Existing solutions

There something weird about traveling in public transport: It puts you within centimeters of people you have never met. You can almost feel their breath. As they stare into the empty space, you can sense their sorrows, fears and aspirations. You can trace their life story through the artifacts it has left on their bodies.

But you cannot interact with them. People stay to themselves. In fact, you have to be extremely careful not to look at someone for too long or to actually glance at their eyes.

To me, the grumpy, lethargic silence of these places has always been a pain. I believe that humans can make more of this time. But before changing the world, you have to really understand it. So in this blog post I want to ask 5 questions about why things are the way they are in public transit today. Feel free to share your thoughts below, so we can answer them together.

One would expect that with rapidly advancing technology, waiting long hours in public transport would become a thing of the past. The opposite is true: People are commuting and waiting more than ever! We want to reach increasingly distant places and realize that shared mobility is the only sustainable way to do that.

Many people just sit there doing nothing. Are they reflecting about their lives, thinking about an upcoming decision? Do they use the time to switch into a meditative state and relax? Or are they actually doing nothing (if that is possible)? Others turn to the smart phone. Are they using it to complete a task or are they just bored and looking for a task?

The sole function of public transport is to bring us to the place we want to be. Once we are inside a moving cabin and this function is being fulfilled, the physical surrounding has no other significance for our lives. Nothing meaningful happens here that involves the outside world, with three exceptions: Poor people getting in your face asking for money, ticket inspectors just taking it and advertisement. Does a space like that even deserve to be called a ‘place’?

Many of us find it hard to interact with people they do not know and have no prior connection with — especially when no one else does that. This might be a result of our biological evolution: For most of human existence it was important to conform to the group’s behavior and impossible to trust people outside one’s kinship. But now that safety and freedom are often guaranteed, should we not overcome our social fears to reap the benefits of cooperating in larger groups?

Reading, music, relaxation — for all these activities, arguably, there are other environments that are better suited. One opportunity is unique to public transport: We find ourselves here in a room with people from across society and since many are traveling alone and there is not much else to do, they have time. Some would never meet anywhere else, because their backgrounds are so different. Every person has access to a world of information, stories and skills, which could be immensely valuable and completely unknown to someone else in the direct proximity. But currently there is no way for this potential to be revealed. Even without an explicit information exchange, real human interactions are often entertaining, challenging and inspiring in a way that online communication cannot be. But again, when you don’t know who else sees it that way, initiating a conversation is prohibitively expensive.

Technology can address these problems.

Related posts:

Designing is an essential part of creating anything, from products and marketing materials to processes, experiences, and organizations. It involves carefully thinking through a problem and finding…

Money plays a big factor in our daily lives; we use it for our satisfaction. The more we spend, the healthier the economy, therefore raising the minimum wage would make sense. However, raising the…

CrowdfundClicks.com is a performance marketing agency focused on raising funds for crowdfunders on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Crowdfund Clicks has a reputation of getting results for their clients…