First appeared in
Asian Development Bank
50 climate solutions from cities in the People's Republic of China
Traffic congestion in an urban area with more than 21 million people requires extraordinary solutions. Beijing is embracing app-based carpooling, reducing private car journeys and air pollution.
Beijing is stepping up its efforts to bring mobility to its citizens by promoting more ride-sharing in the city. ‘Dida Carpool’ platform is the largest people-to-people carpooling platform in the PRC. Differentiating from other well known car sharing platforms, Dida uses commuters as drivers instead of professionals, meaning that the platform is not putting more cars on the road. By connecting drivers with other commuters travelling a similar route, both parties can save time and money, and congestion and air pollution woes are reduced.
698K
TONS OF GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS ARE AVOIDING ANNUALLY BY INCREASED USE OF CARPOOLING
Dida’s app uses smart technology to match drivers and passengers and share the costs of fuel and parking. According to the platform’s creators, 2016 witnessed almost 100 million trips within the city and 10 million inter-city trips, lowering greenhouse gas emissions by reducing private car trips in and around Beijing. The city is encouraging the use of carpooling and has adjusted legislation to support this mode of transport. The platform is rapidly expanding nationwide, with over 60 million users, of which 10 million are car owners.
Commuters and drivers are connected via a dedicated app, which enables the drivers to share their ride.
The Challenge
The total number of private cars in Beijing has passed 4.2 million, with an average trip distance of 45 km2 . Many cars are often only occupied by a sin- gle person, making the transport very inefficient in terms of space utilization and greenhouse gas emissions per person.
Co-Benefits
Economic Carpools are contributing to more efficient use of vehicles, while reduc- ing the number of cars on the streets. Benefits include reduced congestion, improved commute times and savings in operating costs.
Environment Through more efficient use of car resources, annual hydrocarbon and NOx emissions are reduced by 973 tons and 2,432 tons respectively.
Social Carpooling is fostering a wider sharing economy in Beijing, with applications from washing machines to bicycles.