With the economy in decline and peak oil in the back of our minds, many of us are rethinking the way we travel. While some are rediscovering the amenities of train travel, others are warming up to the idea of sharing their sacred car space with others, even if it means losing some convenience or privacy.
The system of ridesharing has a long history of its own in Germany, where the first national rideshare institutions were established in the 1950s. Over the course of time, posts within all major cities’ central stations and universities evolved where rideshares could be arranged on commission. The original “rideshare shacks” have mostly disappeared in favor of more appealing and flexible services available on the internet, such as market leader Mitfahrgelegenheit.de. With about 30 million visits and around 150,000 offered rides per month, the platform offers an easy and convenient way for people either seeking or selling ridespace to get in touch. It’s become one of the easiest ways to travel in Germany when you are on a budget (- and of course, it’s also more environment friendly than driving your own car).
Some of the former offline rideshare services such as Citynetz or Mitfahrzentralen have made a transition into the online world, too, as their streetside posts continue disappearing.
In December, The New York Times featured an elucidating article about iPhone applications (Avego Shared Transport and Carticipate) that aim to establish on-the-fly rideshares within a community. The idea of flexible mobile rideshares using smart technology has been discussed in other places as well; its implications and potential are well described in a white paper published by Nokia Research Center in 2006 and it has also been proposed as part of Google’s ideation challenge Project 10100.
Nokia’s paper examined “next generation ridesharing and its potential to mitigate traffic and emission problems in the 21st century”. Assuming 2 empty seats per car in about 236 Million cars in the US, the publishers calculated a value of 5 cents per seat and kilometer. Using these numbers the economic value of travelling with empty seats would add up to about 500 Billion € per year. Both success factors and reservations towards rideshares are well-documented and explained, but naturally the perception of rideshares in general may vary between cultures.
Security and trust are obviously key factors. Without doubt a certain risk is involved when picking up and taking rides from strangers. But what if someone built a trusted community around the service? What if there was a way to ensure riders and drivers were safe and/or certified, and rides could be user rated?
The NYT article describes the challenges for a smart rideshare application in the US, pointing out that the number of people carpooling actually decreased between 1980 and 2007:
Although there is anecdotal data that carpooling rose during the recent spike in gasoline prices, American drivers have historically preferred solo trips. About three-quarters of workers in the United States drive alone, said Dr. Mark Mather, associate vice president for domestic programs at the Population Reference Bureau, a research organization in Washington.
From 1980 to 2007, workers were carpooling in decreasing numbers, he added. About 20 percent of workers carpooled in 1980, versus just 10 percent last year. “Trip chaining — running errands on the way to and from work,” was part of the reason, he said. “You can’t do that if you are with five other people.” Dr. Mather’s figures are based on the 2007 American Community Survey of the Census Bureau.
Apart from newly introduced applications such as Avego Shared Transport, the US have several of their own rideshare platforms such as Zimride or Goloco. As the article points out, though, the question remains whether people, especially in the US, will be able to shift gears in their thinking about sharing seats in their cars. Ride sharing will surely not reach the masses, but if we could widen the niche of people using this affordable and energy-efficient transportation just a bit more, it would be a significant stride towards improving our growing transportation problems.
[image via Hysterical Bertha on Flickr]
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Make a point of checking out the ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ episode where Larry hires a prostitute so he can get in the fast lane to get to a ball game. It’s awesome.
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:40 pm
A curious thing about the stated value of 5 cents/mile (or kilometer) — this is a totally inadequate incentive to drivers. It is just not worth it. In the US, the average cost is about 58 cents per mile, which adds right up, but still isn’t enough incentive to motivate Americans.
Another real issue is how to generate critical mass. How does the first trip poster, and the 100th, and the 1000th find ride satisfaction while we build toward critical mass? In Germany, this all took hold because of a total lack of alternatives — West Berlin to West Germany was a sluice with few options.
January 24th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Carpoolers need meeting places, not databases. Pre-arrangement, even a few minutes before the event, creates the seeds of the arrangement’s destruction. Having made the connection using whatever smart technology, the participants then have to find each other. Can you imagine the traffic snarl-ups that these systems are going to cause?
I agree that we must use up the empty seats, (I think some part of the tolling of roads should be levied against the empty seats, to encourage a new ‘behaviour’), and much could be saved in energy, emissions, and time if we could make sharing rides easier.
My suggestion is that you look to the slug lines and casual carpools as the basic idea. Between Washington DC and San Francisco CA these two low cost solutions are saving the country about 3 million gallons of gas per year, and their associated emissions. Plus reducing travel time and strengthening the communities. Imagine if that benefit could be achieved in 100 cities in the US?
I call this ‘flexible carpooling’, where there is no pre-arrangement.
January 24th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Hi Paul,
Agree that casual carpooling is a much better way to go than using apps like Carticipate, if available.
We are working on enhancing the casual carpool with upcoming features of our app, so stay tuned.
Late last year we gave a presentation on carticipation at the Silicon Valley iPhone Developers’ Meetup in Palo Alto and posted the video here (select “high quality” mode):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaphdB6Wafs
January 24th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
VERY INTERESTING….In Brazil the movement is warming up. Recently, GM did something similar. The brand launched a service to connect people and make them share rides. More than that, the site invite users to share their experiences in order to create whole new possibilities. It s very interesting….
http://chevrolet.com.br/content_data/LAAM/BR/pt/GBPBR/001/html/chevy_portal/frame/carona.html?referrer=&pdcmp=
http://chevrolet.com.br/content_data/LAAM/BR/pt/GBPBR/001/html/chevy_portal/frame/carona.html?referrer=&pdcmp=
January 26th, 2009 at 9:17 am
@ Robin:
I think the 5 cents/mile is just a sample calculation to make a a point about the economic potential.
I don’t understand your reference to West/East Berlin. In Germany rideshares offer a cheap way of mid- and long distance transportation, although there are a lot of alternatives like Bus or Train at a higher cost.
I believe the challenge here is to create an attractive model for Americans- I don’t expect anyone to consider a ride-share on a cross-country trip, but there must be trips where a shared ride makes perfect sense.
February 4th, 2009 at 9:47 am
What’s needed is a program to require public agencies and incentavize corporations to create and maintain ridesharing programs within their employee commmunities. Employers know where the employees live; they can grid home locations and offer benefits to get them to cooperate. The sweet spot in ridesharing is with the institutions. Interestingly, after 9-11 the bureau of Manhattan required any car going into NYC to have 3 passengers. The advertising guild of greater New York appealed under the argument that if there was more than one person in the car, they would not be listening to the radio, thus reducing advertising rates. The flipside is: How wonderfully democratizing that we could sit and talk with one another on our way to work…that’s patriotism!
February 16th, 2009 at 3:14 am