The mobility dilemma : how you as an individual can change the world
Have you ever stopped for a second to think about your commuting experience? How sure are you that your current commuting habits are as optimal as can be and that you have explored all possible transportation options available to you?
The importance of finding the commute option that best suits your needs
The way you experience your commutes to and from work will most likely shape your overall perception of how your day went. Like everyone else, you start off in the morning by making your way to work, and no matter your choice of transportation, the slightest disruption to your journey and you end up running after lost time throughout the work day. Similarly, any disturbance on your way home and you’ll be ending your day on a negative note. Studies have found that taking a 20-minute increase to your commute time is considered equally as bad as taking a pay cut and the impact commuting can have on your overall day is thus all too important. But when everything is taken into consideration, what choice do we have in it all?
Many of us tend to believe that we have very little control over the resulting outcome of our commutes. After all, is it your fault that the recent labour strikes delayed your morning bus by over an hour, or that a truck losing its load on the highway led you to sit in traffic for an extra 45 minutes, or else that your evening train was cancelled due to the all-too-common “technical issue”? We are all faced with congested motorways during and off-peak times, jam-packed and dysfunctional public transportation networks and occasional peaks of pollution that most likely result in temporary bans or alternations to traffic, and It all seems out of our hands, doesn’t it?
Well we at Zify tend to disagree, for we are convinced that our choice of transportation makes all the difference in the world between fluidity and congestion. The way we collectively chose to commute has an inevitable impact on the over-crowdedness of transportation networks and resulting pollution levels. We all have one thing in mind when choosing how to commute: the maximisation of efficiency, affordability, comfort and dependability, and it just so happens that Zify has been developing a carpooling platform that answers to all four of these criteria. Carpooling presents itself as the perfect mobility alternative, having the potential to resolve short term and long term environmental, social and economic barriers which have been associated to the transportation sector for far too long now. But if carpooling is the magical answer to all these problems, why has it not been implemented long ago?
We have been relying solely on technological progress instead of reconsidering the mobility model entirely.
As time and technology have progressed, so have our transportation options. Recent years have for example given place to the electric scooter, the wheel-incrusted shoe sole otherwise called the wheeled heel, the folding electric bicycle and so many other practical, yet unusable gadgets on longer distances. Authorities, startups and larger companies have otherwise redoubled in imagination to come up with the revolutionary commuting invention of tomorrow. The first things that come to mind are the straddling bus, recently developed in China, and capable of driving over traffic, or the Segway, which was the supposed answer to all our pains and aches and which was never truly implemented except for the occasional mall cop and lazy tourist. And how about the hovering jet train named Aérotrain, conceived by the French in the 1960s and designed to make its German neighbour mad with envy. Such ideas are a few of many nutty, costly and basically un-implementable mobility creations that never really saw the light of day.
City authorities have in other cases opted for the construction of additional roads and the creation of vast multi-lane roadways, which were designed to combat the vehicle congestion phenomenon. After considerable investments and high hopes, what quickly became apparent for cities such as Los Angeles, Saint Petersburg and Shanghai was that induced-demand (the economic concept that increasing supply automatically generates demand) only made things considerably worst.
And what to say of cities that have exclusively relied on the development and expansion of state of the art public transportation networks in order to deal with the congestion effect so often synonymous with large cities? Tokyo’s massively overcrowded trains are the perfect example of how unintentional groping and injury due to suffocation and human muffling could be the end of you during your peak times commutes. Nippon companies are today under the obligation of providing their employees with flexible working hours in order to avoid rush hour drama. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to end my work day at 11 pm because local authorities adopted poor mobility planning.
If we are to truly resolve mobility issues at their core, and as the number of vehicles in the world is set to double by 2040, the only meaningful path is to reconsider the mobility model altogether. If we look at the occupancy level of vehicles in Europe from 1980 to today, the number has consistently dropped over the years to an average of 1.4 people per car. Similarly to house and couch sharing, we need to be willing to share our vehicles for the greater good. Instead of waiting for the next technological invention to magically resolve our current mobility problems, why don’t we make the most of what we already have by sharing a ride with co-workers, neighbours or strangers who share a similar itinerary? Some might think that one’s vehicle is private space and that sharing a ride with an unknown passenger is madness, but weren’t Air bnb and Couchsurfing considered insanity when they first arrived on the market? Zify’s carpooling service was designed to bridge the gap between public and private transportation, and we at Zify do not envision a future without carpooling in it.
The benefits of carpooling are numerous and bring a tangible solution to environmental, social and economic barriers.
Numerous studies have underlined the potential carpooling holds in resolving a wide range of problems on an individual and company level. Economically speaking, Zify users and corporate partners are able to considerably reduce their mobility costs, allowing them to reinvest said expenditures elsewhere. As a driver, owning a vehicle typically involves initial purchase, insurance, fuel and upkeep costs which amount to an average of 8003 $ per year based on the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics. Carpooling offers a tangible financial solution to drivers as every shared kilometre allows them to reimburse their investment. The productivity of employees has also been proven to be on the rise through their use of carpooling as associated time gains and workforce engagement are a direct result of shared mobility. Carpooling is also an interesting alternative for individuals who are faced with costly public transportation fares. As a result, London’s Oyster card stands no chance when faced with the competitive model of carpooling.
On a social stand point, there are many positive externalities associated to carpooling such as employee/user happiness, work life balance, social mixing and inclusion. Sharing a ride with co-workers, neighbours or strangers is an easy way to get to know people you otherwise would have very limited contact with. Carpooling serves as a social tool which broadens your senses and opens you up to fun and ludic experiences. Commuting has always been considered a tedious experience where many try to fill the time by shutting themselves off from the world by finding refuge in a book, music or social media threads via their mobile phone, and the result is that commuting has become an intrinsically individualistic and lonely experience. Carpooling brings an important and much needed paradigm shift to all that, allowing users to benefit from more than a simple ride, but rather share stories, experiences and acquire new friendships. Zify’s platform is much more than a carpooling service, it has become a social platform from which people get to grow on a personal level.
Environmentally, the positive outcomes brought upon by carpooling are considerable. As road transportation accounts for around 10% of global carbon emissions, daily commuting thus plays an important role in emission reduction objectives. Per vehicle CO2 emissions are split by the number of carpoolers present in the car, therefor having a potentially great cutting effect. Zify’s mobility solution also acts as a tangible solution in respect to road congestion. Carpooling is as a result on the rise in many cities around the world, and this is largely due to city authorities wanting to adopt new ways of meeting their environmental objectives.
So next time you find yourself barely able to move in an overcrowded train during rush hour, or stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on your way home from work, remember that your choice as an individual has an impact on the overall commuting experience of everyone around you. No matter where you live, how far you find yourself having to commute on a day to day basis or how accessible your workplace is to public transportation networks, you have the means to change things on a singular level. Whether you chose to use carpool throughout your entire journey in good conscience or else in combination with other transportation systems, it’s that kind of acting that will truly make things move forward for a better future! So be trendy, and chose to carpool with Zify !
