Mega Carpool Questionnaire

Transport Department Invites motorists of Delhi/NCR to participate in online survey on Pan City Mega Carpool Scheme.

Pan City Mega Carpool (PCMC) under consideration of the Transport Department is a dynamic ridesharing scheme, which aims to make carpooling work by removing the hurdles inhibiting the growth of conventional carpools. A conventional carpool (called ‘micro carpool’ here) typically has 2-5 carpool members who have nearby workplace, nearby residence, and matching work-timings. These members exchange rides with one another by plying their cars on different week-days on a rotational basis. A conventional carpool requires a rigid and predictable travel pattern from its members, due to which its success has been limited. Some commonly identified hurdles of conventional carpools are:

(i) It is risky to share car ride with a stranger with unverified credentials.

(ii) It is difficult to find reliable carpool partners having matching timings, origin, and destination in both morning and evening, on a regular basis.

(iii) No ride is available to rider:

(a) in case any exigency causes a change in driver’s/rider’s travel plan,

(b) for ‘during-the-day’ travel and

(iv) Feeling shortchanged: Members often end up feeling that they have given more rides than they have availed from other members.

Pan City Mega Carpool scheme, on the other hand, aims to allow ad-hoc ridesharing and flexible travel plans, while addressing the safety and accounting issues between members. The scheme proposes to enroll thousands (eventually lakhs) of Delhi/NCR car owners, subject to verification of their credentials, into a single ‘Mega’ carpool, and issue the members secured/smart Id-cards. A member can earn mileage points by giving ride to any member and redeem the earned mileage points by availing ride from any member (not necessarily from the same member to whom the ride was given). This means that a rider can use his mileage points to avail morning ride in one pool-car, during-the-day ride in a second pool-car, and evening ride in a third pool-car; and he can earn mileage points some other day (when he is traveling in his own car) by giving rides to any member(s) of the scheme with whom his travel plans match that day. This flexibility considerably increases the chances of successfully matching drivers with riders, if a large number of motorists participate in the scheme. A family member can also avail carpool ride through an ‘add-on’ membership card (obviating need of a second car in the family) by using excess points earned by the car owner. A central server keeps track of the journey for safety of members and accounting of mileage points. A web program and a call centre help the members to find suitable travel matches on day-to-day basis. There can be two possible variants of the scheme at the present technology level:

Variant 1: Hardware based tracking: Each member car is fitted with a special device comprising of smart Id-card reader, GPS, and GPRS; the rider flashes his smart-card Id before the device at the beginning as well as end of journey; the device transmits rider/driver information and shared-ride route details to central server through GPRS for accounting and safety purposes.

Variant 2: SMS based log-in of journey and mileage points: Rider sends SMS to central server to convey the driver’s Id No and odometer reading, at the beginning as well as end of journey; central server in turn sends auto-generated SMS to both rider and driver to confirm the transaction.

While Variant 2 has the advantage of low initial cost and low recurring cost, Variant 1 provides more robust tracking, ease of use, higher possibility of carbon credits, and opportunity for various value added services – like navigation help, panic button, traffic congestion information, etc. According to your need and/or willingness to invest, you may choose one the two variants. Both variants permit business models offering insurance discounts, broken vehicle retrieval, guaranteed free-taxi-rides to members (if the PCMC organizers are not able to set up carpool for them in spite of sufficient notice), and various other services. The scheme is proposed to be implemented in association with NGOs and private partners. For further information, please go through a concept paper and a brief presentation on the scheme available on the transport department web-site www.transport.delhigovt.nic.in.

Motorists of Delhi/NCR who are regularly plying their cars for personal commute are requested to fill out this questionnaire. Your inputs will help the transport department to formulate the scheme better for your benefit. It should not take you more than 15-20 minutes to complete the questionnaire. The department may also arrange prizes for a few questionnaire participants selected on random basis. The information sought from you is mostly general in nature and is intended for the sole use of formulating the Pan City Mega Carpool Scheme. No personal information would be shared with any third agency. The survey is open from 29/05/2009 10:00 am to 16/06/2009 12:00 noon.

