In response to our New Year’s annual roundup of the library of striking and informative videos assembled over the last years by the editor and readers of World Streets, one just came in today from New Zealand, thanks to Paul Minett, Chairman of the Ridesharing Institute. To contact him directly, email him at paulminett@tripconvergence.co.nz.
* The full contents of the World Streets Vidéothèque are available at http://wp.me/psKUY-3Ri
About the author:
Paul Minett is an Auckland resident and ratepayer. He is an advocate of increased ridesharing through a commercial ridesharing venture, and chairman of the international Ridesharing Institute. A latest collaborative project is their Road Decongestion Lab concept, at http://www.ridesharinginstitute.org/roaddecongestionlab. He writes:
We all make individual trip choices that are rational, but they are collectively irrational when we jam up our roads and waste energy and time, and foul up the atmosphere. This situation is treated as foregone conclusion by most of the people ‘in charge’, but I want to challenge it. The low-cost answer is to use the empty seats in private cars – but how do we get the community to desire this and to do it?
I have spent a decade focused on this question. Before that I was a business strategy consultant with KPMG Consulting. And before that, various finance-related roles, and a couple of years as a volunteer business advisor in Botswana.
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About the editor:
Eric Britton
13, rue Pasteur. Courbevoie 92400 France
Bio: Founding editor of World Streets (1988), Eric Britton is an American political scientist, teacher, occasional consultant, and sustainability activist who has observed, learned, taught and worked on missions and advisory assignments on all continents. In the autumn of 2019, he committed his remaining life work to the challenges of aggressively countering climate change and specifically greenhouse gas emissions emanating from the mobility sector. He is not worried about running out of work. Further background and updates: @ericbritton | http://bit.ly/2Ti8LsX | #fekbritton | https://twitter.com/ericbritton | and | https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbritton/ Contact: climate@newmobility.org) | +336 508 80787 (Also WhatApp) | Skype: newmobility.)
WORLD STREETS __ A New Mobility Action Plan for 2022 
Brilliant idea, and I love the largely grassroots feel. My only concern would be the safety element. Was this considered in some way? Especially for solo females and children/teen travellers.
Hi innocent_bikestander. The grassroots feel is because it is, well, grassroots. The system described in the video started because individual people realised it was a way to avoid paying the toll, and it grew all on its own from there. No-one developed a user manual. People just did it and it grew. So was safety considered? In the mind of each user, there must be a safety assessment: do I do this or do I not? But in the nature of the safety element in planning a transport system? No, the system was not designed by anyone, implemented by anyone, defined as a project by anyone, subject to approval by anyone. It just happened.
It survives in part because it has been allowed to, and from the signs (that you can see in the video) you can see that the local government has done what it can to cover it’s legal donkey in case something goes wrong.
For a more in-depth analysis you could Google ‘casual carpooling’. For a paper that evaluates the energy-saving impact of it, you could look here: http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/4/1/126.