Car owners in Taipei spend an average of two weeks worth of time per year stuck in traffic or searching for parking, Uber Asia-Pacific region strategy director Emilie Potvin said at a marketing event on Tuesday.
In addition, total carbon emissions of the city’s cars is equivalent to 700 times the internal volume of Taipei 101, Potvin said, citing a Boston Consulting Group study commissioned by Uber.
Many of Taipei’s 1.5 million cars have one driver and no passengers, which causes waste and inefficiency, she said.
For each user, ride-sharing services might save up to eight days per year, she added.
The study found that urbanites of Asian nations spend an average of 52 minutes per day in traffic and 25 minutes per day searching for parking, Boston Consulting director and senior partner Vincent Chin (陳世雄) said.
Replacing individual car ownership with shared rides would reduce traffic volume by 40 to 70 percent, depending on the city, he said.
For Taipei, the average car has 1.7 users, wasting more than 50 percent of the car’s passenger capacity, he added.
During peak traffic hours in the city, commutes are increased by a factor of 1.7 compared with normal traffic, lengthening travel time by 70 percent, Chin said.
Using ride-sharing services might lower the travel time factor to 1.1, he said.
During peak traffic hours, active cars in Taipei exceed the intended capacity of roads by 50 percent, he added.
The average driver spends US$5,000 per year on parking and fuel consumed by their vehicles when stuck in traffic, Chin said.
To celebrate Green Commute Day, Uber users are to receive a 10 percent discount of up to NT$30 on up to five rides tomorrow and next Friday, Potvin said.
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