THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a bid to bring some relief to the city roads from the skyrocketing traffic, the city police is looking into options like promoting carpooling. Technopark, being the single campus in the city having the maximum number of vehicles, the obvious option of the police is to pilot the initiative in the IT park. Leading institutions like Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and flats are other options of the police to promote carpooling. City Police Commissioner P Prakash told DC that promoting carpooling seemed to be one practical solution to bring some relief to the traffic congestion in the city.
The NH-bypass toward Kazhakkoottam is one of the stretches witnessing heavy traffic during peak hours. A good number of private cars have a single passenger. A majority of such vehicles are of Technopark employees and VSSC at Thumba.
“To begin with we will soon initiate talks with Technopark authorities on the option of promoting carpooling. As the carpooling culture is still not that familair here it may take some time to catch up,” said Mr. Prakash. Recent studies had shown that the traffic along the NH bypass near Technopark in terms of Passenger Car Unit (PCU) was nearly 50,000. Over 90 percent of the four wheelers at Tehchnopark were also found to be self-driven single passenger ones.
The daily PCU along Sreekariyam – Pattom – PMG stretch was found to be 60,000. National Transpor-tation Planning and Research Centre senior scientist B.G. Sreedevi said that it was high time that carpooling, share taxi and share auto were popularised in the city. In order to promote such a culture, the options of imposing toll for cars with single passengers within the city or at institutions like Technopark should be looked into. Mr. Prakash also said that campaigns to promote the culture of using single vehicles by all members of a family would also be promoted. “At present many families have two or more vehicles and family members going out at the same time and almost in same direction use separate vehicles. We need to discourage such practices and promote the use of a single vehicle by a family in view of the traffic congestion,” he added.
G-RIDE GAINS TRACTION
G-Ride, a vehicle sharing platform recently introduced at Technopark, is getting an impressive response both from male and female techies. The facility also turned out to be a boon to many non-Malayali techies unfamiliar with city routes.
Group of Technology Companies (GTech), an industry body of IT companies, brought out G-Ride, which was formally rolled out in July by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. “I am a regular user of G-Ride since its trial stages itself and in the last few months I had 260 plus shared rides,” said Lakshmy Menon of UST Global.
Lakshmy has been both offering rides as well as seeking rides. “I never felt any safety concerns as those with whom I shared rides were registered members of G-Ride. Apart from commuting conveniences, the vehicle sharing platform even helps me connect with employees of other companies in the campus,” she told DC. GTech chief executive officer Renjith Ramanujam said that anyone who tried G-Ride a few times had liked it and made car sharing a habit. “Car sharing calls for a change in mindset. So far it has been largely word of mouth publicity. A large campaign with the support of companies will be launched next month,” said Renjith, who is also a regular user of G-Ride car sharing.
