RIDESHARING

by

Büşra Özkan, 118200038

Şevval Ciran, 118200086
Ecenur Zünbül, 118200076

Supervised by

Asst. Prof. Murat ORHUN

Submitted to the
FACULTY INFORMATION
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Bachelor of Science

in the
DEPARTMENT INFORMATION

January, 2023
 Abstract
What will shape the future of transportation in urban cities? Some people
think that ride-sharing will help to determine that answer. Ride-sharing, or
shared mobility, is defined as an “innovative transportation strategy that en-
ables users to gain short-term access to transportation modes on an as-needed
basis.” It can include various forms of transportation, such as car-sharing,
bike-sharing, carpooling and platform-based ride services (e.g., Uber, Lyft,
BlaBlaCar).
Historically, an individual could choose to move around an urban area in
a variety of ways. New travel alternatives enabled by new technology and
business models have provided individuals with even more choices. The con-
venience of requesting a ride from your phone, sharing a ride with a co-worker
or grabbing a bike outside your home has helped to propel ride-sharing to the
forefront of the sharing economy.[1]

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Table of Contents
Abstract iv

List of Figures iv

List of Tables v

1 Introduction 1

2 Related Works 2
2.1 UberPool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 BlaBlaCar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.3 Martı Tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3 Design Methodology 4

4 Methodology 5
4.1 Front-end . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.1.1 Mobile Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.1.2 Flutter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.2 Back-end . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.2.1 Google Firebase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

5 Application Design 7
5.1 Pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.2 Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.3 Becoming Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.4 Safety Concerns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5.5 Safety Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5.6 Effect on Taxis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5.7 Traffic congestion and carbon emissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

6 Conclusion 10

7 References 11

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 List of Figures

1 Related Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2 Map of countries where BlaBlaCar is active (Source: BlaBlaCar
2017k) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3 Agile Methodology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

iv
List of Tables

v
1 Introduction
Travelers today typically have a number of transportation modes avail-
able to go from their origins to their destinations. In selecting between these
different transportation modes, travelers consider a number of criteria, such
as cost, travel time, flexibility (ability to adapt to changes in schedule), con-
venience (such as the location of the pick-up and drop-off points, the ability
to listen to music, or privacy), reliability, and perception of security. To il-
lustrate, first consider systems such as buses or subways that provide a travel
option with a fixed geographic route and a fixed schedule, hereafter referred
to as fixed-line systems. These fixed-line systems charge a small fee to the
traveler, but come with little convenience. In con- trast, private cars or taxi
services come at a higher cost, but provide a more flexible, more convenient,
and often faster option.

Ridesharing refers to a mode of transportation in which individual travel-

ers share a vehicle for a trip and split travel costs such as gas, toll, and parking
fees with others that have similar itineraries and time schedules. Conceptu-
ally, ridesharing is a system that can combine the flexibility and speed of
private cars with the reduced cost of fixed-line systems, at the expense of
convenience. Advantages of ridesharing for participants (both drivers and
passengers), to society, and to the environment include saving travel cost,
reducing travel time, mitigating traffic congestions, conserving fuel, and re-
ducing air pollution (Ferguson, 1997; Kelley, 2007; Morency, 2007; Chan and
Shaheen, 2012). For the most part, however ridesharing coordina- tion is
an informal and disorganized activity and only in certain cases can trav-
elers make use of ridesharing as a regular transportation alternative. The
requirement that itineraries and schedules be coordinated between partici-
pants and the lack of effective methods to encourage participation are some
of the factors that have inhibited a wide adoption of ridesharing.

Ride-sharing aims to minimize negative impacts related to emissions, re-

duce travelling costs and congestion , and increase passenger vehicle occu-
pancy and public transit ridership. During the last decade, innovative mo-
bility solutions were introduced, including on-demand mobility services and
Mobility as a Service (MaaS), that focused on daily travel needs to promote
sustainable transport. The literature uses the term “ride-sharing” to de-
scribe various mobility sharing concepts. Ride-sharing refers to the common
use of a motor vehicle by a driver and one or several passengers, in order to
share the costs (non-profit) or to compensate the driver (i.e., paid service)
using billing information provided by the participants (for profit). In this

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study the term is used to describe the common use of a motor vehicle for
cost compensation, in the context of a ride, that the driver performs for its
own account (referred also as Carpooling); thus, it is not intended to result
in any financial gain .

