All About this App

Cars contribute a modest amount of pollution on their own, but due to the huge base amount of the cars and the increasing trend, transportation become one of the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions by direct fuel use between 1990 and 2008. The amount of greenhouse and poisonous gases released into the atmosphere endangers the environment and causes severe health effects in humans. The American Lung Association reports that 30,000 people are killed by car emissions annually in the United States alone. Air pollution also causes numerous respiratory and cardiovascular problems and may exacerbate pre-existing conditions such as asthma.

Strict regulations on emission of vehicles can be one of the solutions on greenhouse gases emission reduction. In the other way, as individuals, carpooling can also be effectively beneficial for GHG emission reductions. Air quality can be improved with fewer cars on the road. By carpooling, it helps reduce health risks associated with the poisonous gases released. In addition, carpooling will save money. Carpooling allows you to share the cost of gas and parking, cutting your expenses by nearly 50% or more. Carpooling is also socially economical. The costs towards the construction of new roads, road maintenance and air pollution related health costs can be reduced.

The goal of our application is to provide a carpooling platform app, supporting and promoting carpooling for improving environment and social economic. Using our app, you will be demonstrated with detailed information of how much you will save if you choose carpooling over driving alone. At our platform, you can find available carpooling around you and share your route with others.

1. Select your car. More than 50 car models are available. You may choose year, make and model of your car.
2. Click Home button. Then click the map to set the starting point.
3. Click Destination button. Then click the map to set the starting point.
4. Route will be generated automatically when you finish setting the destination. Values about the route will present for you, including distance, driving time needed, CO2 emissions and Cost.

1. Use the same method to set home and destination by clicking Home button and Destination button. The Route will show at the map.
2. Go to the Carpool tab.
3. Click the Green button to get query results of available carpools.
4. The people 1km around you and with the same destination will be showed on the map. And you may contact them with email.

1. Use the same method to set home and destination by clicking Home button and Destination button. The Route will show at the map.
2. Go to the Carpool tab.
3. Input your name and email. Other people will contact you by this email for carpooling together.
4. Click the Blue button to submit the route.
5. Your info will be uploaded into the database and will be open to users 1km near to you.

This video gives you a full walk-through of this app.

Route, Distance and Driving Time

• The ArcGIS API for JavaScript is used for requesting Route, Distance and Driving Time data.

The CO2 Emissions

• The Equation is: CO2 Emissions= COE x Distance x 2 x 200.
• COE represents the tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide for combined city and highway driving.
• Excluding the holidays, 200 days per year were assumed for commuting to work.
• Round trip is assumed.

The Cost Estimation

• The Equation for Cost : Cost = Gas Price(CND/L) x Fuel Consumption(L/km) x Distance(km) x 2 x 200.
• It is assumed that the gas price is 115 cents/liter. The assumption is based on the average gas price data of previous five months of toronto area. The data is available from Statistics Canada.
• The Fuel Consumption is value for the specific car model user selected. The combined rating (assuming 55% of city, 45% of highway) is used.
• Excluding the holidays, 200 days per year were assumed for commuting to work.
• Round trip is assumed.

Open Sourced Data

1. Gas Price Data
2. Fuel Consumption Ratings Data
3. Canada Transportation Data

Tools:

1. ArcGIS API for JavaScript
2. HTML, CSS, JS
3. D3.js
4. GIS Online

1. User registration functionality. Only registered users will access to query available carpools. The public can only use route information estimation without registration.
2. User permissions. Users will have permissions to change the data records they submitted.
3. User records. Users will know how much contributions is done towards environment in saving Fuel, CO2 emissions and Costs.
4. More comprehensive vehicle information and support calculation for more than 2 people sharing the route.