Regarding an effective car pool system: you need to provide incentive to people to carpool. The benefit can't just be "less cars on the road," people don't care enough about that (unfortunately).
Here's what I propose:
Citizens can register their cars with the City as registered pool cars. These cars are outfitted with a QR Code scanner or some sort of Bluetooth approval. People who register their cars can receive a small tax benefit from the city, or some sort of City credit for City services (e.g., golf course passes, facility usage, parking credit, etc.)
Carpoolers can download an app on their smartphone from the City that they can use with the car-installed QR code scanner. Each morning they get into a registered pool car, they scan their phone as an inbound passenger and the data goes back to a City database. At the end of the day, they scan again (doesn't have to be the same pool car), but this time as an outbound passenger. A person is only allowed to scan their phone twice per day (once inbound, once outbound) between 6 AM and 6 PM). During non commute-times (ergo, less traffic), the carpool app isn't used.
Carpool participants can earn credit the more they commute in a daily carpool. The app usage allows a participant to earn credit and use rewards, such as a choice of tax rebate credit (discount on yearly property taxes), City facility credits (gyms, golf, etc.), or any participating private company that wants to provide a discount/incentive for their products. The app would support private advertising (same thing as ads in buses and trains), and the QR scan could be used directly at participating retail stores for instant discounts. This would work off the model of the Air Miles or Scene points system.
To prevent people from scamming the system, the credit is only given if 2 or more people have scanned in, and the car has moved a certain threshold (based on GPS positioning with your own phone) while scanned in. Also, depending on the model/size of the vehicle (which you let the City know when registering your car), the car can only scan a maximum of either 2, 4 or 7 occupants (based on the number of seats in your car).
I believe carpooling can happen, as long as you provide incentives and convenience for all participants.
Thoughts?
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