Any questions/comments/suggestions can also be emailed to Vishva Mohan, Joint Commissioner of Transport at v.mohan@nic.in

Suggested Respondents:

Motorists of Delhi/NCR, commuting frequently by their own car

OBJECTIVE OF QUESTIONNAIRE

· To Map the current experience with carpools

· To capture views/opinions and needs/expectations of the target users of the car pool concept

· To identify segments more likely to use the service

· To identify the barriers and motivators for the acceptance of the concept

· To identify the price band within which maximum people are likely to use the service

· To assess the user interest in value added services

Notes: (1) Because of ‘Multiple Choice’ format there may be some questions wherein none of the choices best describes your answer. In such case(s), please select the option which is very near to your answer. If none of the choices reflects your answer even approximately, you should not reply that question; (2) The survey is being conducted at secured NIC server; personal data like email id and phone no. will be taken off the server and will only be used by the department for response, if required.

Questionnaire *Mandatory field

(1) Name:
(Last Name) (Middle Name) (First Name)

(2) Gender (M/F):

(3) Email-id:* (plz give full email id; eg. abcxyz@gmail.com)

(4) Phone No (optional): 1) 2)

(5) Age: <25 years 25-35 years 35-45 years 45-55 years 55-65 years >65 years

(6) Occupation: Student Govt/PSU Employee Private Employee Nonprofit EntrepreneurProfessional

(7) Education: 10th Standard 12th Standard Graduate Post Graduate Professional

(8) Choose the City where you live:Delhi Noida Ghaziabad Gurgaon Faridabad

Other NCR City (pl write the name of your city):

Outside NCR resident (Pl write the name of your city):

(9) a) For how many years you have been owning a car: 0-5 years 5-10 years >10 years

b) Type of fuel used in your car: Petrol Diesel CNG Hybrid of Petrol/CNG/LPG

c) Fuel efficiency of the car you currently own (in Km/liter for petrol/diesel; km/kg for CNG vehicles):

<8 years 8-10 years 10-12 years 12-15 years >15 years

d) Type of Car: Small size non-A.C. Small size A.C. Medium size Large size/SUV/Luxury

e) Kilometers plied in your car per month: <500 1000-2000 2000-3000 >4000

(10) What is your travel need: Mostly for commuting to work/place of study and back

Commuting to and fro for work, and also during-the-day travel for work

Mostly recreation travel

Work as well as recreation travel

(11) Average distance traveled to reach workplace/educational institute from home (in Km.) (one side distance)

0-20 20-40 40-60 >60

(12) a) Mode of commuting for workplace (You may choose (using Ctrl+click) more than one option if that best describes your situation):

(b) If you are commuting in your own car, number of empty seat you generaly have.

1 2 3 4 5 6

(13) a) If you are member of AAUI.please give membership no.

       b) If you are persently availing carpool through an agency/website. please give its address/website address.

(14) a) Rate your satisfaction level with your present mode of transport on a 0-5 scale; where 0 means totally dissatisfied, and 5 means highly satisfied :

       b) Please briefly indicate reasons of your satisfaction/dissatisfaction with your present mode of transport:

(15) a) Comfort level with using internet:

Proficient Average Not comfortable

b) Access to internet (you can choose more than one options (using Ctrl+click)):

(16) Your comfort level with using SMS on cell phone:

Comfortable Average Not comfortable

Benefit of Car Pooling

(1) Do you have any Experience of Carpools:

I am not much aware of carpools

I am aware of carpools and their benefits though mass media

I am aware of carpools. Although I haven’t availed carpool myself, I have friends
/relatives/ colleagues that are carpooling

