An auto-rickshaw transports passengers in Gujarat, India. Photo by lecercle.

Recently, the State Government of Maharashtra (the third largest state in India, located on the western side of the country, and home to the cities of Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur) began looking into a proposal to run long-distance, point-to-point shared taxi services to improve the quality of daily commutes in Mumbai. The service is seen as a potential solution to overcome the crippling congestion and reduce the alarming air pollution trends that increased motorization has brought to Mumbai’s streets. Sharing daily commutes is being touted as a viable alternative to single-occupancy (or chauffeured) drive-to-work for many Mumbaikars. It’s success, though, might reside in it being offered as a quality service, as opposed to merely a transport solution.

Commuters: ridesharing potential extends beyond short-distance trips

Ridesharing has become popular the world over, and in Mumbai and other Indian cities, shared auto-rickshaws and taxis are common feeder services to suburban railway stations, central business districts, and tourist locations. Such services depend greatly on strong and regular demand for taxis or auto-rickshaws and have traditionally operated out of assigned shared-taxi/rickshaw stands. A central feature of the shared services is that they ferry commuters only for short distances, with the fare split equally between the number of commuters (for auto-rickshaw, usually 3, and for taxi, 4). In comparison, the proposed shared-taxi service will aim to cover long distances, ferrying commuters from major residential areas to dense central business districts in Mumbai (Bandra-Kurla Complex, SEEPZ and Lower Parel to name a few).

Currently, there are a few innovative services that facilitate ridesharing in Indian cities – most of them provide technological tools to facilitate the development of ridesharing networks, rather than the building of a specialized fleet of shared taxis. For example, SmartMumbaikar is a technology-based startup that enables social connections between registered users having similar commute patterns (origin-destination points, time of commute). Other services like SharedCab, Zinghopper, and Khali Seat offer ridesharing with Facebook-verified user accounts, to help assuage safety concerns of sharing rides with strangers. SharedCab, based in Mumbai, makes use of air-conditioned fleet taxis to offer a comfortable and high-quality service to those willing to share rides, whereas the other services encourage commuters to make their own taxi sharing arrangements.

Local governments: scaling up shared taxi service and meeting demand with regulatory consistency

In Mumbai, regulations relating to operating shared transport services range from ambiguous, and thus open to interpretation, to strict prohibitive of shared-taxis operating as regular for-hire taxis during off-peak hours. One of the key challenges to scaling up point-to-point, shared-taxi services in Mumbai comes in the form of delineating regulatory barriers and consistency. Another key challenge cited during EMBARQ India’s consultations with entrepreneurs was the uncertainty in organizing demand for the service. There is little assurance that a waiting shared-taxi will collect 4 passengers all at once; often the passengers will have to wait, and their schedules or willingness to wait may not allow it, thereby affecting the demand for the service. An efficient way of managing demand and making supply of shared taxis available will be crucial to the feasibility of such a service.

Success in managing supply and demand creates key demand areas for such a service among new audiences, such as corporate employers that have major offices in Mumbai central business districts. These firms have a large number of employees traveling from different parts of the city to their offices, and some even offer fixed or variable travel allowances, depending on the mode of travel. For example, some companies will offer allowances for parking and fuel for private vehicles, whereas others will provide reimbursements for travel by the local train or bus service.

Companies: employers play a key role in commuter choices

Employers play a key role in travel choice – depending on the incentives provided to their employees, they can encourage ridesharing or taking public transport to work, by simply discontinuing travel allowances for private vehicles. Furthermore, by connecting with ridesharing services, they can ensure an efficient and timely commute for their employees, possibly even helping to save the environment from harmful excessive emissions from increased motorization.

For point-to-point, long-distance shared taxi service to successfully operate in Mumbai, several issues need to be addressed. These present themselves from the point of almost every stakeholder:

• Existing operators and taxi fleet companies who have an opportunity to contribute to reducing congestion and bringing about a sustainable change in the way Mumbai moves;
• Passengers who may not be willing to wait to take a shared-taxi or who benefits from driving alone to work;
• Local government, which needs to clarify regulations pertaining to operating ridesharing services, and how it may be in the best interest of Mumbai’s commuting masses; and
• Corporate employers who have similar potential to alter their employees’ travel patterns, potentially helping worker productivity as well.

