What is it?
Rookies team aims to create a mobile app to facilitate transportation. The goal of the platform they have designed and are working on is a reduction in the loss of time, environmental pollution due to the excessive number of vehicles, and the parking problem. The users will be able to plot out their routes in the app with the help of Google Maps. Also, they’ll be able to get in touch with other users with similar routes. With user consent, the app will be able to match users with similar routes. The users who have been matched according to their points of departure and destinations will then be able to select people to travel together with. To ensure safer travels, individuals will be able to sign up using their institutions, while people who study at the same school or work for the same company will be able to find each other. Thus the project also aims to indirectly increase cooperation and solidarity among the institutions and society.
Why?
The team started the project by identifying the problems stemming from flaws in transportation. The number of transportation vehicles emitting gases that are harmful to the environment is too high. There’s a loss of hours of time in traffic every day. Aside from the time lost, people endure commutes which are stressful and tiring. When one bears in mind that the time lost in traffic could be utilized for social purposes or productively, one can much better appreciate the time. Aside from these, as private car owners struggle to find parking spaces in places they go, the cars parked on the pavement affect pedestrians also and make the streets less safe, congested, and unbearable for everyone. On top of all this, fuel prices rise day by day, as transportation gets more individual, it becomes more expensive, to the detriment of the economy.
On the other hand, there are problems encountered by people who choose public transportation over personal vehicles. Since the vehicles they use are very crowded, they travel in a lack of comfort and they carry a general sense of unsafety regarding public transportation. Even though they face all these problems, they don’t have any alternatives as a solution to them. The observations of the team point to a need to reduce the number of vehicles in use. With a reduction of the number of cars in traffic, one can achieve positive outcomes such as more efficient usage of parking spaces, a decrease in the amount of waste released to the environment, and people wasting less time in traffic and spending their time more productively.