Smart Moves FLL

Starring: Kunal Desai, Srirang Subramanian, Shaival Divatia, Pranav

Jain, Pranav SalunkeFLL Team # 4009

PROBLEM: Traffic

Congestion

Wastes Money & Time

Harms the Environment

The Dark Side of Traffic Congestion

RESEARCH

Reasons for Traffic Congestions

Bottlenecks 50%

Traffic in-cidents

25%

Work zones15%

7%3%

Bottlenecks Traffic incidentsWork zonesBad weatherPoor signal timing

Total 3,306,051 100%Car, Truck, or Van 2,674,595 80.9%-Drove Alone 2,248,095 68%-Carpool 426,500 12.9%Public Transportation 321,053 9.7%

-Bus or Trolley Bus 178,913 5.4%-Street Car or Trolley car 14,260 0.4%

-Subway or elevated 98,717 3%-Railroad 20,087 0.6%-Ferryboat 5,772 0.2%-Taxicab 3,304 0.1%Motorcycle 11,885 0.4%Bicycle 36,003 1.1%Walked 106,063 3.2%Other Means 23,717 0.7%Worked at home 132,735 4%

2 door Cars (50 viewed)1 Passenger : 39 2 Passengers: 10 3 Passengers: 1Average: 1.24 Passengers per vehicle

Van/Minivan/Work Van (50 viewed)1 Passenger : 382 Passengers: 12 Average: 1.24 Passengers per vehicle

Hatchback/Wagon Cars (33 viewed)1 Passenger : 23 2 Passengers: 8 3 Passengers: 14 Passengers: 1Average: 1.394 Passengers per vehicle

Truck/Work Truck (50 viewed)1 Passenger : 452 Passengers: 5 Average: 1.1 Passengers per vehicle

4 door Cars (118 viewed)1 Passenger : 80 2 Passengers: 26 3 Passengers: 104 Passengers: 2Average: 1.441 Passengers per vehicle

SUVs (81 viewed)1 Passenger : 64 2 Passengers: 13 3 Passengers: 24 Passengers: 2Average: 1.284 Passengers per vehicle

SOLUTION: CARPOOL

Why People Don’t Carpool?

• Lack of Convenience • Lack of Trust in who they would

carpool with

Solution

First, we decided to solve the convenience issue.We solved it with a simple tool called carpool central.Carpool central is able to...-send text, email, or instant messages-share a location-also you can all do it at the same timeThen we found that Google Wave suits most of our requirements. We wanted to add a feature to Google Wave like carpool central. So we talked to Google Wave engineers and asked them if they can create a carpool central for us. They were eager to incorporate our idea into Google Wave. 

Solving ConvenienceFirst, we decided to solve the convenience

issue.• We solved it with a simple tool called

carpool central.• Carpool central is able to...• -send text, email, or instant messages• -share a location• -also you can all do it at the same time• We found that Google Wave suits most of

our requirements. We wanted to add a feature to Google Wave like carpool central. So we talked to Google Wave engineers and asked them if they can create a carpool central for us. They were eager to incorporate our idea into Google Wave. 

Carpool Central

13

Instantly Ask for a Ride

Solving Trust• If companies use Carpool Central the employees will

not object to carpooling with other company employees as they are from the same company and generally trust.

• Also our research found that most of the commute in the morning happens when people are going to work. So we decided to implement our idea mainly in companies, because they would trust each other.

• Promote Carpool Central to Companies

Solution

Next, we wanted to solve the trust issue. After researching we found that most of the commute in the morning happens when people are going to work. We found that most of these people did not carpool. So we decided to implement our idea mainly in companies. After thinking about it. We found that if we just implement it in one company it is not going to help much. This is when we came across a government organization called 511.org, They basically promote carpooling in companies. So we decided to share our idea to 511.org and ask them if they can promote it to other companies. LaShawn from 511.org was pleased with our solution and said they also thinking of a similar solution called dynamic ride sharing. She also told us that there is a company called Avego that is leading this idea. She was very impressed and told us we are thinking on the correct path.

Incentive

Ride for a RideCoupons

SolutionNext, we thought about our idea of incentive. The reason was that even if people had all these great tools to help them carpool, why would they? So we thought about a plan of incentive. We wanted to make it fair for everyone. What if we could exchange a ride for a ride? We could use some sort of bartering system to do it. Maybe we could use coupons. After a certain period of time everyone gets a certain number of coupons. For example, if you needed a ride from someone then you would exchange the ride for a coupon. The coupon is then valid for another ride. Suppose my colleague has many coupons and I do not have any and I need a ride from someone. Then I would trade money for the coupon. This is the incentive. The coupons can also not only be used by the person who sold it to you but any of the colleagues in your company. Now it will not only be convenient and safe for people to carpool, but there is an incentive that will encourage them to carpool as well.

The Carpool People

Implementation

511.org Interview

Data Summary

What they do?

511.org has a similar idea to us. They are using their version of carpool central with company's to improve the amount of carpooling. They have an online tool that allows users to connect to carpool. They put people in a neighbhorhood together in a group so they can communicate amongst themselves. How do they determine the neighborhood size? She told us that if the commute to work was 8 miles then the neighbhorhood radius is 1.5 miles. The ratio 1.5:8 miles is how they put people in a group. 

Existing 511.org Solutions• Currently, 511 has there own solution like carpool central, but not as good. Our idea of carpool central allows users to connect with quick and short communication techniques like text messages. For example, if you were at Lucky's and for some reason you need a ride from someone else that is in the area. So if there was someone right next to Lucky's and was ready to leave, using the our new communication will allow that person to know that you need a ride very fast. • We talked to a 511 representative and found that in the 1980's it was mandatory for companies with over 1,000 people that at least 10%-15% of them carpooled.

Dynamic Ride Share

Dynamic Ride Share is basically our idea of carpool central. The 511 representative said that their is a company working on that idea. She said we were thinking on the right lines. So basically, they haven't implemented the idea because it is still being worked on.The company called Avego is leading the dynamic ride share idea.

Carpooling trends

The representative told us that the main reasons the number of people that carpooled went up was because the gas prices went up and the economy is going bad. Currently, the number of people carpool dipped at about last year but is holding steady.

In the 1980's the amount of carpooling was a lot because carpooling was mandatory for companies with 1,000 people or more. About 10% of the people were required to carpool to work every day. But that law has been waived.

Ideas from 511

511 has this calculator that allows you to calculate all the money that it will cost ou over a period of time if you do not carpool.

Suppose you drive 18 miles. The calculator will tell you have much gas you paid for, the amount of maintenence it will cause, insurance, and other hidden factors.

They also gave us this site that can be very useful for us to use it is called...

mtc.ca.gov