Taking this stakeholder dynamic into consideration will be important to the successful implementation of long-distance ridesharing as a commuter option in Mumbai. After all, a happy employee is one that travels to work comfortably!

A view from the Empire State Building…imagine if we could print skyscrapers like this… By asterix611.

3D printing, the process by which objects are produced entirely from a digital model and then “printed” in successive layers, has come a long way. You may remember we did a post on this back in May 2011 on 3D printing a bicycle. Back then, two British engineers had printed the first bike, an incredible feat for the burgeoning industry. In 2013, the stakes have been raised: enter the first 3D printed house.

In the past few months, three architecture and design firms announced that they will be using  3D printers to build a house/building. Two Dutch firms —  Janjaap Ruijssenaars and DUS Architects — and one British firm, Softkill Design, are competing to be the first one to build an architectural structure with a printer.

While we can expect that the first buildings to be printed will be quite expensive and may not live up to current building standards, this is the first step in what may become the way we build the cities of the future. Imagine when new buildings, monuments, parks, and fountains aren’t built the way they are today, but are designed and “printed” in place. The precision and efficiency of 3D printers has the potential to prevent materials, and time, from going to waste — allowing for safer, greener, more creative, and one day, more affordable — building options.

The design possibilities are endless!

The Camden Town tube station, one of the busiest in the London underground system. Photo by zer0_pt.

TheCityFix discovered what quite possibly could be the world’s coolest transport-related master’s thesis project-recap video.

The recent debut of the BRT in Action Newsletter, published by Santiago, Chile’s Centre of Excellence for Bus Rapid Transit, included a link to Jay Gordon’s ambitious visualization of data gathered on commuter transit patterns by bus and rail in the course of one day in greater London. The map is color coded so that blue represents passengers at home or at their starting point; green indicates they are traveling in the system; and red means they are transferring or in between trips. Check it out:

Gordon explains:

This visualization merges all 16 million daily transactions made on London’s Oyster card [metro pass] with vehicle-location data from the city’s 8,500 buses to infer the travel histories of that day’s 3.1 million Oyster users. After inferring the times and locations of each bus boarding and alighting, bus and rail transactions are combined to reconstruct each cardholder’s daily travel history…By matching Oyster transaction records to data from the iBus vehicle-location system, buses are shown to traverse the street network at their observed speeds, and their brightness reflects the number of passengers on board.

Introducing the first mass public transportation system in Pakistan. Photo by Star240.

Today we celebrate a positive development coming out of Pakistan, overlooked by mainstream news: an advanced bus system in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city. In years past, Lahore, capital of Pakistan’s eastern province of Punjab, was a city where urban public transportation was virtually unknown. For the more than 11 million residents and commuters of the Lahore urban area, the only transportation options were motorized rickshaws, private buses, minibuses, or taxis.

On February 11, 2013, Lahore began operating Pakistan’s first Bus Rapid Transit or BRT system, officially known in the city as the Metro Bus System (MBS). A catalyst in the development of urban transport in Pakistan, as well as in South Asia, the new Lahore Metro Bus System continues the deployment of advanced bus systems in South Asia, first pioneered in cities like Jakarta, Indonesia and Bangkok, Thailand. The advanced bus system in Lahore exemplifies how knowledge sharing positively impacts urban transport.

Lahore before: a densely populated area without solid public transport

Prior to the installation of Lahore Metro Bus System, the densely populated metropolitan area of Lahore, growing in population at a rate of 3% per year, was without a solid public transport option.  In the last decade and in the same region of the world, less than 600 miles away, the city of Ahmedabad, India, was already at work on establishing their own sustainable transport system. The implementation of the Ahmedabad Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT) in 2009 would then further accelerate the spread of advanced bus systems in Asia.

What are the benefits of bus rapid transit?

Unlike traditional bus corridors in Delhi, Pune, and Jaipur, Ahmedabad gave its residents India’s first full BRT system, which incorporates an integrated approach to roads, stations, buses, technology and branding. As sophisticated bus systems which operate in dedicated lanes on city streets, BRT has revolutionized the urban transportation world. BRT systems have many of the benefits of metro or light-rail systems, with significantly lower construction costs. In India, the BRT is now being replicated in the cities of Surat, Indore, and Bangalore.

