@ MaheshK - my response is here.

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All the five points are valid and the last one takes the cake. Car pooling is common in the big metros in the west. We Indians need to learn a lot. A bit of common / civic sense and decency along with less ego would do wonders. Reg BMTC, Nah..we have discussed the mnopoly issue a lot.

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Car pooling, cycling, walking, Namma Metro, Namma Railu - all have their roles. But, the biggest role in commuting has to be played by the bus. But, the BMTC's monpoly here is the problem. Unless that goes, there is no redemption for the city and the citizens. Read here for more, and join the demand for opening up of the sector. 

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Taxi-hailing app Uber will be rolling out UberPool in Bengaluru in the coming weeks becoming the first city in India chosen for its car-pooling pilot. With UberPool, riders can share a ride and split the cost with another person who happens to be requesting a ride along a similar route. Uber will notify users with the co-riders' first name. Riders can save up to 50% while adding only a few minutes of time per trip.

UberPooL will launch soon in beta in select cities in India, starting with Bangalore, to gain insights from commuter adoption and usage. UberPool is currently present in San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Austin and Paris assisting commuters to get around their cities reducing the number of cars on the road, congestion in cities and parking challenge.

For the full text of the report in the ToI, click here.

I have been skeptical of the idea of car pooling making much of an impact, for various reasons. But, what is proposed by UBER, looks like it can really make an impact.

The important questin is "is the government going to be coming in the way, like it has been trying to in various ways in the case of the already running Uber, Ola, and the proposed ZipGo maxi-cab services (check here) ?" One hopes not. On the other hand, one hopes the government facilitates such operations in every way possible.

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Ride-hailing app Uber will roll out its private carpooling service in Delhi on Wednesday, positioning it as one of the solutions to deal with the Delhi government's odd-even car number formula.

- - - It's not clear if Delhi's Motor Vehicles Act allows such a step. But Uber is going ahead, and Bhatia said its discussions with the government had been positive so far.

The carpooling service will include all the regular safety features -such as the ability to see your driver's details in advance, GPS tracking, sharing journey details with family or friends, the `help' button in case of an emergency , and two-way feedback. Uber said Los Angeles has seen huge benefits from its carpooling service.

"By getting more people into fewer cars, we can cut congestion, and, therefore, pollution. In the first eight months in Los Angeles, after we launched our carpool service, passengers did over five million carpool trips, cutting the number of kilometers driven across town by 12.7 million and carbon dioxide pollution by 1,400 metric tonnes," an Uber spokesperson said.

For the full text of the report (emphasis added by me) in the ToI, click here.

This is the only way car pooling can work effectively, and contribute to mitigating both the air-pollution and traffic congestion problems. Hope the governments concerned facilitate the operations early, rather than find ways to extract their pounds of flesh from the operators, and delay the implementation of the scheme, in the process.

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