Transportation Innovation

Innovation and transportation are words not often found in the same sentence when referring to the current state of New York City’s transportation infrastructure. Innovators have tried and failed to bring about meaningful change with regards to the way New Yorkers get around this great city. Most recently, Mayor Bloomberg’s attempt at instating a congestion pricing plan was met with great resistance. It obviously was a polarizing issue and would have created clear winners and losers if it had been passed into law, but the fact still remains that it was the first bold attempt in a long time to address the glaring problems of over crowded streets, stifling congestion and environmentally damaging practices that continue to persist and grow unabated.

The subway system in NYC is one of the most extensive in the world and is a vital piece of this city. But relying too heavily on the MTA has put New Yorkers in a very precarious position. Take for example the MTA strike of 2005. And more recently, due to an economic down turn, the pricing of real estate and availability of credit have shown that the MTA is a financially vulnerable institution that resolves its fiscal gaps by raising fares and reducing service. Some routes have already been eliminated and other service have been measurably diminished.

Alternatives to relying on the MTA exist but they are not used by the majority of New Yorkers and for practical reasons never will be. Biking advocates have won small victories in terms of roadway rezoning and creating areas for people to park their bikes. But even these measures could not be considered bold or innovative. They are still with in the old framework. Yes, bike ridership has increased but when compared to other modes of transportation, it still lacks that revolutionizing punch.

Ferry systems in and around NYC have been upgraded and expanded and that has helped to alleviate some of the bridge and tunnel traffic but not significantly. There are bolder proposals that utilize the water ways around NYC and would actually address the needs of New Yorkers (not commuters) if they were to be implemented, but those measures would be cost intensive and require the building out of a new infrastructure.

A likely reason for why the cab industry has not experienced a huge shift in how it operates is because the TLC of New York has a very strong lobby organization and is well entrenched within city politics. The TLC is a prickly agency to deal with when it comes to reform. Most recently, the TLC was able to side step a piece of legislation, championed by Councilman Yassky, that would have required them to convert all yellow cabs into Hybrid cabs by 2012.

From an environmental standpoint, the lack of flexibility in our current transportation system, nationwide, limits the options New Yorkers can explore even if they want to reduce their impact on the environment. Fuel emission standards in America, trail those of many other nations and will not catch up for some time. However, one way to make emissions more efficient is to serve more riders using less fuel. In the case of cab sharing, we would be getting more riders to more destinations using fewer cabs to do it, thus less fuel required to serve the same size market.

Something that can be done now, with the infrastructure we have in place, is to adopt the concept of cab sharing. Cab sharing is an idea that can be brought about not through investment in physical infrastructure or the adoption of new technologies or even the explicit participation of large transportation agencies in New York. It is more a concept than a physical thing. The investment that is required to have this idea take root, is an investment in changing New Yorkers’ attitudes towards sharing cabs. The way this is achieved is through the implementation of effective information campaigns; by creating a way for New Yorkers to become familiar with the idea, knowing how to engage it and eventually adopt it as their own. The Cabcorner.com platform is designed to be simple, efficient and effective in grouping together riders for trips that cater to the particular needs of each one of those riders. From informing people as to where they can find each other to share a cab, to designating the most efficient routes, to demonstrating the exact cost savings for each rider, Cabcorner.com can be used to instill a new attitude towards a concept that would truly revolutionize the options available to New Yorkers when it comes to transportation.

Using European cities as an example, it is not a big stretch to think that New Yorkers wouldn’t be capable of changing some of their entrenched ideas about transportation. Take for example the Paris bike sharing project. It is an innovative idea that demonstrated that large urban environments can shift attitudes towards long standing ideas and do it quickly.

Other cities right here in the U.S. have had success coming up with innovative transportation solutions. Take for example San Francisco or Washington DC’s ride sharing programs known as slugging. Innovation can, and in most cases does come from with in. This system works because the participants are the perpetuators. It’s time to encourage the citizens of New York to leverage their unique power to enable them to provide better transportation alternatives for themselves.