Ucarpooling: Decongesting Traffic through Carpooling using Automatic Pairings

Abstract

A low average number of people per private vehicle and inappropriate road infrastructure results in heavy traffic that wastes space, time and money for the people involved. To optimize these resources, it is intended to promote carpooling between people who share the same destination, for example, colleagues at work or students at a university. This paper presents UCarpooling, a matching system for commuting between people of a same institution. UCarpooling is aimed at optimizing the number of passengers in vehicles during routine trips to and from work or study. The difference with respect to other similar proposals is that UCarpooling takes into account logistical details (place of departure, time of entry, etc.) and personal traits (if you smoke, what genres of music you listen to, etc.) as variables to calculate the percentage compatibility that different people have to carry out a carpool. A simulation of the use of UCarpooling in a university in Asunción, Paraguay, yields favorable data reaching the conclusion that its adoption is quite beneficial for the institution that adopts it, the people who use it, and the cities where it is adopted.