Introducing a New Car-Sharing Concept to Build Driving Communities for Work-Commuting

South Africa is currently facing various mobility problems. On the one hand, more and more people are moving up into the middle class, which increases the number of private vehicles on the roads and leads to congestion, increased pollutant emissions, and overcrowded cities. On the other hand, public transportation in the form of buses and trains are hardly used due to their current state in terms of safety, efficiency, or availability, making low-cost trips much more difficult for people without private vehicles. The daily commute to work becomes particularly challenging due to crowded roads and the lack of public transportation alternatives. During the 2018 HEdIS Summer School, an international group of students from South & West Africa and Germany collaborated to develop innovative ideas to address these issues. Using the design thinking process, a new car-sharing concept was developed to enable the potential formation of consistent driving communities. The goal is to match users who live in close proximity to each other and are employed by the same company or by companies that are near each other. Safety is ensured by only giving access to users who are currently employed by a company with which the platform currently has a partnership. By effectively matching people with the same work commute, it is intended to provide an alternative commuting option that is safer, more efficient, and less time-consuming compared to other available modes of transportation and to overall reduce the number of vehicles on the road to address traffic congestion.