Combating Climate Change

Global warming studies predict that emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide will create higher average global temperatures, and that these, in turn, will precipitate extreme weather phenomena such as flash flooding or violent hurricanes - and ultimately sea level rises that are likely to submerge many cities and populated areas throughout the world. From the anomalous weather witnessed in the last few years, and from the increased rate of melting of the polar ice caps, it is beginning to appear that global warming is for real. Managing this situation may become one of the greatest challenges to humanity in the 21st century.

Intelligent Grouping Transportation directly addresses this challenge. Transportation is a huge source of greenhouse gases, accounting for around a third of a nation's carbon dioxide emissions. Fortunately, the taxibus offers enormous potential for reducing these emissions. To elucidate this capability, let us take the case of a major city such as London, Los Angeles or Paris. Some simple arithmetic quickly demonstrates the power of IGT: assuming the average taxibus holds 8 passengers during the rush hours, and given that the average occupancy of a car is around 1.4 travellers, this means that each taxibus vehicle can replace around 6 travelling cars (since 8 ÷ 1.4 = 6 roughly), thus offering the potential to clear these cars from the roads.

This analysis thus suggests that for every 10 thousand taxibus vehicles introduced, up to 60 thousand cars can be cleared from the roads (assuming car drivers are persuaded to travel by taxibus instead), a net reduction of 50 thousand travelling vehicles. In terms of greenhouse gases and air pollution, 60 thousand carbon dioxide-emitting vehicle engines are reduced to just 10 thousand (or even reduced to zero if the taxibuses are powered by hydrogen fuel). Yet amazingly, this huge cut in traffic and pollution is achieved without decreasing the amount of passenger journeys taking place on the road networks (important for maintaining the economic vitality of a city).

In London, around 250 thousand vehicles are travelling on the roads at any one time. Since introducing a fleet of just 20 thousand taxibus vehicles can clear 100 thousand travelling cars from the roads, this equates to almost a twofold reduction (50% decrease) in traffic. By doubling the size of the taxibus fleet an incredible fivefold reduction (80% decrease) in traffic is possible. This will create a massive cut in greenhouse gas emissions and toxic air pollutants. But would this traffic reduction manifest in reality?

Turning theory into reality means enticing car drivers to leave their cars at home and travel by taxibus. Considerable efforts should be made to make taxibus travel as attractive as possible in order to seduce people away from their cars. This includes providing sleek, well-designed and very comfortable taxibus vehicles that are not only a great convenience, but also a pleasure to ride in. However, should global warming, air pollution and traffic congestion start to become really critical problems - which may well be the case in the near future - then more coercive means of getting car drivers to switch to the taxibus may be necessary. Such means may include running persuasive advertising campaigns, increasing road and fuel tax for car drivers, providing corporate tax incentives for companies that champion taxibus usage, and so forth. It is believed that once the public realise the ease and simplicity of travelling by taxibus, using the car will seem a little clumsy. Eventually, few people will want to return to their old driving habits, especially when they see how traffic-free the roads have become.

Altogether, it is believed that the taxibus will have a tremendous impact in cutting global carbon dioxide emissions if the IGT system is implemented in many cities around the globe.

World-wide implementation of IGT is much more feasible than one might first think. Although IGT comprises a sophisticated information-technology based transport system, the beauty of IGT is that all its complexity is contained within the computer software rather than in the transportation hardware. Compared to the complex and costly physical infrastructures of railway and metro networks, the hardware of IGT is very basic: comprising just taxibus vehicles and roads. This makes IGT extraordinarily robust. It also makes it very easy to implement: most countries have the required cellular networks in place, and all countries are covered by satellite electronic positioning. With these infrastructures already in operation, IGT can be set up virtually anywhere, both in advanced and developing nations. Indeed, the developing world's heavily polluted and traffic congested cities stand to benefit the most from IGT.

 

The Taxibus Combats Parking Congestion

We have seen how the efficiency of IGT arises from the concurrent transportation of several passengers at once, which dramatically reduces road traffic levels, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. By contrast, the private car occupies pretty much the same road space as a taxibus - and emits roughly the same amount of toxic exhaust products - yet typically carries just the driver. This is a negligent disregard for human health and the environment as well as an inefficient use of the road networks.

Yet as if that were not bad enough, the private car harbours a further disturbing inefficiency. Statistics show that the average automobile is utilised for only 10% of the day (the typical car is driven for less than 1.5 hours each day). The rest of the time, which is 90%, the car lies idle, parked, and usually taking up road space. Considering this usage inefficiency, it is not surprising that the kerbs on most main roads and residential streets are crammed with parked cars. If the usage efficiency of private cars were 100% then clearly no parked or stationary vehicles would be seen anywhere, apart from when dropping off or picking up travellers or delivering goods. This is self-evident, but it is worth repeating this point because it is normally overlooked: the reason our kerbs are so overburdened with parked cars is not just due to the level of vehicle ownership, but also related to vehicle usage efficiency, which as stated, is a meagre 10%. A simple equation describes parking congestion:

Number of Parked Vehicles =
Number of Vehicles Owned   X   (100 - Usage Efficiency)   /   100

We have become so accustomed to seeing parked vehicles clogging up towns and cities that we assume this is an unavoidable consequence of enjoying the convenience of motor transport. But it is not: the above parking equation implies that if vehicle usage efficiency is increased, the number of parked vehicles will decline proportionately, and that increasing vehicle usage efficiency to 100% will result in having very few automobiles parked in the streets. A taxibus vehicle's usage efficiency generally tends towards a perfect 100%, because the IGT computer system tries to ensure that all of the taxibus's time is dedicated to active transportation. Once the taxibus delivers a passenger, it does not remain idle, but continues conveying other people. The private car, on the other hand, tends to be quite useless once the driver has parked and departed the vehicle.

In the modern urban context, the fact that the private car must be parked when it arrives at its destination can be considered a sort of design flaw in this transport mode. Consider the amount of time that is lost looking for parking places, the parking fees that must be paid, the inevitable parking fines, vehicle clamping and tow-away costs, the cost of building massive multi-level car parks, the running of controlled street parking, the cost of buying parking area land for offices, shopping centres and sports centres, and so forth. Still further expense results from salary costs for the staff that must regulate these parking zones.

Even when drivers are on the move, parking still affects their journey. In many towns and cities, smaller roads are effectively reduced to a single lane due to the density of cars parked on both sides of the road. This ridiculous situation is particularly problematic in European cities, where road widths are much narrower compared to the United States. By effectively reducing a two-way road to a single lane, parked vehicles frequently force car drivers to pull over (into whatever gaps are available between the parked vehicles) to let oncoming traffic squeeze past. Parked vehicles are like cholesterol on the road arteries of our cities.

In a future where the taxibus has taken over from the car as the primary form of urban travel, parking congestion will be of historical interest only, and kerbside parking space will once again become abundant. Perhaps the streets will never quite revert to the era when they were largely clear of vehicle clutter, but with a comprehensive taxibus service in place, the current epidemic of idle kerbside automobiles can be abated.