Lahore after Metro Bus and beyond

Opponents to the Lahore Metro Bus System originally estimated the cost of construction at RS 70-80 billion (US$ 713-815 million) and used this figure to criticize the plan to build an advanced bus system. About a year after construction began, the system has launched, and the economic reality of Lahore’s bus system is much different than what naysayers projected. The finance minister for the Punjab Region, Shahbaz Sharif, announced at the opening ceremony of MBS that the actual system cost of came to RS 29.8 billion (US$ 303.6 million), significantly lower than original estimates.

Launched on February 11, 2013, the bus system spans a 27 kilometer-long corridor linking the suburbs of Gajju Matah and Shahdra to the main city center of Lahore. A fleet of 45 articulated buses (each 18 meters long) transport up to 12,000 passengers per hour, from 27 stations on the route. With the first month of ride fare waived as a promotion, citizens lined the corridor on the opening day, in an atmosphere of celebration and fanfare. Dignitaries and officials from Metro Bus System boarded for an inaugural ride, accompanied by their counterparts and collaborators  from Turkey.

Collaboration, locally and with international firms, is key to making things happen

Tasked with overseeing this project from March 2011, the Punjab Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency turned to a fellow Islamic country and world leader in the development of sustainable transport for guidance, modeling their system after the Istanbul Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS). Lahore’s MBS planners found a recognized private partner with similar experience in the Turkish al-Buraq Company.  The partnership inspired investment from the Turkish firm, Platform, which has been contracted to operate the MBS in Lahore. Through its partnership with Turkey, Lahore has demonstrated the type of peer-to-peer collaboration advocated by EMBARQ and other groups.

At the MBS inaugural ceremony, Turkish deputy prime minister Bekir Bozdag expressed interest in building a stronger business relationship with Pakistan and collaborating on additional MBS corridors in Pakistan.

This type of international, peer-to-peer collaboration promises not only immediate benefits for cities developing sustainable transportation solutions but establishes long-term economic partnerships that facilitate best-practice sharing, and inspire the spread of advanced bus systems to other cities and countries.

Paving the way for advancement in Southeast Asia

Lahore’s implementation of — not only the first mass public transportation system in Pakistan, but a bus rapid transit system — signal exciting possibilities for the development of additional bus systems in Asia. Other countries in the region considering advanced bus systems are Sri Lanka (in the city of Colombo), Bangladesh (Dhaka) and Nepal (Kathmandu). As the Lahore-Istanbul relationship demonstrates, cities in the planning and pre-planning stages, such as Colombo, Dhaka and Kathmandu, should not have to “reinvent the wheel” when it comes to the implementation of advanced bus systems; rather, they should take up where their peers have left off and further research their project for the benefit of their local context and for next generations of advanced bus systems around the world.

Opportunities to share knowledge are increasing, through organizations like Asia BRTS. On the website, visitors can monitor regional developments and best-practice sharing and find more information and additional, region-specific resources for reference. Asian localities interested in the planning and construction of the Lahore MBS can find an in-depth presentation from Dr. Nasir Javed (the Urban Unit, Lahore) and additional resources from the organizers and partners of the Asia BRTS conference, such as the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology University (CEPT, in Ahmedabad), EMBARQ, and the Indian Ministry of Urban Development.

Dario Hidalgo, Amit Bhatt, Benoit Colin, and Elise Zevitz also contributed to this piece.

The A-Rix Meter app calculates the distance and fare for an auto-rickshaw ride. Photo by A-Rix Meter.

This blog post is a part of the catalyzing new mobility program and receives support from The Rockefeller Foundation.

In a city as large as Mumbai—with a population of more than 12 million people—transportation can be a challenge. While residents have a number of options in the form of buses, trains, taxis and auto-rickshaws, that doesn’t always translate to an easy commute. Buses and trains are overcrowded, and outdated mechanical meters make it hard for passengers to know whether they will get the right fare on a taxi or auto-rickshaw. Drivers have to refer to a constantly updated fare chart, meters are often tampered with, and fare charts are often fabricated. While Mumbai is in the process of rolling out electronic meters across the city, a number of “smart technology” entrepreneurship initiatives (as we’ve discussed in a previous post) have popped up in the auto-rickshaw sector to fill the gap in public knowledge about fare calculations.

In preparation for a comprehensive case study on the auto-rickshaw industry in Mumbai, EMBARQ India sat down with a number of the entrepreneurs involved in these efforts to get their take on the challenges in the sector and what motivated them to create their businesses.

