Posts Tagged ‘optimization
Car-Sharing Done Right
I often dream about creating a system that allows real car sharing. There will be a set of similar cars shared among all the users, and each will pay a quote of the global expenses every month. Nobody will own a car but will be allowed to (respectfully) use one from the pool.
When you need a car, you will just pull out your phone and say where you need to go. The system will indicate the closest car that you can take. You go there, the car will unlock, turn on, and you’ll be ready to go. At destination, you will turn off the car, get out, and it will be locked automatically ready for somebody else to pick it up.
You will be able to book cars in advance, of course. The system will automatically account for the fact that trips to the grocery store need a ride back, while trips to the airport may not, but users will be able to book slots of times in advance, or include return trips.
This will also help people to car-pool to work. There may not be a car available for you to take, but there may be a user close by that goes to the same place where you go. When cars will drive by itself it will be even better, they will all act as small buses which stop on demand.
The system will compute statistics on the times and locations in which cars are needed the most and facilitate to moves accordingly. Since it will know the destination of everybody, it can do a great deal of planning and optimization. In the end the number of cars in the system will not be minimal, but it will be way smaller than the number of cars that circulate today and stay idle for 95% of the time.
Since the majority of cars will be mostly used for small trips, electric cars will be able to thrive in the system. Charging station will be positioned in strategical points, starting from the most covered areas, and electric cars introduced there and used strategically until all of them can be substituted.
When cars will drive itself there will be no need for driving licenses. Kids will be able to get rides by their-selves as well (only in authorized places and not farther than a certain distance from their home) and parents will get an alert. A few mini-buses will also be in the system for trips which require just a bit more of space.
This system may also create jobs for people which will be tasked with check on the cars, perform maintenance, gas them up, move and clean them.
I really hope this is the future, and that we will get there pretty soon. There are too many cars around, too few parking spots, too many reckless drivers and too many accidents. And the Earth will thank us as well.
Improving Mass Transportation Efficiency using Credit Cards
In these last weeks I have taken multiple subway, trains and busses, all across the US. For each of them, before boarding, I had to purchase some sort of ticket/pass with enough credits to go from my departure point to the destination.
On the California’s BART, for example, one is required to purchase a single-use ticket with enough credit before boarding. The system is a bit cumbersome for everyone. There is a list of destinations reachable from the current station attached to each tickets selling machine. Each station is marked with a price. Once you have figured out your cost of transportation you have to put money in the machine, or swipe your debit card, and then add/remove money until you reach the desired amount. When that is done, click “print the ticket”. NJ Transit has similar vending machines, but at least they ask you first where you want to go, and then require you to insert enough credits.
Since all those tickets contain a magnetic stripe, which is read by a reader at the gates somewhere before boarding and after leaving the train/subway, what about we skip the tickets all together for who wants to pay with credit card?
At boarding time you swipe the credit card at the gate, instead of the ticket. The system remembers time, place and credit card numbers. Once arrived, swipe again the card at the exit gate, and the system calculates the amount due and bills it on the card.
No ticket necessary, lots of time saved, and trees spared.
As an additional benefit, there will be a good amount of data on how people move between stations and at which times. These datapoints will be a goldmine for who organizes the routes and schedules since will allow a great deal of optimizations which will reduce costs, inverse efficency and ultimately also make passengers happier.
And for all of you who are still freaked out by “big brother theories”, there will still be a way to pay cash, but trust me, it’s not going to help you stay “under the radar”.
