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The Familiar World
The “familiar world” of urban transport presents a grim scenario across cities around the world. The frames may vary amongst cities, but the underlying assumptions that govern the failed “familiar world” are the same.

“The frames for Mumbai, for instance, brings images of cavalcade of motor vehicles caught in bumper-to-bumper traffic congestion, discomforted and vulnerable pedestrian, raging drivers, dug up roads, dusty roads, roads under perpetual repairs; flyovers which are left incomplete for several years; overcrowded buses; long queues on bus stops along with empty seats on air conditioned cars, with rolled up windows and dented bodies. What meet the eyes (and enters the lungs) outside in the “familiar world” are vehicular fumes (dense due to poor fuel quality and localised in traffic jams).”

This “familiar world” negates the primary basis of a city. A city is marked by its ability to intensify good quality interaction. With such slow traffic as exist in most cities, they fail to serve intensive interaction.

Further, in a causal loop with frustration over traffic delays, stressed minds due to lack of rest; due to lack of time for social nurturing, road accidents and missed meetings; traffic congestion affects the quality of interaction as well as the quality of our lives. Air, water, land and noise pollution due to vehicular emission further affect us as they creekily creep into our body and mind through various channels. Direct and indirect, internal and external, individually and collectively, we continue to pay a heavy price of holding on to these assumptions.

Congestion Is First In Our Minds, Next On The Roads
One, such assumption is that vehicles are owned and self-driven, as the most favored mode of transportation. Many people cannot afford a chauffer even if they would prefer to. Many others do not wish to depend on a chauffer. Yet, on a closer look, this assumption leads to a host of problems.

As traffic gets slower and the distances get longer (as people are forced to sprawl to suburbs also as downtowns get congested), the driving times are longer and frustratingly slow. Time for which, people are incapacitated to perform other tasks. Many people are not good drivers or do not enjoy driving, but have no option. We are captive to our own assumption.

What and who safeguards them? What happens when we learn about them and change these mental models? The purpose of this paper is to expose the invalidity of these models that severely affect our daily lives and endanger the future of our children. This is carried in the first section. To understanding the invalidity of these models is to be able to simultaneously apply new knowledge and technologies in areas of “on the road” behavior, transportation data collection methodologies, wireless technologies, GIS, GPS, large scale database management, faster processing times, etc..

In the second section, we describe how a new system for urban transport emerges out of the changed assumption. This new system is called VSMaRT – an acronym for Variegated System of Mass Rapid Transit.

In the VSMaRT scenario, for instance, some users could choose to drive some of the time. A system rates drivers on their proficiency. All users who book a seat on a vehicle can select the option to drive. Amongst those who choose to drive, the user with the highest Driver Proficiency Rating gets the opportunity. The driver is rewarded by a share of the value generated to the co-passengers in terms of hands free time to perform other tasks - chat with their favored co-passenger, read a magazine, talk on phone, video conference with your home, office or business partners; play music, video games just choose to relax. All the while you enjoy a smooth and fast ride to your destination.

Opportunities for social or professional interaction emerge as people select individual or groups of favored co-passenger with whom they would value their time together.

VSMaRT Changes A Familiar World
VSMaRT challenges the familiar world of the automobile. It downplays the importance of the automobile as a prestigious possession to merely a means to a complete travel experience. This includes faster traffic with guaranteed door-to-door travel time; navigation support for the best route to your destination; choice to travel with a group of favorite co-passengers or single; choice to drive or to avail of hands free comfort and flexibility to make a phone call, connect to the internet, video conference/chat, listen to music or play video games; greater road safety with fewer vehicles driven by competent drivers; without the hassles of finding a parking place; taking your vehicle to the fuelling station; repair, maintenance and lots more that transforms our travel experience to very much the way we would like it to be.

In its journey to fulfill our dreams of healthy and sustainable urban transport, VSMaRT navigates quite a few mindbends through clear communication and crosses several other hurdles set up by entrenched practices and vested interests. It ingeniously leverages recent developments in wireless communication, GIS software, GPS technology and a host of Information technology tools to overcome the obstacles.

The VSMaRT model is consciously designed to minimize externalities such as pollution - air, water, land and noise, congestion, accidents, visual intrusion and ecosystem fragmentation and to pay for irreducible externalities.

The key proposition of VSMaRT is that it provides the comfort and convenience that closely matches (and even betters on certain counts) that of private vehicles and at the same time matches the economy and efficiency of conventional Mass Rapid Transit systems. At present travel choice is largely defined as the CHOICE amongst alternative modes of travel such as private vehicle, public transport and intermediate public transport e.g. taxis.

VSMaRT redefines CHOICE as amongst “Variegated” Value Plans of price-level of service composites that are packaged to closely match or exceed customer expectations. Compared with the level of service available at current price levels, VSMaRT is bound to delight the users. The opportunity lies in all urban areas that are still steeped in the "familiar world".