2 Related Works
In a nutshell, ridesharing companies provide technology to organize trips
via ridesharing. Apps are the method of choice for virtually all customers.
The undisputed market leader is Uber, with percentage of 87.6 market share
in the US. But new players are quickly popping up.

Figure 1: Related Works

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2.1 UberPool
Uber matches you with other passengers on UberPool trips.It looks for
other riders who have pickups and destinations along the same path as your
pickup and destination.As you ride, your driver will stop to pick up other
riders before you reach your destination.It’s possible to pick up and drop off
more than one person between your pick-up and final destinations.This adds
time to your trip, of course.You’ll see an expected time of arrival in the Uber
app before accepting the Uber Pool service.You might end up on the ride all
by yourself if overall demand is low at the time of your trip.Don’t expect this
to happen.It’s more likely that you’ll share at least one ride with a second
passenger.Know that you can’t reserve more than two seats with UberPool.
That’s to ensure that there’s always room for other riders on these types of
Uber rides.

2.2 BlaBlaCar
BlaBlaCar is the world’s leading community-based travel network en-
abling over 100 million members to share a ride across 22 markets. BlaBlaCar
leverages technology to fill empty seats on the road, connecting members
looking to carpool or to travel by bus, and making travel more affordable,
sociable and convenient. BlaBlaCar’s environmentally and human-friendly
mobility network saves 1.6M tons of CO2 and enables 120M human connec-
tions every year.

Figure 2: Map of countries where BlaBlaCar is active (Source: BlaBlaCar

2017k)

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2.3 Martı Tag
With TAG, Martı brings together passengers who want to go in the same
direction as those who are traveling with their empty seats in their vehicle.
You will now be able to carry out vehicle transportation via TAG during
transportation journeys. For example, go to your TAG Driver, you can accept
Martı TAG users traveling on the same route to the website for the fee you
have agreed, and you can travel with several passengers.In this way, you will
both benefit from the benefits of life and save on fuel costs.

3 Design Methodology
AGILE METHODOLOGY

The Agile software development methodology is one of the simplest and

effective processes to turn a vision for a business need into software solutions.
Agile is a term used to describe software development approaches that employ
continual planning, learning, improvement, team collaboration, evolutionary
development, and early delivery. It encourages flexible responses to change.
The agile software development emphasizes on four core values.
1. Individual and team interactions over processes and tools
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
4. Responding to change over following a plan

Figure 3: Agile Methodology.

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4 Methodology
The proposed application, the design that the user sees on the screen,
namely the user interface, contains the database layers to retrieve the data,
hold the stock data and store the data. The user interface part is called
the front-end, and the front-end includes the design of an application under
construction and includes many elements from the font to the layout of the
content. The front-end is connected to the backend with the help of an
API. When the front-end makes the request through the API, the service
executes the required functions and connects to the database and performs
the requested task, then send the result of the request back to the front-end.
This application will be a mobile application developed through Flutter and
will perform operations with the help of API.

4.1 Front-end
An easy-to-use interface will be designed for front-end, where users can
easily find everything they are looking for in the application.

4.1.1 Mobile Application

Since two different operating systems (iOS and Android) are used on
mobile devices, the development process can take a very long time and the
developer has done double work. In order to prevent this situation, it was
decided to develop with Flutter, one of the technologies that simplifies the
work, as a cross-platform with a single coding language.

4.1.2 Flutter
Released in May 2017, Flutter is a Google-developed, open-source, and
free mobile UI framework. It enables you to build a native mobile application
using just one codebase, to put it briefly. Accordingly, you may design two
distinct apps using a single codebase and programming language (for iOS
and Android).

