[phamilyman]

Have all of you in Delhi filled it up? Looks exhaustive and interesting.

Please do so for a better tomorrow!!

Mega Carpool Questionnaire

Dear Sir/Madam,

Transport Department, Govt. of NCT of Delhi is considering a scheme named ‘Pan City Mega Carpool Scheme’, with the objective to set up a city-wide dynamic carpool for motorists of Delhi/NCR, in association with NGOs and Private Partners. You have been very appreciative and supportive of new concepts and initiatives. I am writing to refer to Transport Department's email below and request you and through you your colleagues/friends/ others - those who are living in DELHI/NCR and commuting by their own car - to participate in an online questionnaire on the scheme, available at:

Mega Carpool Questionnaire

Motorists’ inputs will help the Transport Department to factor their needs while formulating the scheme. The information sought in the questionnaire is mostly general in nature and is intended for the sole use of formulating the Pan City Mega Carpool Scheme. No personal information would be shared with any third agency. The survey is open from 29/05/2009 10:00 am to 16/06/2009 12:00 noon.



How the proposed dynamic carpool benefits everyone: The dynamic carpool would benefit the participating car owners and their employers by way of savings in fuel, toll, parking, and vehicle maintenance costs; reduced driving stress; and increased social/business networking opportunities. The society would also be benefited by reduced traffic congestion, reduced vehicular pollution and increased traffic speeds. The total benefit can run into thousands of crores of rupees. The Pan City Mega Carpool scheme also provides opportunities of various value added services: like navigation help, panic button, traffic congestion information, stolen vehicle tracking, insurance discounts, broken vehicle retrieval, guaranteed-ride to members (if the PCMC organizers are unable to set up carpool for them in spite of sufficient notice), and various other services.



How a dynamic carpool is superior to a conventional carpool: A conventional carpool requires fixed origin-destination, fixed travel timings, and fixed partners. Because of these rigidities, many motorists are unable to carpool, although they wish to. The proposed dynamic carpool however does not require fixed travel schedules and partners, making carpooling practicable for most motorists. Furthermore, the proposed scheme addresses safety of members, ensures proper accounting of rides given and availed, and also provides opportunity of a host of value added services as mentioned above.



How it works: The scheme aims to enroll thousands (eventually lakhs) of Delhi/NCR car owners (subject to verification of their credentials) into a single ‘Mega’ carpool, and issue the members secured/smart Id-cards. A member can:

Ø Earn mileage points by giving ride to any member and

Ø Redeem the mileage points by availing ride from any member; not necessarily from the same member to whom the ride was given. A family member can also redeem mileage points by availing rides through an ‘add-on’ card (thereby obviating the need of a second car in the family).

This means that a member can use his/her mileage points to avail morning ride in one pool-car, during-the-day ride in a second pool-car, and evening ride in a third pool-car; and can earn mileage points some other day (when traveling in own car) by giving rides to any member(s) of the scheme with whom his/her travel plans match that day. This flexibility of partners considerably increases the chances of successfully matching drivers with riders, if a large number of motorists participate in the scheme. A central server keeps track of all shared rides for safety of members and accounting of mileage points. A web program and a call centre help the members to find suitable travel matches on day-to-day basis. There can be two possible variants of the scheme at the present technology level:

Variant 1: Hardware based tracking: Each member car is fitted with a special device comprising of smart Id-card reader, GPS, and GPRS; the rider taps his smart-card Id to the device at the beginning as well as at the end of the shared ride; the device transmits rider/driver information and shared-ride route details to central server; the central server logs the travel details for accounting and safety purposes and sends auto generated SMS to both rider and driver to confirm mileage points transacted.

Variant 2: SMS based log-in of shared ride: Rider sends SMS to central server to convey the driver’s Id No and odometer reading at the beginning as well as at the end of the shared ride; the central server calculates kilometers traveled and sends auto-generated SMS to both rider and driver to confirm the mileage points transacted.

While Variant 2 has the advantage of low initial cost and low recurring cost, Variant 1 provides more robust tracking, convenience of use, higher possibility of carbon credits, and opportunity for more value added services. According to your need for value added services, and/or willingness to invest for convenience, you may choose one of the two variants.

More information on the scheme is available on the transport department website New Page 1. in the form of a concept paper and a power point presentation. Any questions/comments/suggestions may please be emailed to Vishva Mohan, Joint Commissioner of Transport at v.mohan@nic.in.



The link to the questionnaire is again given below for your convenience:

Mega Carpool Questionnaire



We look forward to your participation in the online survey. Thanks very much.



Transport Department, Govt. of NCT of Delhi.

Its open till Tuesday 16 Jun noon only. Fill it up asap!!


Its a bit too ambitious but the very thought of the initiative makes me happy!

[adisag]

I'm quite surprised - even shocked that no one has responded to this thread. I do hope that the survey recieved an overall positive response...
I was going through their website "megacarpool.com" and after signing up,did a google thread to check its antecedants - landed up on this team-bhp thread

I would love to carpool, especially if it is even half as well organised as the website claims.

Any thoughts or ideas - why did'nt this take off in a bigway. How many of us would actually consider carpooling (or are we to fond of driving to want to share the pleasure?)

I'd like to get some opinions on the concept.

P.S - anyone interested in a gurgaon to south delhi carpool do get in touch

CHeers

[joybhowmik]

Not sure if anyone has tried it out yet. The concept seems interesting - but works only if it has sufficient participants in real time.
Till date, I've not heard of anyone in office or in my neighborhood, opting into Mega Car Pool.
Guess this could be because a lot of my colleagues are taking the metro now.