Dycapo: On the creation of an open-source Server and a Protocol for Dynamic Carpooling

Abstract

Using a private car is a transportation system very common in industrialized countries. However, it causes different problems such as overuse of oil, traffic jams causing earth pollution, health problems and an inefficient use of personal time. One possible solution to these problems is carpooling, i.e. sharing a trip on a private car of a driver with one or more passengers. Carpooling would reduce the number of cars on streets hence providing worldwide environmental, economical and social benefits. The matching of drivers and passengers can be facilitated by information and communication technologies. Typically, a driver inserts on a web-site the availability of empty seats on his/her car for a planned trip and potential passengers can search for trips and contact the drivers. This process is slow and can be appropriate for long trips planned days in advance. We call this static carpooling and we note it is not used frequently by people even if there are already many web-sites offering this service and in fact the only real open challenge is widespread adoption. Dynamic carpooling, on the other hand, takes advantage of the recent and increasing adoption of Internet-connected geo-aware mobile devices for enabling impromptu trip opportunities. Passengers request trips directly on the street and can find a suitable ride in just few minutes. Currently there are no dynamic carpooling systems widely used. While adoption is still a key issue, dynamic carpooling offers many open basic challenges related to the implementation of the technological infrastructure. This dissertation describes Dycapo, an open-source project for enabling dynamic carpooling services. After a review of the state of the art and a comparative analysis of dynamic carpooling issues, the two main components of the project are described, namely the protocol and the server. Dycapo Protocol is an open REST-based protocol for sharing trip information among dynamic carpooling clients and servers, taking inspiration from OpenTrip, a previously proposed data exchange format. Dycapo Server is a prototype providing web services for dynamic carpooling functionalities, implementing Dycapo Protocol. Our aim with the release of an open protocol and open source code is to provide a missing standard and platform that providers of dynamic carpooling services can adopt and extend.