The chart below showcases some of the transit apps and their features:

Features: Locations, Fares and Timetables

According to the app creators, the universal catalyst was to make it easier for passengers to correctly calculate fares without having to rely on the (often unreliable) mechanical meters and fare charts. This is an effort to give the passenger some measure of power and not be at the will of the driver. Several app creators also highlighted the difficulty of traveling to a new city and being unfamiliar with its fare rules. These apps give passengers the correct fare, as well as ensure that they are not being taken on a roundabout route. Many use GPS technology to measure the distance of the auto-rickshaw ride and pre-loaded fare rates for cities to calculate the correct fare.

The creators of Suruk went a step further than creating a tool for fare calculation, after a survey of auto-rickshaw users found that passengers’ main concern after tampered meters was safety. For that reason, the Suruk app incorporates a “panic button” so that users can alert an emergency contact with their location if in trouble. The app also allows users to rate drivers based on their registration numbers.

Mumbai Auto launched the day after a fare change in Mumbai that made the mechanical meters more complicated to read. The creators wanted a quick and easy solution, so users can just punch in the meter reading and instantly get the corresponding price.

M-Indicator is a one-stop shop for transit information in Mumbai. On the app, the user can access train and bus timetables and routes, as well as taxi and auto-rickshaw fares. They even include movie showtimes.

User Feedback

Most app creators have received enthusiastic feedback about their products. Tuk-Tuk Meter‘s creator said that lots of drivers have contacted the company and are excited to learn the actual distance they have traveled. The creator of Mumbai Auto and SmartMumbaikar mentioned that a few drivers have even downloaded their app to help calculate fares.

On the flip side, users of A-Rix Meter have mentioned that drivers are unhappy when they are shown how inaccurate their meter is. Overall, the apps have helped many people save time and money. They also can help users orient themselves in a new city. Simply, these apps were ahead of government action on a crucial problem: passengers not knowing the correct fare for their rickshaw ride.

It is important to note that these apps are only available on smartphones, which the majority of Mumbaikars (including drivers) don’t own. While users number in the tens of thousands, Mumbai is a city of more than 12 million. Large scale usage of these apps is not a practical solution to the problem and a more widespread fix is necessary.

Future Plans

There has already been a noticeable increase in electronic meters—or “e-meters”—in Mumbai and they are expected to be universal within a year. Each auto-rickshaw permit holder is required to install an electronic meter in their vehicle at their next annual fitness test. These meters show the distance, waiting time and actual fare to be paid. It will remain to be seen whether the replacement of mechanical meters will eliminate the need for these helpful apps in Mumbai. However, they will still be essential in cities across India where regulations regarding fares and meters differ. In addition, while the new e-meters are more difficult to tamper with, it may take some time for passengers to get accustomed to the accuracy of the new meters. These apps will continue providing users with a way to double-check the fares until they trust the e-meter’s reliability. Beyond that, most of the app creators also have ideas to expand their businesses along related paths. One thing is certain: these entrepreneurs won’t stop creating further innovations to improve the user experience and their ideas are applicable across cities in India and around the world.

Transit apps let you explore mobility options on your mobile.

A team of designers, urbanists and engineers, in a project known as Designing Chicago, have partnered to create a mobile transit application that would be able to pull data on anything from intermodal trips to latte locations, all with the swipe of a finger. This globally based team, working from the Chicago-based innovation consultancy Greater Good Studio, has already raised $15,892 on Kickstarter to make the app a reality.

Not only will the app be funded by the public, but it will also be designed by the public. The team is now calling on regular citizens to become “Urban Scouts,” in-the-field team members who gather information and ideas to help inform the app’s design, or “Urban Icons,” local team members who work closely with the project team to attend hands-on workshops to learn about social innovation. Watch the video to learn more:

Designing Chicago is part of an international wave of  mobile transit app development for the greater good. Code for America (CfA), a San Francisco-based nonprofit, accepts new fellows every year to activate data and design to solve civic engagement and transit data debacles.

REROUTE.IT is one such app that shows users comparisons of cost, health impacts, emissions and distances for a given trip. You can calculate your impact— from calories burned to timed saved—by clicking here.

From rickshaw fare calculators in India, to online car sharing and transit ticketing services in the United States, mobile apps have been integral in providing new ways to integrate modern technology into sustainable transport.