Need clean routes to respond to calls

photo credit: confidentjohn

How are ambulances, rescue vehicles, police and fire engines going to respond to emergencies in a timely manner if they are stuck in traffic?  Leaving cars home will help lighten traffic and ensure fire and rescue vehicles can make their calls as fast as possible.  How would you feel if your house was on fire or your family was in desperate need of an ambulance only to find out it got stuck in traffic?

One other issue, is the rise of some motorist ignoring sirens.  Drivers are less aware of the sirens and flashing lights on emergency vehicles because of cell phones and loud stereos.  Passengers could help alert drivers to any critical situations.

Craigslist was started when it’s founder observed people helping one another in a friendly, social and trusting community way on the internet and decided to create something similar for local events.  The site has since established itself in approximately 450 cities and 50 countries with over nine billion page views per month and over thirty million unique visitors.  The founder Craig Newmark says that

Craiglist works because it gives people a voice, a sense of community trust and even intimacy.

If you are familiar with Craigslist, then you know that it provides an incredible service mostly for free.  If you are not familiar with it, then get the DVD 24 Hours on Craigslist.  It highlights people from all walks of life working together with complete strangers for common good.

Why couldn’t similar results be found in Passenger Energy?

In 2008, the price of oil smashed through the $100/barrel mark and has kept on going.  OPEC controls the output which limits the supply and market speculation has also contributed to higher prices.  Gas prices have risen above the $4/gallon price all across the country and analysts worry that $5 is just around the corner.  These prices are deeply felt when it cost over $60 to fill-up at the pump.

From the mid 1980’s until 2003, the price of crude oil remained under $25 per barrel.  Then in 2005, the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina helped push the price to over $60.  Since then prices have steadily increased to a high of $147 per barrel in July of 2008.

The price has recently dropped due to the global financial crisis, but this seems to be a temporary reprieve.  If we act together, we can continue to lower demand and keep prices low.

photo credit: nestor galina

Car Accidents – cost all of us

According to AAA, auto accidents cost over $164 billion each year, or over $1,000 per person.  The costs include medical care, emergency and police services, property damage, lost productivity and quality of life.  Nearly 43,000 people die each year on the nations roadways.

photo credit: tedkerwin 

Some people prefer the term “crash” since the term “accident” suggests an unpredictable, unpreventable event.  There have been many advances to reduce the cause of accidents including improved road design and better car safety standards. 

While these and other ideas are very beneficial, simple reducing the number of cars on the road would make Pay4Rides a very smart choice.

Appreciate this wonderful planet

Earth Day is an observance intended to inspire awareness of and appreciation of the Earth’s environment.    An estimated billion people attended activities for Earth Day 2008 in thousands of places all across the globe.

We need to make every day Earth Day.

photo credit: mysi with the ears

Just use a car when you need it

Zipcar is a car rental company with a twist.  Members can reserve a car and get billed by the hour or day.  This car sharing concept works well in major cities allowing its’ members easy access and convenience.

For mass adoption of this idea, the real question is would people be willing to get rid of their car?  If you do not need a car every day, this can be a very good alternative saving you many of the expenses of car ownership.

The benefits of a Zipcar members include:

1. not purchasing a car
2. selling the car they have
3. driving less
4. using other transportation

One Zipcar can replace 20 privately-owned vehicles resulting in reduced demand for urban parking and less congestion on the roads.  They offer an occasional driving plan and extra value plans.

The average car is driven just 1.5 hours a day, which means it is not being used 22.5 hours each day.  I wonder if this concept could be extended to individual owners willing to share their own cars for a fee?

photo credit: NCinDC

Our traffic volume exceeds our capacity

Congestion is a state of excessive accumulation or overfilling or overcrowding. Traffic congestion occurs when the volume of traffic exceeds the capacity of a roadway.

Census shows 282 million people in the U.S. during the year 2000 with a projected increase to 309 million by 2010 and 335 million by 2020.  This situation will only continue to worsen.

The 2007 Urban Mobility Report compiled by the Texas Transportation Institute estimates that traffic congestion costs Americans over $63 billion a year.  In 2003, the total amount of delay reached 3.7 billion hours, and 2.3 billion gallons of fuel were lost as engines sat idling in traffic.  “The congestion invoice” as it is called by researchers climbs drastically when you factor in current fuel prices.

How long are we going to wait to do something about it?

photo credit: rogerwp

Hypermiling is an interesting method of increasing your car’s gas mileage by making changes in the way you drive.

Accelerating more slowly away from green lights and stopping more gradually for red lights can cut fuel consumption by 25 percent or more.  This change along with maintaining more steady driving speeds would have a dramatic effect on reducing our current energy consumption.

With today’s high traffic congestion, vehicles are getting lower mileage due to more frequent braking, an ever increasing amount of idling time and longer commuting time.  If Passenger Energy could reduce the number of vehicles on the road, we would not only save big on all the vehicles left home, but also by running the remaining ones much more efficiently.

photo credit: edkohler

An excellant example of peer review can be found on commercial vehicles and the “How’s my Driving” sign on the back of many of them.  If you see someone driving erratic, you can call a number and report the offending driver.  The drivers know this, so they police themselves and are much more considerate to the other drivers. 

This could easily be applied to all drivers with a system that uses the same sort of feedback algorithms to establish a reputation tracking system.  Now before you accept a ride with a complete “stranger”, you could first see what others think of this individual.  Now millions of American drivers would be watching their fellow drivers and report anyone who is behaving badly.

We HATE tolls!

Toll collection is the least efficient and most expensive way to fund a road.  Just think of all the associated costs:

• Toll construction
• Toll collectors salary & benefits
• E-Z Pass systems
• Administration

photo credit: HelveticaFanatic

Toll roads are very inefficient:

• Require vehicles to stop or slow down
• Manual toll collection wastes time and raises vehicle operating costs
• Collection costs can absorb up to third of revenues
• Traffic diversion to “free” roads increases congestion on those roads

Besides the actual cost of the toll, they also greatly contribute to traffic and pollution.  They also increase wear and tear on our cars through the need to brake more often.  Finally, tolls unfairly place the burden of paying for the roads on daily commuters.  Toll increases threaten to make it harder for many lower and middle income earners to afford their daily commute.

If Passenger Energy became successful, a percentage of each transaction could go towards road maintenance and construction and maybe eliminate the need for tolls.