USING TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT TO TURN A PROBLEM INTO A PROFIT: THE SHARE-A-CAB EXPERIMENT

P S. Pasricha

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

1991

Subject Area

operations - traffic, policy - congestion, economics - profitability, organisation - management, mode - taxi

Keywords

Vehicular traffic control, Under developed countries, Traffic management (Traffic control), Traffic congestion, Third world, Taxicabs, Street traffic control, Shared ride taxicabs, Ridesharing, Less developed countries, Highway traffic control, Gridlock (Traffic), Developing countries, Cabs (Taxicabs)

Abstract

The share-a-cab experiment was structured to optimize taxi utilization in Bombay's (India) central business district to tackle the city's transportation problems: a heavily ovberburdened public bus system and a very large fleet of taxis with a disproportionately high percentage of empty trips adding to the traffic congestion. This article describes the problem as well as a quantitative analysis of the projects's impact with reference to the suitability of selective application of this technique in similar situations, especially in developing countries where funding for traffic improvements may have a low priority. The share-a-cab experiment proved that innovaation can turn a seemingly insurmountable disadvantage into a useful tool of traffic management.

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