Flutter is made up of two crucial components:

A group of tools called an SDK will (Software Development Kit) assist

the developer in creating the apps. Tools for converting the code to native
machine code are also included (code for iOS and Android).

5
 An architecture (UI library based on widgets): a set of reusable user inter-
face components that may customize for the own purposes, such as buttons,
text inputs, sliders, and other elements.

Developer may alter the code and immediately see the effects. It is known
as Hot-Reload. After save, the program itself updates in a matter of seconds.
The developer mush refresh the app after significant changes. However, real-
time work occurs when perform tasks like design, for instance, and alter an
element’s size.

4.2 Back-end
The backend usually consists of a server, an application, and a database.
The program takes the information the user type into the website or applica-
tion and stores it in a database that is set up on the server. Back-end is the
part that the users cannot see in the application, but the whole operation is
provided. To illustrate how the back-end works simply, consider the following
examples: Application stores a piece of data in a server-side database life.

4.2.1 Google Firebase

Founded in 2011 as a chat API and acquired by Google in 2014, Google
Firebase is a platform that now offers active backend as a service (BaaS) for
building dynamic web and mobile apps.
Firebase concept is simple. When you build a client-side app with JavaScript
or any of its frameworks, for instance, Google Firebase can turn this into a
serverless app in no time. It also removes the need to manage databases
yourself, as it does that for you.
Therefore, implementing Firebase means plugging a ready-made backend
into your client code to make it dynamic. Ultimately, it eliminates the need to
write backend code from scratch and gives you a fully functional one instead.
Security-wise, it also has explicitly built-in security rules that make it a
trusted data and server handler. Plus, you get a protected backend when
you use these rules.

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5 Application Design
Ridesharing is a service that arranges one-way transportation on short
notice.
To use a ridesharing program, you’ll need:
• A smartphone
• A credit card or Paypal account
Getting started with ridesharing
Download either app to your smartphone to sign up for an account. Enter
your name, phone number, email, and payment information. Now you’re
ready to ride. When you log in, the map and suitable cars close to you are
seen in the application. Enter your destination, and a nearby driver will
accept your request. You can even watch the driver move on the map as he
or she gets closer to your location.
The driver then picks you up and takes you to your destination, and your
credit card is charged automatically. The entire transaction is handled by
the app; the driver does not handle any cash or credit card information.

5.1 Pricing
The opening fee starts with 20 TL and increases by 4 TL per minute. Fee
card and cash payment options are available.

5.2 Safety
Ridesharing services make safety a priority, but you still need to exercise
caution whenever you hire a driver. Here are some tips to help keep you safe:
• Verify the identity of the driver and the car before entering the vehicle.
The ridesharing app will give you the driver’s photo and the vehicle’s license
plate number.
• Check the driver’s review score before getting into the vehicle.
• If your personal safety is threatened, call emergency personnel immedi-
ately.
• If something doesn’t feel right, don’t get into the vehicle.

5.3 Becoming Driver

In order to become a driver for either company, you must do the following:
• Pass a background check
• Have a clean driving record
• Have a valid driver license

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 • Carry valid auto insurance
Ridesharing is a convenient and budget-friendly way to travel on short
notice. As ridesharing continues to expand, it will only become easier to find
nearby transportation whenever you need it most.

5.4 Safety Concerns

Ridesharing is built on trust between the customer and driver. Unfor-
tunately, there are those who take advantage of this trust. Customers have
been harassed, threatened, and assaulted. When these things happen, the
company will investigate each claim. If a driver is being investigated for crim-
inal activity, Ridesharing will suspend the driver’s access to the app while
the investigation is underway.

5.5 Safety Tips

While sharing economy companies do their best to ensure the safety of
everyone involved, unfortunate things still happen. Therefore, you will need
to exercise precaution. Here are some safety tips you can follow, regardless
of whether you’re hiring a driver or renting a vacation home:
• Check the review score, and read all comments carefully.
• Remember that you are in someone else’s space, so be sure to respect
it.
• If you’re traveling in a foreign country, learn how to contact emergency
personnel.
• If your personal safety is threatened, call the police immediately.
The sharing economy revolves around trust, and this trust includes the
belief that these services are both safe and legal. As long as these companies
maintain this trust, the sharing economy will continue to thrive.

