World Bank Taps into Sharing Economy to Ease Traffic in Southeast Asia
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The World Bank has taken its first steps into the sharing economy, made famous in America by companies such as Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb. In the case of the World Bank, it seeks to use the sharing economy to ease crippling traffic in the Philippines under a program it has dubbed the “Open Traffic Initiative.”
The World Bank has taken its first steps into the sharing economy, made famous in America by companies such as Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb. In the case of the World Bank, it seeks to use the sharing economy to ease crippling traffic in the Philippines under a program it has dubbed the “Open Traffic Initiative.”
The initiative launched Tuesday and uses real-time traffic data derived from a ride sharing service called GrabTaxi (a local competitor to Uber) to give urban planners a better understanding of actual traffic patterns. The program will be particularly useful in Southeast Asia where many cities have struggled to keep abreast of skyrocketing car ownership and crushing traffic jams that can last for hours.
These cities were caught by surprise by a sudden swell in their respective middle classes, and have struggled to build new infrastructure at pace to accommodate the new demands of these individuals’ improving lifestyle.
According to the Asian Development Bank, traffic congestion across Southeast Asia has cost many of these economies somewhere between two to five percent of their respective gross domestic products (GDP). Traffic also creates as much as 80% of the region’s pollution around urban areas, the highest in the world.
Under the World Bank’s program, GrabTaxi’s 250,000 drivers found in 30 cities across Southeast Asia provide real-time GPS information every six seconds. That data, in turn, will be used to help authorities decide on the best ways to plan improvements and ease traffic and safety conditions.
The World Bank believes the use of data derived from the sharing community could give transportation authorities in emerging markets a very competitively priced means of collecting data that has traditionally carried enormous financial and administrative expenses.
Speaking on the topic of the OpenTraffic system, GrabTaxi spokesperson Deevya Desai said, “It is different to what exists as it’s fully open-source, so any government in our region could take this platform and use it for their cities.”
The OpenTraffic system has already rolled out in Manila and Cebu City, and the World Bank has plans to introduce it to a number of other large cities over the coming months, including Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City.
Unfortunately, not every nation in the region is open to the idea of using data derived from the sharing economy to help set policies for infrastructure improvements. Indonesia, for example, has taken steps to stop ride-sharing services like GrabTaxi and Uber.
Jakarta, similarly, suspended rules designed to ease traffic by requiring more than one passenger in a vehicle for drivers wishing to use main roads during peak times.
