We are heading toward unbearable gridlock

Traffic gets worse every single day, the time to act is now.  As the population continues to rise, our limited road capacity is incapable of handling the increased volume.  The cost of building new highways is staggering and not possible in many areas.

photo credit: th.omas

This excessive congestion results in delays that cost drivers over $63 billion annually and over 2 billion gallons in wasted fuel.  The biggest cause of this problem is over 85% of America’s daily commuters are single driver private vehicles.

Why do people like cars?  They are more comfortable, faster, convenient, more private and flexible than any other option.  Pay4Rides could continue to provide these benefits while greatly reducing the total volume of vehicles at any one time.

This idea will not work unless both drivers and riders feel safe.  Here are some ideas that could make us more comfortable when providing or accepting a ride:

• when you accept a ride, use camara phone to take picture of the driver
• email picture with make/model/year and license plate of the car
• send text message with time/place you were picked up
• call a friend and let them know when/where you expect to be dropped off

photo credit: Nesster

A driver could do similar things when picking up any rider.  Some anxiety could also be reduced by picking up multiple passengers. 

Many cell phones now have built in GPS technology to identify a persons location.  What else could we do to improve safety?

In the summer of 2003, a major portion of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States along with Ontario, Canada experienced the largest blackout in North American history.  It affected over 50 million people and financial loses were estimated at $6 billion USD.  Mass transit (trains, buses, ferries) came to a standstill and millions of people were stranded without a way to get home.  Many began walking and crossing the bridges out of New York City on foot.  It was a strange occurrence and created massive confusion, but something very interesting happened.  Anyone who had transportation (car, van, truck) became a makeshift bus.  You could see flatbed trucks with dozens of people jumping aboard to get a ride out of the city.

While this was an extreme situation, is raises the question why can’t we better harness the power of over 250 million vehicles in the United States?  The majority of drivers make their daily commute alone in a car.  If people would share rides, it could dramatically reduce traffic, slow global warming and lessen our dependence of foreign oil. 

Everyone could keep their own car, but just use it less.  Think of it as turning your personal vehicle into a passenger vehicle.

Gasoline prices across the country are dropping at record rates.  The price has fallen over fifty cents in just the last two weeks.  There are many factors contributing to this record drop including:

1. Difficult economic conditions
2. Drop in crude oil price
3. Reduced demand

There is not much we can do about the first two, but reducing demand is under our control.  Many drivers have already scaled back their driving habits due to the high prices in the summer and now the failing economy.

Unfortunately, we know these price drops will not continue much longer.  OPEC has already said they will cut production and refineries will reduce their output.  The price drop will slow down and then eventually stabilize.  How soon before they then begin their inevitable rise?

We need to aggressively reduce demand to maintain lower prices through Passenger Energy.

We can not build our way out of this

When you think of new construction as a solution to our traffic problems, first take a look at Boston’s epic construction story called the “Big Dig”.  Originally estimated at a price tag of $2.6 billion, the final cost soared to a staggering $14.8 billion.  The project has incurred criminal arrests, escalating costs, death, leaks, and charges of poor execution and use of substandard materials.  Planning for the project began in 1982, while construction started in 1991 and was finally completed in 2006.  This has been the most expensive highway project in U.S. history.

photo credit: frankh

WIth our current economic woes, many cities are finding it difficult to maintain our existing roads, never mind new construction.  More then a year after the bridge collapse in Minnesota, the AP finds there has been very little progress with repairs around the country.  Their review found that just 12 percent of the repairs have been performed on each state’s 20 most-traveled bridges with structural deficiencies.

Pay4Rides would help reduce the load now and give us more time to perform all the necessary repairs.  Maybe then we would not need so much new construction?

In our current financial crisis, loaning money to complete “strangers” is an emerging market.

Prosper.com is an online auction website where individuals can buy loans and request to borrow money.  This microlending concept verifies selected borrowers’ identity and personal data before funding loans.  Prosper assigns a “credit grade” for each borrower based on several factors.  Lenders then have the option to bid on requested loans. 

Lending Club is a social lending network that lets borrower members borrow money through personal loans, and lenders fund these loans by investing in Notes. Each Note corresponds to a portion of a borrower loan.

This concept of lending money to strangers may seem scary at first, but all lenders are rated and the loans are guaranteed.  This idea is growing dramatically every year and would seem to confirm that “strangers”  can be trusted when peer review is part of the process.

Another factor to consider is a concept called peak oil.  This is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum is reached.  After the peak, the rate of production steadily decreases until the resource has been exhausted.  An energy crisis can occur if global consumption is not reduced before the peak.

Geophysicist M. King Hubbert predicted the decline of oil production in his book Hubbert’s Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage.  While long-term solutions exist in the form of conservation and alternative energy sources, they probably will not be enacted in time to evade a short-term catastrophe.  We need to change our consumption habits now, not tomorrow.

photo credit: www.peakoilaware.org

Automated system which is difficult to implement

photo credit: visulogik

Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) is an interesting concept of an automated transportation system.  In a perfect PRT, 2-4 passengers would ride in computer controlled vehicles on elevated rails to avoid impacting surface activity.  The vehicles would follow these guideways to allow optimum use of time and space.  While this looks very promising on paper, the idea is very costly and has yet to be actually implemented.

Maybe someday this “dream” will come to be, but the people at Treehugger have their doubts.  In the mean time Pay4Rides would have the same benefits for 2-4 passengers, but instead of expensive robot podcars, the personal vehicles would be existing cars driven by actual drivers.

If you are looking for inspiration, listen to this song by Patty Smith.  Yes, I believe we do have the power!

I awakened to the cry
that the people / have the power
to redeem / the work of fools
upon the meek / the graces shower
it’s decreed / the people rule

The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power

Hitchhiking is a means of transportation that is gained by asking people (usually strangers) for a ride in their cars.  The problem is that hitchhikers want a free ride.

Now Pay4Rides is attempting to introduce the concept of organized hitchhiking.  Driver and passenger ratings could take out some of the uncertaintity whie payment for rides would make it profitable.

Organization:

• pick-up/drop off stations @ each exit/entrance of major highways
• lanes for each exit so you get picked up by a driver for your destination
• cash initially, EZ Pass in the future?
• credit driver, debit rider

When I think of a hitchhiker, I conjure an image from the classic movie Easy Rider.  Times have changed and cell phones allow us constant communication with freinds and family.  Simple text messages could let anyone know all the details of any trip.

Today, paying passengers could be well worth sharing a ride.