E-bikes and Carshare in Berkshire, UK
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This looks straightforward: Provide sustainable transport and people will use it instead of owning cars. But that's not what happens, why? One reason is that they already own cars and there is a transition period during which new services coexist with these cars, as shown below. This increases costs and is a barrier to change.
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250 million cars in Europe cost users over 1.2 Trillion euros per year, making it impossible for the market to respond in a balanced way to any new services. Transport Group DAOs address this fundamental problem, allowing providers and users to establish supply and demand online before changes, to transport provision and car ownership, are made on the ground. The members of a Transport Group co-own and govern the development of passenger transport bottom-up, rather than top-down, in a sustainable, shared and circular economy.
In America there are many benefits to reducing the number of private cars:
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They cost $1.5 Trillion per year
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They are parked 95% of the time
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They kill 42,000 people per year and leave over 2 million with life altering injuries
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Cause congestion: The average American driver spends 51 hours per year stuck in traffic
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Contribute 17% of total US greenhouse gas emissions
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They dominate urban landscapes, leading to anti-social neighbourhoods
Web3 for passenger transport
Transport Groups can be divided into 3 Parts, each making different use of smart contracts on a decentralised blockchain. Part 1 holds money from road usage charging in escrow, Part 2 crowdfunds supply and demand, and Part 3 manages variable pay-per-use rates for new services.
Part 1. Carbon offsetting cars
Linking new services with the cars they substitute makes it possible to validate carbon reductions and create new revenue streams for developing transport. Instead of road usage charging (RUC) only being used to make roads bigger, they can include tokens which car owners link to the development of specific new services, ones that will enable them to own fewer cars. Funds from RUC tokens are held by a smart contract until supply and demand for a new service has been established (Part 2). Data from car use before this transition and from the use of alternatives, after the transition, is used to validate the reduction in carbon emissions. The RUC tokens can then be sold as carbon credits to the voluntary carbon market. Car owners participate by either changing to sustainable alternatives or continuing to drive and offsetting their cars. Employers can collaborate to meet ESG commitments using their own data and communication links to identify, prompt and incentivise potentially compatible users in a targeted way.
Part 2. Crowdfunding supply and demand
Conventional Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platforms only integrate existing transport provision. This is no use to people who own cars because existing transport does not meet their needs. Transport Groups DAOs allow providers and users to integrate both supply and demand, and to co-own and govern the development of new services. Transport Groups are crowdfunded online, before changes to car ownership and transport provision are made on the ground. This avoids increasing costs when new services would normally have to coexist with the private cars of target users. It allows the viability of one new service to be conditional on the viability of another new service. Using a decentralised solution overcomes the problems of complexity and lack of knowledge, which have previously made it impossible to replace private cars.
Part 3. Shifting financial responsibility
In the crowdfunding process of Part 2, members of a Transport Group commit to variable pay-per-use rates that cover the cost of new services. They collectively ‘trade-in’ their combined cars for combined alternatives that meet the same needs. As with trading-in a single car, this ensures there is no time during which they are both paid for at the same time. It shifts financial responsibility for developing new services from providers to users. NB users already control the money that pays for transport, delivered by private cars. A smart contract manages variable pay-per-use rates, using data sent by an oracle network from real world events, such as transport being provided or used. Controlling pay-per-use rates also allows a Transport Group to leverage its initial funding from the future savings made by owning fewer cars.