Ensuring that would-be carpoolers are riding with people they actually like could potentially decrease car use by nearly 60 per cent, research from a professor at the University of Waterloo has found.
Ensuring that would-be carpoolers are riding with people they actually like could potentially decrease car use by nearly 60 per cent, research from a professor at the University of Waterloo has found.
The research, recently published in Transportation Research Part C, used social media analytics, algorithms and computer simulation to match would-be carpoolers with people driving to work.
“Usually carpooling is about just matching people depending on geographical location and time of schedule,” said Bissan Ghaddar, professor of management engineering at Waterloo and author of the study. “We wanted to include the social aspect into the equation, because it’s always awkward when there is silence in the car, especially if it’s a long commute.”
“We believed that we really needed to look at the social aspect, and our initial data analysis agreed with us.”
Read more at University of Waterloo
Photo credit: Goldwiser at English Wikipedia via Wikimedia Commons
