Contribution of Carpool towards Sustainable Urban Transportation – A Study of Ahmedabad City

Abstract

The increase of urban traffic congestion calls for studying alternative measures for mobility management, and one of these measures is carpooling. In theory, these systems could lead to great reductions in the use of private vehicles; however, in practice they have obtained limited success for two main reasons: the psychological barriers associated with riding with strangers and poor schedule flexibility. Carpooling has been attempted in different forms worldwide. It is relatively mature in Europe and America, where it has become a normal lifestyle. Gathering people into common trips leads to individual and social efficiency. At a personal level, it reduces the total travelling cost and the driving stress as well. Although it is less comfortable than using the personal car and people usually need more time for performing the travel, the broad acceptance of the shared-use mobility shows its viability, with practical developments not entirely explored. From the social point of view, less fuel consumption, less CO2 emission, less traffic congestion and more social interaction are the benefits of sharing cars This paper aims to study to study awareness about carpool pool concept in Ahmedabad city, to identify motivating factors for carpool, to suggest a carpool promotion campaign and to devise an appropriate ‘Mobile App’ to connect users. In an initial study researchers examined car occupancy in Ahmedabad city and found that average car occupancy rate is 1.97. Using carpool this rate can be increased to 3 to 4 with potential to reduce car traffic on road by 34.42% to 50.82%.