehicle of their choice. These commuters will not use a shared service as for a vast majority of people who can afford an expensive car means that they no longer have to rely on unreliable public transport and are master of their own fates. The car is usually the second most expensive possession they own (after a house). Ghar and gaadi have always been associated with having made it in life.
On the other hand you have people commuting by two wheelers, cab services organized by the employers and other youngsters with not-so-expensive cars which travel at lightning speeds, ignoring traffic signals and cops. These commuters are only concerned about reaching their office, college or school on time and ride-sharing may not be the best way to do it.
Then there are public transport commuters, who have access to two main transport modes. An auto-rickshaw service which usually overcharges or has a tampered meter or a regular public bus/mini bus service that is usually overcrowded. But given a choice, these are the commuters most likely to use a shared service.
Every year, more than a million new cars hit the Indian roads. A majority of these run in Tier I cities. Not surprisingly, these cities are also the most congested. On the other hand, recent studies reveal that in most metropolitan cities, the average occupancy rate of private cars is 1.3 persons. In Mumbai, for instance, seventy percent of cars have only one occupant. This implies that each car has surplus seating space for at least 4 people.
Now imagine how pleasant your morning rides would be if suddenly, the number of cars were reduced to one-fourth the present number! This usually is the case in a city like Jammu either on Sundays or when you get on the streets before 7O'clock when most people haven't started for work yet. How relaxing! That would be the situation everyday if everyone decided to join carpools. The concept of car-pooling is catching on in India, thanks to the effort of some NGOs and environment groups. Here are just a few reasons why carpooling is good for you, everyone else on the road, and the environment: Shorter commuting time and less traffic: Fewer vehicles mean less congestion, and reduced stress too! In Indian cities where public transport is not always an option and the commuting distances are huge, carpools can prevent accidents which occur when too many vehicles jostle for space on potholed roads.
Cost saving: Surveys show that people save an average of Rs. 1,500 per month by joining carpools.
It would reduce the amount of vehicular pollution, both air and noise. Is comparatively more comfortable & convenient than common public transport services. Carpooling as a mode of daily commute is more common in many countries in Europe and North America. Moreover, technology startups are leading a revival of carpooling led by demand for safer and simpler ways to travel within grid-locked Indian cities. These companies are using a combination of mobile applications, secure messaging and tracking technology that is proving to be attractive for harried urban commuters.
In the past few years at least half a dozen startups have come up that link car owners travelling to similar destinations in technology hubs such as Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad, with services offered mostly through their employers. If you talk about technology we have more than 20 top sites for carpooling in India, where you register and share a ride or search for a ride.
When my 51-year-old aunt's office shifted to Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi, six months ago from RK Puram, her first thought was about the stupendous increase in her commuting cost from her home in Faridabad. She had been accustomed to a long work commute (35km to be exact) for seven years but carpooling with two other women had helped cut costs over the years. With carpooling no longer possible with her old friends, she needed to spend an extra Rs. 7,500 every month, something she could ill-afford. But the only way to get to the current office location without a car is to change four buses and two autorickshaws. "Even the bus timing is not reliable and it takes me about two to two-and-a-half hours one way," she says. "I had no choice but to travel to work in my car."
A few months ago, things changed. She came across a website called Carpooling.in on Google. "I posted a requirement on its public forum and the same evening got a response from a lady who lives two blocks away from my home," she says. In the blink of an eye, she had a carpool partner. However, otherwise there is a terrible disconnect between personal and social good. Cars are a symbol of achievement, a status symbol. Indians just don't want to share this personal luxury sometimes. Generally speaking, the only way an Indian will carpool voluntarily is when he cannot afford the cost of travel or the monthly cost of parking his car. Another factor playing against the success of these services is the mentality of the Indian consumer. Most working people run on the 'Indian Stretchable Time' and this makes it difficult for services to keep up with schedules of the other co-passengers. So a 5 minute delay for the first two customers will end up adding up to more than a 10 minute delay for the third passenger. Dependency on car aggregators is another big setback. Many of the local cab services in the country are infamous for not turning up on time or in some cases not turning up at all and with paid ride-sharing services being heavily dependent on these cabs, it just adds weighs down heavily on their service reliability. People don't trust strangers easily and in a confined space of a cab, trust becomes an even bigger issue. Especially in the case of women, with all the creepy guys around, travelling with strangers in a cab is not deemed safe by many. However, in the case of carpool services, it is easy to know or at least identify who your co-passenger is. Even some companies take care of security when women employees use the cab services alone. Mumbai based service, SmartMumbaikar, had tried to solve the 'anonymity of fellow commuter' issue by adding social media logins to its service, but even this method does not guarantee safety or trust.
Moreover, sharing/pooling on personal basis has its disadvantages too with some people:
For some sharing a ride means these people will loose their social status. They feel like they are driver and other are riders. That is the reason why I think most of the managers in companies never even think of carpooling. They often object if someone shut the door little hard or open close windows. Punctuality: Most people are often not punctual. Carpool means you have to be on time. You need to plan your activities in the morning itself. Carpool often fails for this reason. When people have to wait for somebody often, they prefer to go alone. It has been found some time that the driver in carpooling is driving recklessly or he/she has not put on seat belt, or uses the cell phone while driving. So in a nutshell for carpooling we need some kind of discipline for all passengers. Some drivers also do not want to switch on A/C in car saying destination is nearby (actually want to save money), this may irritate the fellow passengers.
The factors can be many but a vast range of benefits should be taken into account with a little effort and a small change in attitude we can reap greater benefits thereby reducing the chaos and confusion on Indian roads and working towards a lesser load on environment. |
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