Will an Uber, Ola shuttles be the solutions for public transport?

New Delhi: For the decades, traffic congestion and pollution have become a very big issue. The unchanging traditional mode of public transport is one of the major reasons for this. And with the rise of services such as Uber and Lyft, which are on-demand apps that provide single occupancy rides in personal cars, taxis, and other vehicles, have revolutionized the transport industry. Even additional features of Uber,  Ola-shuttle,  now shared mobility has made its way into commuters’ day-to-day life to disrupt mass transit with a fixed-route on a fixed-schedule model.

A recent study found that by 2030, shuttles will account for as much as 50% of the global shared mobility market, which was done by Frost & Sullivan. The report also assumes that how multimodality and intermodality are expected to accelerate the growth of the Demand-Responsive Transit (DRT) market from $2.8 billion in 2017 to $551.61 billion in 2030, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50.3%. Some recent example of foreign countries like in Dubai, Roads & Transportation Authority (RTA) has launched a trial run of its bus on-demand initiative under the Dubai Future Accelerators in Al Warqaa and Al Barsha in February this year.

In April this was later was extended to Dubai Media City. This service ran for three months for free and commuters were able to use it through the MVMANT app. A smart responsive system was used to help bus drivers to locate passengers as the service demands. The new mobility policies, government mandates, and reduced private ownership of cars will eventually result in Demand-Responsive Transit accounting for approximately 50% of the shared mobility market by 2030, said Ankita Mukherji, Mobility Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

In February the Land Transport Authority awarded contracts totaling $466,194.50 to via Transportation, Inc. (Via) and Ministry of Movement Pte. Ltd (SWAT) as part of the first phase of its trial of on-demand, dynamically-routed public bus services, in Singapore. The companies have developed a new dynamic matching and routing algorithm which will help to enable the buses so that commuter demand can meet in real-time.