The document discusses ideas for improving and innovating the taxi industry. It suggests implementing a transit exchange that allows passengers to pre-summon shared rides in the vehicle type of their choosing. This would offer passengers more choice in service levels, prices, vehicle types, and ride qualities. The exchange could adapt in real-time to customer demand and match passengers going in similar directions dynamically using location-aware cellphones and social networks. The exchange has the potential to reduce traffic and costs while offering more flexible transportation options.

1. .
The taxi industry: A New Beginning

2. search application for transit

3. Did you know that shared
is the "normal" mode of taxi
usage in most countries
Kampala, Uganda

5. Minibus in

6. Crowded Jeepney in Downtown
Traffic, Manila, Philippines

7. Nairobi, Kenya

8. Did you know that the taxi industry is
the only transport sector in which customers
still regularly post-pay for their rides?

9. Post-Pay - that means, you ride
first and then pay. Exposing the
vehicle operators to credit risk.

10. Can you imagine an airline in which
that was normal practice?

11. $800 please

12. And speaking of airlines, did you
know that it costs more to travel
per mile in a Hackney cab in
London, than it did flying to New York
on Concorde?

13. And back

14. That it costs more to take a cab-
ride 10 miles to a London airport
......

15. ...........than it does to fly to
Munich?

16. yes.
Munich!

17. Why is that?

18. Could things be any
different in the taxi
business?

19. Could things be any better
?

20. So, what's the big
idea?

21. Getting strangers to
share taxis on a
largescale

22. by pre-summoning their
ride in a vehicle type of
their choosing

23. What are you
smoking?

24. Yet it has been done
and has been
proven to work

27. Could we now have a taxi system that
adapts every hour to its customers?

28. Or even every minute?

29. Or even every minute?

30. That is flexible and
responsive to the demands
of its customers?

31. Offering a choice of
service levels, prices
and ride qualities

32. A choice of different
vehicle types

34. Large capacity buses for peak times.

35. Cars for off peak

36. A choice of ambience

37. Choice of ride partner

38. Taxis for parents with
small children

39. suitable vehicles
for the mobility impaired

40. Taxis for club
meets

41. Taxis for nurses
CAPTION: [To help them
get to work, find spare
shifts.]

42. Taxis for nurses

43. Taxis for co-
workers

44. The potential applications are endless.

45. Eliminate the language
problem of hailing a cab

46. Branded taxi firms?

47. Buses could now operate
almost like taxis, picking up
people from near their front

48. Or indeed taxis could be now be considered
to be buses, replacing functions undertaken
by previously scheduled services.

49. Like a schoolbus

50. With a certain group of people
inside, like business travellers

51. Or activity partners
.

52. Or activity partners
.

53. Businesses could get more custom.....

54. and customers could avoid
the hassle of trying to
arrange a designated driver

55. or a conviction

56. Women could opt to
travel in women only
taxis for safety purposes.

57. with a woman driver

60. The answer is a
transit exchange

61. What is our
secret sauce?

62. credit contagion

63. credit contagion
+
social network mask

64. credit contagion
+
social network mask
+
location aware
cellphones

65. credit contagion
+
social network mask
+
location aware
cellphones
=
dynamic
matching

66. We are more closely
correlated than we imagine

67. Based on certain
demographics factors, many
of us have similar itineraries

68. So often, there is someone we
could share a ride with. If only we
knew they had the same need as
us

69. The key problem
has been
overcoming

70. The coincidence of
wants

72. So has this
worked anywhere
yet?

73. Isle of Wight, UK

74. July - December 2008

75. 700 shared
trips fulfilled

76. What makes a transit exchange
work where all other
approaches have failed?

77. What percentage
does the
exchange take?

78. What percentage
does the
exchange take?
25%

79. 25%
?

80. Isn't that a lot?

81. The "Math"
100 cabs 8 trips / day
*

82. The "Math"
100 cabs 8 trips / day
*
*
5 passengers / cab

83. The "Math"
100 cabs 8 trips / day
*
*
5 passengers / cab
*
£10 / passenger

84. The "Math"
100 cabs 8 trips / day
*
*
5 passengers / cab
*
£10 / passenger
=
£40,000

87. Our unique
approach is holistic

88. We combine

89. operational
concepts
branding
backend algorithms
change the problem
space

91. What powers the
exchange?

94. Less traffic on the
road

95. Take people to and
from railway
stations

96. Work as a kind of "text and
ride" for light transit
systems