I am carpooling myself and am fully aware of its benefits and shortcomings

(2) Please rate the following benefits from car pooling (Rate each benefit below on a 0-5 scale; where 5 means Very important, and 0 means not important):

         a) Cost saving (includes Fuel, toll tax, parking charges):

         b) Environmental pollution reduction:

         c) Reduced parking space hassle:

         d) Time saving:

         e) Opportunity of meeting new people:

         f) Driving-stress reduction:

        g) Value added services provided by the organizers (help in case of vehicle breaks down, panic button, real
            time traffic congestion information, insurance discounts, etc.):

        h) Any other you want to specify:

(3) Why, according to you, traditional carpools have had only a limited success (Rate each reason below on a 0-5 scale; where 5 means Very important, and 0 means not important):

          a) Security hazard in traveling with unknown and unverified people:

          b) Fixed time is too difficult to achieve on a sustained basis:

          c) Carpool members do not show up in time and delay every one:

          d) Some members are only interested to avail ride and not forthcoming on returning rides:

          e) Carpool etiquettes are a problem: people smoke in the car, listen to loud music against the wishes of
               others, or talk on phonethereby disturbing co-travelers:

          f) Any other you want to specify:

(4) a) Your perception of security from Mega carpool:

I would feel unsafe as others are traveling with me whom I do not know well

          I feel safe as others traveling with me have been screened in advance by organizers; I have also checked
           their details and have spoken with them before agreeing to travel with them; over a period of time I know
           them well:

Security is actually increased because I am not traveling alone, so I can better handle emergencies, flat
tires, lonely streets,etc:

b) Any other point you want to specify regarding security aspect of Mega Carpool:

(5) a)Your perception of social aspects of Mega carpool (choose one of the following):

There is a compromise with my privacy and freedom: I can’t now always listen to music of my choice, can’t
smoke, and can’t use the traveling time to make phone calls:

There is very little compromise, which is worth while considering the benefits from mega-carpooling. More-
over, I enjoytalking to co-travelers, and I can opt for smoking/non-smoking carpool as per my preference:

There is no compromise. On the contrary, I am benefited by the new networking opportunities provided by
the Pan City Mega Carpool:

b) Any other point you want to specify regarding social aspect of Mega Carpool:

(6) If you are a woman, what will be your option (choose one of the three):

I will share ride with women onlyI am comfortable sharing ride with men alsoCan’t say at this point of time

Any suggestions you wish to add:

(7) If you are a parent, will you allow your college going ward to avail mega-carpool ride:

Yes, I will allow because of the savings and safety features incorporated in the scheme

No, I will prefer my ward to go by public transport which I consider safer

No, my ward goes by private transport and I prefer it that way for his/her convenience and safety

Any suggestions you wish to add:

Membership to the Proposed Scheme

(1) How much you will be willing to invest (one time) in the scheme (required for infrastructure, robust tracking, and enabling value added service)?

Rs. 6,000-10,000 Rs. 4,000-6,000 Rs. 2,000-4,000 Rs. 0-2,000

(2) Per month charges you will be willing to pay for the service:

Rs. 0-100 Rs. 100-200 Rs. 200-500 Rs. 500-750

(3) a) Your interest in value added services the scheme can offer:

Very interested Average interested Indifferent

        b) Your suggestions regarding value added services:

(4) Based on information provided herein, will you be interested in becoming a member of the Pan-City Mega carpool scheme? (Rate each answer below on 0-5 scale; where 5 means highly likely, and 0 means unlikely):
     (Choice of your answer will put you in no obligation and will not effect your eligibility to any subsidy)

         a) I will become a member at full cost; i.e Variant 1 (which is convenient and enables robust tracking)
              because of the considerable benefits from the scheme:

         b) I will become a member with Variant 1 if costs are reduced/subsidized/staggered:

         c) I will prefer low cost option, i.e. Variant 2:

         d) I will not participate in the scheme, for the reasons given in brief:

(5) Please add your final comments/suggestions:

Thanks for participating in the survey. You are requested to forward the link to the questionnaire to those you consider would be interested in dynamic ridesharing. Alternatively, please give the email ids of prospective participants here so that we may request them to participate in this survey.