This Day That Year

This was me in November 2014, about 5 years back I used to work on the infamous Outer Ring and stayed in HSR Layout. My place was about 8 KM from the office and I was commuting with my car.

This is generally an issue and on that day I was not able to figure out what went wrong. That was a inflection point for me and I started cycling to office for 3 days a week but that took a toll on my body. I realised that cycling actually accentuated the effects of pollution much more than I had realized. I have consciously tried carpooling with my office colleagues for a good time.

Final Solution

I don’t think there is a final solution for this problem but a combination of solutions is needed. One of the solution is to fill the vacant seats with single driver. Most of the times there is at least another 3-4 seats vacant seats that could be filled up. Carpooling is an option and the one that I have tried is Quickride. A very decent app that lets people either offer a ride or get a ride. The government wants to enable such carpooling but there is no law currently in our country that can regulate this market.

For the government there are few challenges like safety of riders/drivers because there are strangers coming inside a car and how to ensure that is bit of a challenge. These app generally have multiple levels of verification but one could circumvent that or many time unverified riders take the ride. Another issue is use of private vehicles for commercial purposes and how public transport like state owned orgs like BMTC and private taxis like Ola, Uber. These ride hailing apps have led to a huge young population taking Ola, Uber as full time jobs and if these ride sharing apps pick up then there can be challenges from full time folks.

Quickride: Quick Facts

I asked the Quickride guys about the best way to use the app and still meet basic guidelines. Here is a reply from them

So according to this reply here are ways to do the Quick Ride in the right way

• The route has to be prepublished and riders are colleagues or neighbors
• Only the fuel expenses are shared. The ride costs are determined by the app and it covers only the fuel cost
• The person who is offering the ride will withdraw the fuel points into their fuel wallets or cards only (like PayTM Fuel Wallet, Sodexo Fuel card or other Shell, IOCL, HP wallets) I have personally used PayTM Fuel Wallet on a Shell Petrol Bunk, other petrol Bunks have not been accepting PayTM. I also got a Sodexo Fuel Card to which I am able to transfer the points but have not used it on a bunk yet.

My Experience So Far

I have used Quick Ride and have been mostly offering rides. When I think of the day when I was stuck in 2014 for more than 2 hours, I definitely think that ride sharing apps like Quick Ride will help in reducing traffic on the road if it gain more traction. Most of the IT/Tech/Banks are in and around certain pockets and there is very good possibility of finding people offering rides and taking rides. It reduces the number of cars on the road as well reduces expenses for both the persons. I would like to assume that people like company of each other or else you can always switch rides.

One thing I have been missing is my regular podcasts that I have so got used to listening. I do sometimes play and let my co-riders listen to them. Probably that is why I only have one regular rider 🙂

I would like to see government encouraging this formally and putting a framework around it. It will probably help commercial cab drivers as well by reducing stuck times in traffic. Also it may be possible to help to bring more people together and hence taking many from isolation of their smartphones or books or podcasts.

Bangalore will be so cool with reduced traffic, probably the best a man/woman can get 🙂