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Mobile carpooling with social effects

18 comments
car-pooling

If you have a car, why not share it? Here Jennie Karlsson from the village of Tolg gets a lift from Mattias Söderberg. Photo: Torbjörn Karlsson.

Fixing good public transport in the countryside can be tricky. No one wants to leave their car for insufficient bus services. On the other hand it’s hard to invest in new bus services if you can’t be sure that they will be used.

Instead of getting stuck in this dilemma, the inhabitants of Tolg [map], a small village close to Växjö in the South of Sweden, decided to do something about it. After all there are a lot of vehicles moving on the roads, and they are far from full, they thought – and designed a web based car-pooling system.

Through a web site people can offer or ask for rides, and bookings and confirmations can also be made by mobile phone text messages. The passengers pay the driver 6,70 Swedish kronor (about 0,7 Euro) per 10 km, and the money is transferred through the booking system.

Now the village of about 550 persons has almost 130 registered users who together have car-pooled approximately 12000 km since they started in March this year.
– Most of our users are people who want to get to and from their work in Växjö. But this system has also opened possibilities for those who want to stay in town for a drink after work, or youngsters who can go into town on the weekends without their parents having to drive them there, says Kajsa Holst who is living in the village and working with the further development of the system so that it can be spread to other places.
Several Swedish villages and regions have already shown their interest. There are also companies that want to make it easier for their employees to get to work, that are curious.

But the car-pooling isn’t just good for the villagers’ economy and the environment. It has also had social effects, Kajsa Holst tells me. For example new groups spend time together, like the elderly man who takes his car into town every Tuesday, and get to share his car with youngsters from the other side of the village going for their training.
– You notice that there are things happening in the village when people get to meet like this. We can thank the car-pooling for a new barbeque spot, the development of a beach and several parties.

 

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

January 9, 2012

  • Pol – Croatia

    Interesting. Who would think that it could all go through electronic device network, rather than by more direct contact in villages also. By my calculation here 10 km travelling distance with car would cost about 2,70 Euro (included gas and price of the car), which means 0,70 € would work if there woud be 4 passenger in the car.

  • Monica-USA

    This is a great idea. In the 70′s during the energy crisis we lived far out into the Country so the adults would take turns rounding up us kids and loading us into the cars and take turns taking us to school. It was fun maybe not so much fun for the parents. But it was a great idea. Everyone picked a day and it worked out fantastic.

  • Monica-USA

    I also forgot to mention when I was a teenager and into my 20′s I worked for a grocery store and I would collect grocery lists from my neighbors that couldn’t get out to the store and get groceries themselves either due to the weather conditions or they were the elderly. I would load up my car with everyone’s goodies and deliver them. Helped save on the emissions as well.

  • Sara Jeswani

    Yes, in a time when we haven’t got as much direct contact with out neighbours, technology can be a good way of organizing this kind of systems. A good side effect is that people end up having more contact. But it’s also a very efficient way to keep track of available rides, instead of having to ask everyone, every time you’d like to go somewhere. I suppose it’s easier in small villages, but I’d love to see ridesharing initiatives like this in larger cities too. Maybe even something for Pula? :-)

  • Sara Jeswani

    Haha, yes maybe not quite as fun for the parents, but sounds like an excellent way of sharing the work, instead of everyone doing the same thing every day!

  • Sara Jeswani

    A very good idea. In recent years, Swedish grocery stores have started offering this kind of services too, and it has become popular among many groups of people, not just eldely persons but also families with small children or people working long hours. Much more efficient than everyone taking their own car. On the other hand, I wonder if it can make people buy more groceries at a time (to avoid too many deliveries, since they pay for them), which increases the risk of food waste..?

  • Pol – Croatia

    I will suggest it if i find someone interested and capble of implement it.
    Recently i applied for a job in a company that offers SMS instant messaging, like SMS parking, weather, etc. Although they have said they prefere a candidate with good SQL database knowledge, which means good technical knowledge would be here also very helpfull.
    However, in smaller cities like Pula most routes are less than 10 km long, which means there are more traffic intensity on shorter routes, as opposed to maybe village – urban areas routes that might be 20-30 km long and have no other alternative, like in this case, which would be also very good for people that must or want to search for job outside cities.

  • Anonymous

    Yes, you are right, this is probably best for rural areas where people have to get to a nearby city. In more densly populated areas public transport is still a very good invention :-)

  • Monica-USA

    Interesting point about possible food waste. I only shop once a week and I don’t end up with waste very minimal. But I have been shopping like that for a long time it is second nature to me. But it would get people back to the basics and set up their menu for the week for dinners so hopefully waste can be avoided?

  • Anonymous

    Yes, planning is something that many of need to re-learn!

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