redBus, the world’s largest online bus ticketing platform, announces the introduction of bikes into rPool, its in-app ride sharing service that was launched recently. Starting with Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune, this new service allows office goers to avail and offer rides in their personal two-wheelers, while commuting between home and their workplace.
Like car pool, bike pool, emerges from the need to develop sustainable solutions for the burgeoning traffic congestion problems that most Indian cities endure on an everyday basis. The spurt in ownership of private vehicles over the last decade, far outpaces the development of infrastructure needed to sustain them, resulting in severe cramming, impacting the quality of life, environment and the economy. According to multiple studies conducted, Indian cities are among the most congested in the world.
The higher travel duration resulting from congestion within cities and inadequate public transport infrastructure, has led to commuters relying on personal two-wheelers, especially for travel to and from work, considering their size advantage and manoeuvrability. About 75% of all vehicles in India are two-wheelers, with one in three households owning one. Two-wheelers are therefore best suited for shared commute, thanks to greater concentration, easier access and quicker travel, comparatively. The concept also allows young office-goers, savings on fuel as they share costs by offering their pillion seats to a co-rider. redBus believes in the concept of ‘shared mobility’, as a sustainable option to tackling the situation of vehicular congestion and considers bike pooling to be one of the best solutions, in addition to carpooling.
