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25 June 2009 1:19 PM
How to End Traffic in Los Angeles
I'm serious. Can I patent this just by saying so? If so, I say so!
The inspiration for this idea came as I talked to a friend of mine about Casual Carpool, a phenomenon in the San Francisco Bay Area. These are basically "informal car pools
that form when drivers and passengers meet - without
specific prior arrangement - at designated locations." White collar workers line up in their shirtsleeves each morning, and get picked up by motorists headed across the Bay Bridge into the city. Both parties benefit from avoiding the tolls and using the car pool lane.
Several factors allow this arrangement to work. There's a financial incentive to pick up strangers, a time incentive to pick up strangers, the relative security of dealing with professionals during daylight hours, and concentrated population centers such that meeting spots are well-trafficked enough to function.
The same thing could hardly work in Los Angeles.
But I think that technology suggests and enables an alternative system that is built in the same spirit -- something along the lines of Casual Carpool meets Couch Surfing.
HOW IT WORKS
You're sitting in your apartment near Sunset Boulevard and Fairfax. It's a Saturday afternoon. You want to go to the beach in Santa Monica, but you haven't got a car. No worries! You go online, or on your iPhone, open up a software program, enter the address where you're located and the address you'd like to go. You click enter.
Elsewhere, 15 motorists are notified about a potential match. At the beginning of their trip, they entered their start address and their destination address. Their cars are also equipped with a GPS device. What being notified means is that there is a person without a vehicle who 1) wants a ride; 2) is easily picked up; 3) is headed to basically the same destination. Among the 15 motorists who are pinged, 3 are interested. One of them confirms fastest. The match is locked into the system.
Soon after the motorist arrives to pick up the passenger.
He swipes a card into a device on the dashboard, or else passes a key
fob over a sensor. In this way, the system knows to deduct some amount
of money from his bank account, and to transfer it to the driver's bank
account as compensation for the ride.
So what about security?
Isn't this just hitch-hiking? Isn't that dangerous? Several solutions
seem feasible -- consider that Couch Surfing is a success though it
requires letting a stranger into your home. Their model suggests it's a
good idea to offer everyone who signs up to be a part of the system
some way to confirm their identity. As a driver or a passenger, you
could choose to only be matched with folks who've got a credit card, or
even a thumb print, on file. Or as a woman you could choose to ride
only with other women. Or you could choose to ride or pickup only
someone who's been in the system for 6 months without a complaint being
filed against them. Perhaps you'd pay more per mile as a rider for
these security assurances, and you'd receive less per mile for driving
secure passengers. Indeed, the beauty of this system is that the
markets can always be readjusted. Not enough drivers? Raise the
compensation cost. Not enough passengers? Lower it.
Of course,
I am envisioning a model where basically anyone who desires it becomes
a taxi, but on some popular routes the basic infrastructure would allow
car and van services to operate private shuttles. Just jump in, swipe
your card or key fob, and off you go. Unlike bus routes, there would be
a constant stream of data about where riders are and where they want to
go, and private companies could be constantly readjusting. These
shuttles would be modern equivalents of street cars, and they'd
probably be the next great immigrant run industry in Los Angeles.
Politically,
there will be opposition from the public transportation bureaucracy,
but this really is an idea that conservatives and liberals should all
be able to get behind, even if both sides have to compromise a bit. A
successful project would make life incomparably better for Angelenos,
making their city livable without a car, easing congestion, increasing
social interaction, reducing pollution, etc.
This isn't an idea
I've entirely fleshed out, so I'd be grateful for criticism. Comment or
e-mail me at Thinkingbig@theatlantic.com
Yeah, I wish. You woefully underestimate the opposition of the public sector. Consider the travails of organizations like PickupPal. They're in Canada, but their experiences, I think are representative.
Conceptually, it sounds like you're proposing jitneys for the 21st century, with a lot more security thanks to web marketplace feedback. It's a sweet idea (and one that me and other bus riders have discussed on many occasions), but it fundamentally is the jitney model: every driver a taxi. Given that, you should ask yourself why 20th century solutions to this don't already exist. Outside of Miami, you're going to be hard-pressed to find a legal example of individuals ridesharing for profit.
There are plenty of people doing web ventures that dance around this topic in a variety of ways (think Zimride's Facebook application or Carticipate on the iPhone), but the obstacle isn't the technology, it's the massive entrenched interests. Bureaucracy is one, but taxi monopolies are another. The cab industry is insanely abusive, in that regional markets ruthlessly hunt down and kill competitors. On top of that, a regulatory overhaul would be needed, since as things stand, driving someone for profit can do all sorts of things to your insurance if you get in a crash, legal liability, etc. Some of that can be signed away with a waiver, but some of it can't.
Cool idea, but there are way more enemies to this good idea than you realize.
BG
Conor
Great idea! Along with others like Scott Adams, we (Avego) also had that idea. So we set about building it. About two years of 15 engineers and the system is available for the iPhone - get it from AppStore (for free) and have a look. Let us know what you think.
As BG and others have said there's a lot to work out before most roads will have sufficient drivers offering their empty seats to passengers. However, you'll see we have some designs to solve some of the challenges.
We have a community of users up an running in Cork, Ireland, Europe. We have projects underway to add more in other places in Europe, and hopefully in the US soon. Check out www.avego.com or sign up for the newsletter to hear about our progress.
Any help or suggestions much appreciated. Keep up the good thinking.
Cheers
H