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Transportation and Automobile Design
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sameer_m@nid.edu |
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Car Sharing in Melbourne
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Systems and Vehicle Design
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Guide Praveen Nahar |
Sponsonr Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, (RMIT), Melbourne, Australia
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I completed my project at RMIT University, Melbourne in association with Flexicar, Melbourne. My project centered on a car sharing system, which is looked upon as an alternative to private car ownership, thereby proving to be a form of sustainable transportation.
The main theme behind was sustainability, owing to the fact that car-sharing encourages the citizens of a city to give up their personal cars and to join a car sharing organization. Basically, it means that cars, which were perceived as a form of private transportation till now, were to be promoted as a form of public transportation. I studied the existing system, analyzed the problem areas, and came up with some design interventions in the system which could benefit the overall concept of saying no to private car ownership and promote a car-sharing concept over large communities and organizations. I then designed a car - the BMW EX2- to suit the proposed car sharing system and a corresponding model interface (a website). Given that the environmental performance of the car was critical, I chose environmentally friendly materials that were available in Australia
(Natural Gas/LPG/Compressed Air).
Through my project, I developed a holistic understanding of potential future situations arising due to certain issues such as fuel costs and rising number of vehicles on roads. The Australian project contributed to a diametrically opposite view-point from the Indian mind-frame where cars are considered as status symbols. I feel that I now have an evolved understanding of social entrepreneurship. My next aspiration is to make a movie which will explain the whole project in totality. |
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