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Beat traffic jams with these brainwaves

Communities are helping commuters reach destinations at lightning speed with a twisted version of carpooling and reducing the number of vehicles on the road at the same time

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Fed up of spending half their day stuck in endless jams, a bunch of Mumbaikars have taken matters in their own hands and come up with a few workable solutions to the city's chronic traffic problem.

Smart Mumbaikar is one such community that has given a small twist to good old carpooling. All you have to do is give them a missed call ten minutes before you get out of their house, and they will pick you up and take you to your destination.

Carpooling basically involved people from a particular area and headed to the same destination travelling in one vehicle. While this seemed to be a good way to reducing the number of vehicles travelling in the same direction, it found few takers as it was limited to private vehicles.

Smart Mumbaikar has tweaked the concept: Instead of being limited to private vehicles, their system includes the use of public transport, so you can share you ride irrespective of whether you are travelling by bike, taxi or autorickshaw. You first have to log in and register yourself and your mobile number on their website www.smartmumbaikar.com. Then, key in the addresses of your location and destination. Once that is done, all you have to do is give them a missed call 10 minutes before leaving your house or office on days you want their services. They will send you an SMS with the details of the vehicle that will come and pick you up ten minutes later.

Speaking to dna, Raxit Sheth, 29, the founder of Smart Mumbaikar, said, "I started this community eight months ago and currently there are three of us working on this system. The basic idea behind starting this community was to ease traffic woes. If four people go in the same cab or car, it obviously means there are three vehicles less on the road. Currently, we have 20,000 people registered with us who are using our services free of cost."

The social media has been a boon to these communities, helping them get in touch with thousands of people. Sheth said that for him, Facebook and Twitter have been extremely helpful. "The social media is the backbone of our services. We not only forward carpooling-related messages but also alert social media users on the traffic situation in various parts of the city."

A system like this will go a long way is reducing the number of vehicles on the road. "There is not much the traffic police can do to deal with the situation. With the number of vehicles increasing every day, how can you blame the traffic police for jams?" asked a senior traffic police officer.

Another city-based community, Traffline Mumbai (www.traffline.com) on Twitter, focuses on informing people about traffic conditions across the city and also coordinating between motorists headed towards the same direction so they can share rides. Brijraj Vaghani, founder of Traffline, said, "We do forward messages related to carpooling from people who are following us. However, on transport strike days, we request users to help others and connect people on the same."

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