More than 1,000 people have signed up to a free community carpool service developed by a Dubai teenager who wanted to speed up his brother’s journey to school and cut rush-hour traffic.
In between studying for exams, Anvith Yalamanchili, a 17-year-old IB student at Dwight Global, has dipped his toe into the world of traffic management.
After his brother's commute to school in Dubai Sports City tripled to around 45 minutes over two years, Anvith decided to take action.
A keen eye for sustainability solutions lies behind the teenager's ambition to study regenerative businesses with an environmental focus.
That has been kickstarted by his Community Carpool scheme, which has been a huge success since it launched earlier this year.
Explaining the website's origins, he said: “Three new schools opened in the same area, which caused an increase in cars in that area, causing traffic and delays.
“I noticed a lot of these cars were coming from the same communities, like Arabian Ranches or Sports City, and they all had empty seats.
“It made me realise people should be able to carpool and that would speed up travel times at the busiest time of day.”
Expanding service
The free service works by users signing up at communitycarpool.org, where they need to submit brief details about their travel plans and contact details.
Users then indicate their ride preferences, which are used to find suitable matches for carpooling. The model supports not only school pupils but also workers or people visiting sports clubs.
“In the beginning, I was manually matching people who had signed up on a map,” said Anvinth.
“I would put pins down and try to see how far everyone was away from each other … But then I realised that the more people involved, the more difficult that was to do, so I created a system.”
His website uses the Haversine mathematical formula to find the shortest distance between two points on the surface of a sphere.
By using a user’s latitude and longitude, it finds the most direct route, similar to Google Maps. The algorithm works out how far apart people are and who to match up, depending on their radius and other preferences.
The carpool currently has 1,000 users and has recently partnered with Damac, expanding its use among the property developer's employees.
“I want this to grow as much as possible in the UAE, and to expand in other areas of the world with similar traffic situations,” said Anvith.
“I think places like India and some cities in America could really benefit from this. My parents and friends have signed up, and the feedback has been quite positive.”
Now he has a team of interns who help him promote the platform in their schools and help with some of its upkeep.
Increasing options
Carpooling is a growing industry in the UAE, with established ride-hailing apps tapping into schools as an emerging market.
Dubai Roads and Transport Authority has highlighted four app-based school transport options for the 2026 school year.
They include Careem, Uber School, Bolt School and Yango School Rides, which is a monthly pooled service in Al Barsha.
Shashi Singh, director of operations at Yango, launched carpooling services for children as part of a pilot project in January. He said costs were comparable with school buses.
“All our drivers are vetted, but we did an additional round of training as we're dealing with schoolchildren, especially [on how] they need to respond in emergencies,” he said.
“We also use the same driver and vehicle for the same child on a regular basis, which brings an additional layer of familiarity for children and parents.”
The service uses GMC vehicles, each kitted out with a Roads and Transport Authority security camera.
Rides are limited to six people per trip, and parents can track vehicles in real time, receiving What’s App messages after pick-up and drop-off.
“The aim is taking more cars off the road, so we are trying to cater to the parents who are dropping their children off individually,” said Mr Singh.
“If there are four children going in four different cars, if you can pull them together you're removing three cars off the road.”
Shorter waiting times for children to be dropped off and reduced traffic are bonuses for parents. Costs are around Dh1,000 per seat per month.
Short-term vehicle hire firm Udrive has experienced a spike in demand for its 2,000 vehicles across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman since the start of the new term.
During the August back-to-school period, the number of Udrive customers aged 30–50 increased by approximately 60 per cent compared with the same period last year. Reservations made by this age group also increased by around 35 per cent.
“While we cannot attribute all of this growth directly to school journeys, the figures show a clear year-on-year increase in Udrive usage among this demographic during the back-to-school period,” said Hasib Khan, Udrive’s founder and chief executive.
“Parents can use the app to locate a nearby vehicle, see how long it will take to walk there, unlock it using their phone and start their journey.
“School mornings can already be stressful, so we aim to make the mobility element as straightforward as possible.”
