Concept of a Community Ride Share Model for Designing a Smart City in Emerging Countries: A Case Study in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Safe, affordable and comfortable transportation in a smart city can add significant social values. Absence of these features causes extra burden to females living in cities of emerging countries. Female corporate workers quit their jobs due to unsafe transport. Mothers of school going children need to chauffeur their kids to school by compromising their jobs. This paper studies the family mobility needs, their affordability, current mobility expenses and proposes a new family mobility oriented rideshare model to increase safety and comfort within their affordability. A case study has been carried out in Dhaka, Bangladesh to understand the mobility needs and the suitability of the proposed community ride share system. This papers reports the study results and discusses the opportunity of using family RDS as an alternative mode which ensure child safety while travelling alone and reduce the burden on their parents.