Signal 4: One Possible Solution to Beijing Traffic Jam: Ride Hailing
One way to ease Beijing traffic jam is to reduce the number of vehicles, a major Chinese ride-sharing platform Didi Chuxingcontributes a lot in this area.
Didi make effort to construct a better traffic condition in three aspects according to the services they provide: 1) taxi hailing: keep the taxi from driving aimless to find customers; 2) private car hailing: maximize the automobile resources by reducing their idle time and decrease the number of new cars. 3) Hitch (social ride-sharing): passengers with similar route sharing one ride can reduce the total cars on the road.
However, Didi’s safety management mechanism cannot catch up with the fast developing of its service scale. As a result, safety problems emerged. Didi suspends its carpool service in August since a second female customer killed by a driver in three months after the company implemented new security measures.
To assist ride-sharing sustainable developing in China, I think the government needs to help Didi raise its entry barrier for new drivers and perfect its emergency safety service or encourage other high-end ride hailing platforms like Shouqi Yueche which is a government-backed to set up ride-sharing services. In other way, Didi has a lot to be improved means it has chances to become better.
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