UCarpooling: decongesting traffic through carpoolingusing automatic pairings

Abstract

A low average number of people per private vehicle and inappropriate road infrastruc-ture results in heavy traffic that wastes space, time and money for the people involved.To optimize these resources, it is intended to promotecarpoolingbetween people whoshare the same destination, for example, colleagues at work or students at a university.This paper presents UCarpooling, a matching system for commuting between people inthe same institution. UCarpooling is aimed at optimizing the number of passengers invehicles during routine trips to and from work or study. The difference with respect toother similar proposals is that UCarpooling takes into account logistical details (place ofdeparture, time of entry, etc.) and personal traits (if you smoke, what genres of musicyou listen to, etc.) as variables to calculate the percentage compatibility that differentpeople have to carry out a carpool. A simulation of the use of UCarpooling in a universityin Asuncion, Paraguay, yields favorable data reaching the conclusion that its adoptionis quite beneficial for the institution that adopts it, the people who use it, and the citieswhere it is adopted.

Keywords

• carpool
• commuting
• matcher
• simulation