Buscar: 

The door-to-door trip

Sometimes revolutionary ideas are simple and they are there for all to see without anybody valuing them completely, until suddenly somebody realises their potential.

Probably the most revolutionary idea about 21st century transport, even more than automatic guidance, size reduction of vehicles or separation of speed by elevation, is the evidence that what every traveller wishes is to be collected at the door of his/her origin at the hour which suits him/her and to be rapidly taken to the door of his/her destination.

At the moment, that can only be done with a private vehicle or a taxi requested by telephone.

A private vehicle is expensive and dangerous; it is of no use for non-drivers if they do not have a driver at their disposition; it is very detrimental to the environment; it requires owner responsibility for operation, maintenance, administrative questions and accidents; it is not very effective in zones and times of congested traffic; usually finding parking causes difficulties.

A taxi eliminates almost all those disadvantages, but it is even more expensive.

What would happen if a public transport service, much cheaper than taxi and able to offer tailored trips, that is to say, from door-to-door on the schedule that suits the user, existed? Is it that currently possible or is it necessary to wait for several decades?

We can answer that it is already feasible, although without doubt in some time that service will be developed with a greater efficiency and rapidity.

The current revolutionary idea is that bus, train and taxi companies, along with travel agencies, enter into competition with the aim of offering door-to-door trips at public transport prices to a large number of travellers.

The formula to obtain it consists of:
1. The computerized combination of the supply and demand data for trips, within a fluid communication network between the central control and the travellers.
2. The use of vehicles between 12 and 20 seats for collecting and delivering travellers to their doors.
3. The combination of diverse means of public transport through agreements between companies.

In urban zones and suburbs, the first and second points, will be sufficient in the majority of cases. Minibuses will be gathering their passengers at their origin and leaving them at their destination according to a route established by a central computer program. Travellers will communicate by telephone or the Internet, the place where they are to be collected, the place where they are going to and the time margin. For short trips, half an hour’s notice will be sufficient. The central control will, a little later, communicate to them what vehicle is going to gather them and at what time within the established margin. The minibuses’ drivers will be guided by a computer screen that will set out one by one the collection or delivery points according to an intelligent route that takes maximum advantage of the route.

       

As for long trips outside the cities, it is necessary to add the third option: the combination of diverse means of public transport by agreement between companies. We see the case of a traveller resident in the Madrid area of Getafe who wants to travel to the Asturian town of Llanes. The central managing of the trips will be able to solve the door-to-door concept in the following way: A minibus that serves flexible urban routes gathers him/her at the established hour outside his/her building entrance and takes him/her to the Madrid bus-station; here the traveller takes a bus that travels 500 kilometres to Oviedo station, where another minibus take him/her to the door of his/her destination in Llanes. The complete route, with the minimum possible time delay, within the valid margin for the client, has been designed by the transport partnership’s computer program. Evidently, in the three vehicles used the traveller has met with many other travellers who have different routes. The program has reunited them on a part of them, because that combination of interests is what maintains a public transport price.

Agreements between companies do not discard the combination of road and other means. In this case, the route between Madrid and Oviedo could be by train or airplane. The trip manager can offer the client the three options, with its schedules and prices, so that he/she chooses.
Here are the revolutionary consequences of management of door-to-door trips:

 

 

- The satisfaction of an old yearning of all public transport users, who will pleased to pay more for so complete a service than for that of conventional lines.
- The change of many private vehicle users to this type of trip, since it is cheaper; more comfortable because it is not necessary get the car from a garage nor to take care of parking; faster in congested cities, where bus lanes will make public traffic more penetrating that the rest; safer; calmer, free from the stress of driving; less subject to responsibility for breakdowns or accidents. To these arguments it is necessary to add that many private vehicle trips are made with a driver who carries a relative who is a non-driver, for example, parents who take to their children to a swimming course, or people who take an old or disabled relative to a medical consultation. Door-to-door minibuses can collect children travelling alone from the age of ten, as well as any non-driver of any age or condition.
- The clearing and decontamination of cities, just from the reduction of private vehicle trips. The environment on a world-wide scale will be thankful for this radical change in the transport of the masses.
- The creation of new economic activity generating employment and wealth. Many companies derived from the current travel agencies will arrange contracts with their customers to solve the door-to-door concept of their trips according to diverse types of price and cover: all journeys, or those that happen within a certain city, or region, or country; or on a daytime schedule; or not including journeys to the countryside, et cetera. A simple telephone call to the trip manager, with a certain advance in booking and a certain time margin, will be enough for all types of short and long journeys that meet the conditions of the contract.
- The last consequence of door-to-door trip management, although of no less significance, is that it will benefit the technological development of the computerization of transport. A simplified but illustrative outline of the successive stages, is the following one: Generalised management of the door-to-door trips – Reduction in vehicle size - Separation of speed by light elevation - Automatic guidance - Separation of merchandise by narrow conduits.

This is an idea that we have on hand and we are not yet able to understand all its consequences.

 

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