Carpool: A bayanihan solution to Manila's Traffic

This post may not be timely in-respect to the motoring issue a couple of months ago involving UBER and GRAB in Metro Manila. However, I would like to put this out as my two-cents on the matter and also raise awareness to the concept of a carpool. It seems that many are not aware of its concept and benefits.

There are a lot of definitions of carpool. For the sake of this post, let us use the one indicated in Wikipedia

Carpooling (also car-sharing, ride-sharing and lift-sharing) is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in cars.

By definition alone, it shows the potential of carpooling. Imagine four people with cars going the same way. Now imagine three of the four leaves their car and rides with the fourth person. So instead of having four cars on that route, you only have one. Now imagine if there are 100 car owners that will do carpooling. Right off the bat, there will be a 75% reduction of cars on that route.

Other countries encourage the public to carpool to work as a green solution to lessen the heavy traffic in their area. Some even have a carpool lane where cars can only use if there is more than one person in the car. This can be seen with the wildly popular Carpool Karaoke.

In the Philippines, the term carpool or carpooling has just begun to become visible to the commuting public. With the advent of UBER and GRAB using technology to attract commuters, another company, Wunder, has used technology to introduce carpooling to the Filipino public. The app matches riders with drivers that are on the same route going to work or going home. The riders share with the driver a reasonable amount of the cost of the trip. If you think about it, a car owner would be spending for toll fees and parking fees apart from the cost of fuel. If you add in the upkeep to maintain a car, the driver is actually on the losing end. However, in the spirit of ridesharing, you normally just split the obvious cost of the trip which is fuel, toll and parking fees.

Although carpooling seems to be a more viable solution for the traffic in Metro Manila, it is not enough. Carpooling is not a magic bullet that will resolve the traffic issue. Not everyone would want to ride with complete strangers. The share of the riders to the driver might still be high for some riders and would still prefer public transportation. Or the rider's schedule is not compatible with that of the driver. Infrastructure, improved public transport, consistent law enforcement and public cooperation are the other things that will solve or address the worsening traffic situation in Metro Manila.

Here are some videos about carpooling.

Unexpected benefits of carpool

Wunder Carpool