I dropped my uncle near Devegowda Petrol bunk - the plan was he would catch a BMTC bus going towards Vijayanagar, if he couldn't get a bus at this hour (8.00 pm), I was planning to drop him in my two wheeler. There were lots of private buses, vans travelling in that direction and picking willing passengers (for a fee of course). Even my uncle got into a van after unsuccessfully enquiring a few, which were heading in a different direction.
After he left and I came home, I'm now just wondering.... Even though what these private operators were doing wasn't entirely "legal", I thought they were doing had great "customer value". At this hour, the options for commuters were either to wait a long time (or eternally) for a BMTC bus OR pay an exhorbitant amount to Auto rickshaw driver OR take the above third approach for a nominal fee - higher than BMTC perhaps, but certainly lower than an Auto, however much less congested than a BMTC bus.
Now I'm thinking, why can't this paradigm be extended for all private modes of transport ? say two wheelers, cars, vans, institutional buses (TCS, MindTree) - you name it.
As a nay-sayer, I understand the following objections:
* As a commuter I do not trust the person who is giving a ride - what if he kidnaps me or something like that?
* Is this guy a safe driver? What if he drives rash and I get into an accident or something?
* Is this really legal? Will a cop stop this transport and penalize me for not using BMTC or an Auto?
I think the above apprehensions are real. In fact, some of them are also reasons why good-samiritan-private transport owners don't want to car pool/bike pool/van pool with total strangers since "security" is a big concern for them as well. Also, from a lift giver's (pooler) perspective, there is no tangible "reward" for offering a service. If he accepts money, it probably is an illegal transaction (private transport owners cannot indulge in commercial transaction unless they have a yellow board - something like that). Bigger is the worry of being car-jacked or getting into unwanted situations with a bunch of strangers masquerading as lift takers.
However, if there was a mechanism for
* validating the identity of the lift taker(poolee) by the giver (pooler),
* validating the identity of the lift giver(pooler) by the taker (poolee),
* a transactional record created somewhere for audit/security,
* some form of reward was in place - say top ten poolers in city of Bangalore gets gift vouchers in Forum Mall for Month January (or fuel vouchers in petrol bunk),
* some payment mechanism is also in place for poolee (of course you need money to run the above show and give rewards !!!),
imagine what would happen to Bangalore roads :-
1) Crowd in Bangalore BMTC would go down.
2) Auto rickshaw drivers will certainly go crazy - because the number of commuters enquiring them to take somewhere, where the auto drivers obviously do not want to go at the first place, will go down. I know it will hurt their ego - it is the duty of every auto-commuter to enquire if the auto driver is willing. They have the right to sit in their autos, nod their head negatively or even ignore you - go nowhere for eternity. Yeah, they will go if the commuter wants to go right next door of the auto driver's house at one and half times the meter.... I'm digressing, enough of auto bashing...
3) Commuters get to behave more responsibly as a community member - I think we are increasingly becoming intolerant traffic society - Every 'single' driver on the road wants to own the entire road to himself and no one should overtake him/her from the right, from the left. At the next traffic crossing, irrespective of whether the driver sees red, green or yellow, he always have the right of way - if he sees enough space to squeeze his vehicle. On the other hand, if we are driving with fellow passengers - be it family, friends or even strangers, I have a gut feeling, we will all be lot more responsible.
So, after reading this rather long prelude, you are probably asking, "OK, Mr. I got your reason, What is your bloody small IDEA?"
Well here it is:
Create a public-private partnership firm, a Non-profit (or small profit) organization of some sort where swipable photo-id transport credit cards are given to poolees. Poolers could have card swipe readers attached to their cell phones. A centralized service (SMS/Cell phone based) keeps track of pooler/poolee transactions. Poolers get transport credits - based on number of lifts given, distance of lift or a combination of both - encashable as vouchers/coupons if meets the criteria. Poolees charge their transport credit cards when they run out of enough units - by paying money - either through internet or their own registered cell phones. Poolers have stickers on their transports identifying them as valid "service providers" - they also could have a photo id issued by the same organization. Bigger vehicles could even display destination where heading to.
There are some legal, liability,technical, financial aspects that need to be taken care of. I think that is a technicality that can be resolved by putting like minded brains together (lawyers, transport officers, MBAs, IT professionals, sponsors).
Any takers?
-dheera.
