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Riding out the pain of costly oil

G. Ananthakrishnan

Car pools may be the answer to high fuel prices, traffic snarls, and growing pollution.

EXPLORING THE social ideology of the motorcar, the thinker Andre Gorz reportedly compared it with villas or castles by the sea, luxuries that could never be owned and enjoyed by everyone. If there ever was an attempt to enable all people to own part of the beach, it would have to be cut up into such small strips, he argued, that it would be practically useless to anyone.

The fortunes of the motorcar would appear to have fully validated Gorz' theory. The invention of the car at first held the exciting promise of transporting people faster than common modes of transport such as trains and buses, but that stood betrayed when profit-seeking policies led to mass production of the automobile.

As urban residents have come to realise with pointless hindsight, there is no dream ride or dream car. The ever-increasing ownership of personal automobiles has actually resulted in exactly the opposite of what it offered: automobile ownership more mobility.

In recent times, it is also compounding burning up a significant portion of the people's monthly earnings on higher fuel bills and exacerbating atmospheric pollution.

Grim scenario

Automobiles may be a reality, but in the grim scenario of limited roads, rising fuel prices, unmitigated pollution, and the crippling burden of traffic accidents, the city-dweller is looking for new ways to make intelligent use of them.

This quest has resulted in many urban residents taking a fresh look at concepts that facilitate the shared use of cars, vans, and even two-wheelers. Carpooling, vanpooling, car share or ride share are familiar to most people. Communities in many countries led by the United States are working to evolve sustainable mobility alternatives by integrating the ability of Information Technology and the Internet to the concept of sharing. Ethically conscious commuters are getting some help from the U.S. Departments of Energy and Transportation in the form of funds and regulatory support. The European Union is also in the process of framing policies, as explained in its white paper on transport, to encourage such good practice.

The oil price shock that followed Hurricane Katrina led to a spurt in carpool and vanpool services in several American cities. Queues of commuters formed for kerbside casual carpools in pollution-affected San Francisco.

In Louisville, Kentucky, the Ticket-to-Ride pooling programme got twice as many calls as usual from people wanting to participate.

Sharing of cars informally is nothing new but the advent of the Internet and trip-matching software has made it possible for employers, communities, indeed, all interested participants with web access to plan shared journeys.

The web has many officially endorsed sites facilitating such pooling and intending members simply fill forms online on their travel plans: the software generates matches with those who have want to ride to the same place at the chosen time.

If it is any indicator of interest among communities in India, the website carpoolworld.com has numerous posts requesting rides in Mumbai. Congestion-hit Bangalore has spurred the development of a volunteer effort that is well on its way to attaining critical mass. Members of Carpool-Bangalore offer and seek rides using an email-based discussion group on Yahoo.

Regulatory hurdles

The experience of early-mover countries indicates that initial support from the metropolitan and transport bureaucracy is helpful to launch sharing. Many U.S. State transport departments have removed regulatory hurdles by allowing owners of private cars or vans to register their vehicles for operation as pool vehicles.

The van owner is also rewarded with some benefits. Exemption from tolls and parking charges, access to special lanes normally available only to taxis and buses, free fuel coupons for the operator and reimbursement of taxi fare for any carpool participant who encounters an emergency are among the incentives.

Besides promoting mobility, organised vehicle sharing is credited with reducing air pollution.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency studied one Government-endorsed pooling operation in Nashville, Tennessee and reported a significant reduction in daily emissions of volatile organic compounds.

Indian transport policymakers are yet to integrate with enlightened regulatory approaches in the rest of the world, though higher prices of petrol in the U.S. are blamed partly on spiralling demand caused by automotive growth in India and China. Low investment priorities to fund train, tram, and bus services and outmoded policies that limit private participation are inhibiting expansion of public transport in most States.

While corrections to policy may not be made or felt in the short term, technology-enabled carpooling or ridesharing can yield immediate benefits, though they do not represent complete solutions. The obvious candidates to make a beginning would be companies, colleges, schools and major housing complexes. In any sharing plan that is open to the public, the verification of bona fides of applicants plays a key role in successful operation.

The time for sharing has never been better. The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers says that just over a million cars including multi-purpose vehicles were sold in the country in the last financial year, translating into a carrying capacity of at least four million people. Often, these cars carry single commuters, worsening gridlock in many cities.

If more people are put into some of these cars, they could move a little faster, though it would still be difficult to prove Gorz wrong.

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