Oceanworks Japanese Car Repair
2703 Tenth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710(directions) (See a map on Google)
M-Th 7:30AM-5:00PM, F 7:30AM-4:30PM
(510) 849-1383 voice
(510) 849-1351 fax
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Oceanworks II
Demand-Responsive Transit
Demand-Responsive Transit
This essay courtesy of customer Alfred Round.
I would like to propose a way to reduce our dependency on petroleum for transportation. In one sentence, the solution is to create a demand-responsive public transit system.
The problem with all current public transit (BART, MUNI, AC Transit, etc.) is that it's fixed-route and fixed-schedule. BART takes you from one station to another station at 15 or 20 minute intervals; it doesn't take you from point A to point B at your desired time of travel. That's why the car is the overwhelmingly preferred travel mode. Now think of an airport shuttle service. You make a reservation to arrive at SFO by 8 AM. The shuttle service dispatches a vehicle that picks you up at your door, and also picks up other people in your area who likewise want to arrive at SFO by 8 AM. The shuttle driver knows the order in which the passengers will be picked up so that drive time is minimized.
Now extend this idea from airport service to the entire Bay Area. You're at the office in San Francisco on Third and Howard, and you have a 2 PM meeting in downtown San Mateo. You get on the Internet (or use your cell phone if you're on the street) to make a reservation. The software that processes your reservation says, "there are six people South of Market who need to arrive in downtown San Mateo around 2 PM; we'll send out a vehicle to pick them up, and we'll service them in the order that minimizes the passenger on-board times". The software then sends a message to each passenger's computer or cell phone (e.g., "shuttle #72 will pick you up at 501 Howard St. at 1:05 PM, and you'll arrive at 450 S. El Camino Real. in San Mateo at 1:47 PM". The software also signals the vehicle that will service these trips, and communicates the sequence of pick-ups and drop-offs to the driver.
No new technology needs to be invented to implement this service. In addition to reducing our dependency on petroleum, this service will reduce traffic congestion, air pollution, and vehicular accidents as well. It would also reduce parking requirements, freeing up a great deal of parking space for more productive uses.