Monday, August 27, 2007

CE UPdate: 28/08/2007

We realize its been a while since our last update.
So in case you were wondering if there is anything at all happening at your friendly neighborhood carpooling portal..

The answer is Lots!!

But we plan to make it interesting and give you the details of these as and when we go live with these features,

A sneak peek on whats coming your way..

1.For all of you, who complain about the time rigidity with pooling, you will love our new 'flexi pooling' concept. :)

2.Based on the suggestions of some users, we are in the process of implementing 'event pooling' for specific events.

3.And there are very interesting partnerships we are entering with the Bangalore Traffic Police and the highly innovative team at "Map Unity" (details coming soon).


But for now all we want to say is.. "AVOID HONKING!!!!!" :)

Yup!! We tried this experiment in our carpool while driving down to work today.

The test was to see "How far we could get without using the horn and without compromising on speed" .

We were blown by the results. We did 12.5 kms without a single honk !!

You will be stunned if you actually count the number of times you really need to honk during your entire journey.
If you dont trust us give it a shot today and report the results here -> commuteeasy.blogspot.com/


So convert as many people as possible into non-honkers and have a less ear jarring drive. It can make a difference.

Keep your suggestions/feedback coming in. We love it and do our best to react to it.

Environmentally yours,
CE Team

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

To popularize the concept, do following:

1. Open one orkut community and invite as many memebers as possible.
Advertise about this concept in Bangalore, India etc. community.

2. Get local media and FM channels involved in this step. Whenever the RJ informs about the Traffic Jam, she should also suggest about how to minimize it

Anonymous said...

Yea you are true.
I travel 16 km both ways in bangalore daily.
It is very rare that i honk horn. Learn to use the horn wisely. It is not the tool to say others that you are in behind or to tell the car in front of you to move when trafic light becomes green. (sorry going to become yellow)

Arun Murali said...

I travel about 10 kms one way and i rarely honk. I have reached a level where i can drive an entire week with about 2-3 honks. Every time i want to honk i want to see if it is really necessary.

I would like to add that can we also make maintaining a single lane a possibility as this can improve the overall speed at which we travel and reduce chances of brushing. Use turning lights and hand signals and hand signals Every time and give way for cars that are just adjecent to yours. Even though its half car length behind. Don't shift lanes because you feel the next lane is going faster.

According to me you will always feel that your lane is the slowest. But in the whole even after continuous changing you won't save much time or money.

I have been following this too for the past three months. My friends think I am a fool but thats rarely a problem.

Both less honking and lane driving go hand in hand according to me.

Anonymous said...

As always, your CE update made for excellent reading. Your drive to make a positive difference to the traffic situation in Bangalore is remarkable and praise-worthy. The first time I landed at your website, I was looking at some way that you guys are making a profit out of this whole thing. But, to my pleasant surprise, I found none! Truly, social entrepreneurship at its very best!

I can say without doubt that you have the support of every user and non-user of this service with you in your selfless motive...

Am I right, bangaloreans?

Anonymous said...

I second that...and may I add that 'no-honking' indeed works. Keep the ideas coming! :)

Commute easy said...

Thanks a lot guys.
That is truly motivating .

We have had a chat with the traffic commissioner and the DCP to encourage pooling and their response has been very encouraging to say the least.

Will keep you updated on how things go.

CHeers
CE team

Also do check out our new orkut community as per the first suggestion on this thread. :)
http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=38719623

Unknown said...

Hi Vipul and Team,
Totally with you on the anti-honking campaign, Although most people do honk without reason, there are alos other causes like so many people walking on the road, bikes cutting through that most people resort to the horn.

The pooling initiative is great and all the innovations with flexi pooling will also help with reservations people have on pooling. Although I dont myself have a pool yet, hopefully will soon, I am trying to promote this using posters and emails through friends and would request other subscribers to do so as well.

On the personal front, besides looking at pooling, I have also got a battery operated bike to reduce fuel consumption, its totally environmental friendly and extremely cost effective, visit www.ekovehicle.com. Also would request that you use this portal to encourage people to use Solar geysers, rain water harvesting and other environment friendly methods of harnessing natural resources for personal energy needs as this is the only sustainable way forward. Warm regards

Commute easy said...

Thanks for the suggestions Lezz.
We shall definitely look into promoting these worthy causes.

We totally appreciate your concern regarding such serious issues and would love to hear more suggestions from our users.

Cheers,
Vipul Kasera

Anonymous said...

I have been riding my 2 wheeler in bangalore without honk from last 8 years and I have never met with an accident or got into any argument with other commuters. I really get annoyed in traffic when people around me keep honking even on red light for no reason. It makes my day to start with irritation, so I started listening to my iPod when riding.
My request to all commuters, give it a shot to try without honking few times, it will make you enjoy the ride and feel good about yourself....

Rajiv Mathew said...

dear vipul,
i totally dig the CE initiative.
but do update the blog regularly with new and updates.
cheers
jive mathew

Anonymous said...

petrol price are up by Rs. 5 and diesel by Rs. 3, where are you?

Please rescue us.