5.6 Effect on Taxis

Values of taxi medallions, transferable permits or licenses authorizing the
holder to pick up passengers for hire, have declined in value significantly. A
couple of[vague] credit unions that lent money secured by medallions suf-
fered from bank failure. Taxi companies have sued ridesharing companies for
various reasons, including allegedly operating illegal taxicab operations on
the fact that Uber knew its drivers were not properly licensed and did not
have proper accreditation. Uber adopted a program to avoid enforcement
activities, and as a result had an unfair competitive advantage against taxi
and hire-car operators and drivers who did comply with the law. No case

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by taxis against Uber has ended with a judgment in favor of the taxis, with
most cases resulting in settlement or courts ruling for Uber. and the only
case proceeding to trial resulting in a full verdict for Uber.

Ride sharing platforms have a substantial impact on the taxi industry. A

study found that while some taxi drivers have lost income due to Uber, Uber
has created more jobs than it has destroyed.It also found that Uber drivers on
average spend a higher fraction of their time, and drive a substantially higher
share of miles, with a passenger in the car compared to drivers in traditional
taxi services, likely due to Uber optimizing their pairing algorithm.

5.7 Traffic congestion and carbon emissions

Studies have shown that especially in cities where it competes with public
transport, ridesharing contributes to traffic congestion, reduces public trans-
port use, and has no substantial impact on vehicle ownership and increases
automobile dependency. Dead mileage specifically causes unnecessary car-
bon emissions and traffic congestion. Taxicabs were noted to have lower
rider waiting time and vehicle empty driving time, and thus contribute less
to congestion and pollution in downtown areas. However, another report
noted that ridesharing complements public transit.

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6 Conclusion
Ride sharing aims to reduce negative impacts related to emissions, reduce
travel costs and congestion, and increase occupancy of passenger vehicles and
public transport passengers. The literature uses the term ”ride-sharing” to
describe various concepts of ride-sharing. Ride sharing refers to the common
use of a vehicle by a driver and one or more passengers, in order to share
costs (non-profit) or to compensate the driver (i.e. paid service) using billing
information provided by participants (for profit). In this study, the term
is used to describe the common use of the vehicle to offset the cost, in the
course of the trip, performed by the self-employed driver (also referred to as
Carpooling) ; Thus, it is not intended to result in any financial gain.

10
7 References
https://www.marsdd.com/news/ride-sharing-the-rise-of-innovative-transportation-
services/
Chan, N., Shaheen, S. A. (2012). Ridesharing in North America: Past,
present, and future. Transport Reviews, 32(1), 93–112.

Garling, T., Steg, L. (2007). Threats from car traffic to the quality of ur-
ban life: Problems, causes, and solutions. Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1108/9780080481449.

11 top international ridesharing companies in 2019/2020 https://onde.app/blog/top-

ride-sharing-companies ,Dec 6, 2019

Brett Helling, ”UberPool: How It Works, Cost, Pricing More” https://www.ridester.com/uber

,February 22, 2022

BLABLACAR MISSION STATEMENT, https://blog.blablacar.com/about-

us

Şenay Ceylan, ”Martı TAG nedir, nasıl kullanılır?” https://www.turizmgunlugu.com/2022/11/

tag-nedir-nasil-kullanilir/: :text=Mart

Thomas Hamilton,”Agile Methodology: What is Agile Model in Soft-

ware Testing?” https://www.guru99.com/agile-scrum-extreme-testing.html ,
November 19, 2022

IDOWU OMISOLA,”What Is Google Firebase and Why Should You Use

It?” https://www.makeuseof.com/what-is-google-firebase-why-use-it/ ,DEC
5, 2021

”What is ridesharing?” https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/sharingeconomy/what-

is-ridesharing/1/

Wikipedia ,”Ridesharing company” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridesharingc ompany

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