The Resurrection of Ride Sharing
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I like the concept but don’t like the business model.
They should be able to deploy the application across the DC Metropolitan area almost immediately. To do this, they would need to drop the idea of shuttle buses. Or, only make them available on certain routes.
Let’s say I use my iPhone app to get a ride from Great Falls to Reston. The application tells me that the ride is available but there is no shuttle backup. If I get stuck, I’ll have to take a cab. Then, I get ready to leave the office in Reston. If there is a ride, I take it. If not, I take a cab. Or call Uber. In fact, they could funnel traffic to a cab company or Uber and get me a discount in return for the volume they bring.
What happens? Maybe very few people take the chance on getting stuck. So what? The incremental cost of expanding from I95 (with shuttle buses) to a Metro-wide area is near zero – especially if few people use the service.
However, I think you might find a lot of uses. A person getting their car repaired, people going to a Redskins game (where parking is atrocious).
I also think that Avego could use some social media techniques to really spice this up. First, you could tie it into Facebook and let me know that one of my Facebook friends was looking for a ride in the general direction I am headed. Even if I wouldn’t normally pick someone up, I’d go get a friend who needed a ride. They could keep ratings information on the driver and the passenger. A driver with a clean car and pleasant conversation might get a high rating. Similarly, a passenger with a pleasant personality might get a high rating.
Finally, there could be interest groups. I might not be keen on picking up a passenger until I find out that the potential passenger is an avid local fisherman. That would change everything. A Cowboys fan would have to be left standing by the side of the road, of course.
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Avego’s hope is that the ride-share service will spread beyond the DoD employment sites in the WeGoMil program. They have tied in the vans and shuttle buses in the hopes of giving a quick boost to the ride-sharing traffic. Avego hopes that this initial thrust will create critical mass for the service to start growing organically.
I’ll be interested to see the app. If it doesn’t have the features you describe, it probably should.
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I have issue with their limited deployment of the shuttle buses. I just question why a limited deployment of the buses would stop them from deploying the app without the buses broadly. I guess they don’t think there will be much participation without the bus as a return ride backup. I wonder if they’ve tried that or just assume it.
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well it’s version 1.0… and in the age of lightening-fast development cycles..version 2.0 is surely in the wings already.
I used to think ride-sharing was a DC-only phenomena but now I understand it is in other places.
There are two big things that need to happen besides the “app”. there needs to be a way to “vet” the players – drivers and riders… right now.. the meeting places are limited and people actually “know” to a certain extent. If this spreads to any conceivable Point A to Point B – one ugly and awful victimization is going to spook most everyone but especially women.
the second is insurance. When you get in a cab or other public conveyance, even a van pool – there is a perception of insurance coverage. But the guy you hop into his car may not have any insurance.. and perhaps for good reason.
I think this is ultimately going to play out with an ID card of some sort that allows a prospective rider to quickly check that ID via their phone to insure the ride is legit and insured.
I know… the awful reality always intrudes…
P.S. VRE and MARC have also “pioneered” the “free ride if you must leave early” concept.
I note though it has no impact on most who say they have “irregular” hours or “might” have to get to their kids in an emergency. This is why I have little sympathy for those who CHOOSE (yes they do) their commute and THEN say they also have no choice but to drive SOLO every day. That’s fine – just pay your fair share… for all that expensive capacity that has to be provided because too many have “no choice” but to drive solo every day.
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Who vets the Uber drivers? It seems to me that all you need is a car that looks like some kind of limo and you’re in. I use Uber often and there is no guarantee (that I know of) that the driver is legit.
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Larryg – Avego ran a pilot program in Seattle in 2011. The main focus was to try and ease congestion along the SR 520. The pilot was named; Go520.
Interestingly as part of the approval process the State required that all pilot project participants be pre‐screened to meet additional approval criteria and requirements before being permitted to partake in the pilot proper. This included:
• Submit to a background check (submit SSN to Avego)
• Specific levels of auto liability insurance coverage
• DOL abstracts showing min. thresholds of accident and moving violations
• Copies of driver license records
The majority of participants were either unable or unwilling to comply with the Stateʼs screening requirements which resulted in significant user attrition. Despite more than 960 people registering, less than one third were prepared to provide their SSN and only 8 completed the process. It was equally clear that these screening requirements could not be sustained (economically or otherwise) if RTR were to scale beyond these participation levels.Perhaps another place or pilot would throw up a different result, but it’s a pretty interesting finding.
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You know what would be an interesting thing to do? To assess a cost to taxpayers and gas tax payers – as to the relative proportional “cost” of a SOLO trip vs a carpool trip. To show the difference between the impact and cost to infrastructure from solo driving vs using car pools, vans, buses, etc.
right now… we have a lot of folks who solo drive to work every day and their complaint is that they are not getting what they have paid for with their gas taxes.
if we can put an actual cost on the impact of use – and the kind of use – I wonder how it would be received?
What I hear all the time is that we already pay too much in gas taxes and it’s being wasted ….yet no one has a clue as to how much money is actually involved – at the person level.
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Everybody should pay for every mile they drive, no matter where they drive.
If you have another person in the car, charge them part of the cost – just like you would for gas, mileage, etc.
Cars take up road resources whether they have 1 person in the car or 10. Whoever has the car pays the price – then, charge whoever else is in the car or make arrangements for them to drive you in their car from time to time.
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” Cars take up road resources whether they have 1 person in the car or 10.”
actually, not. 10 cars take up ten times as much space (capacity). If you don’t believe me try it in a 9-space parking lot.
you put 10 people in 3 cars and the parking lot 1/3 full.
If everyone who drove solo to work carpooled instead with one other person, we cut the size of the rush hour in half and gain capacity and shorten travel times (because of less congestion).
People simply do not act collectively to share a limited resource. They get as much as they can and/or do what is necessary to suit their own interests even if in the end – they help to cause shortages – i.e. look at their behavior right before a hurricane where people will have buy stuff they don’t even need – that they already have in some cases.
it’s true the 3 who carpool are not buying gas and paying tax but it’s equally true that the more capacity that is needed for more cars, the more expensive it is AND at some point so expensive that adding more capacity to support greater numbers of solo driving is totally unrealistic.
this is the basic thinking behind HOV, HOT, commuter lots, smartphone apps, VRE, BRT, etc… the most expensive personal mobility by far, bar none is the solo-driven car at rush hour.
the thinking of many is akin to someone thinking they can go to the most heavily attended Redskin game in years, at the last minute, sit on the 50 yard line and get the tickets for the price of the cheap seats.
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DJRippert – you raise a great point about the need for Avego to have some form of social media integration in the app. So many of our users have noted the same and it is a feature that we are building into our next gen version.
It is important for several reasons.In a time when people take to twitter to tell us that they’re going to have a cup of tea or whatever the ordinary / mundane task might be, we should certainly be availing of the same channels to divulge what could potentially be useful information to friends and family – about your intention to drive somewhere or the fact that you have completed a journey that could be relevant to them.
It will be cool when we get to the stage of completing an Avego drive – that it will post to your Facebook newsfeed or send a tweet saying, for example:
Audrey drove from work to home, gave a ride to Jim for 20 km and earned $2.72.It will also be really cool for us to overcome some of the stranger danger factor – if a mutual friend on Facebook is offering a ride then, we can assume that if they are a friend-of-a-friend then they can’t be all that bad, right?
A friend liking or recommending something carries so much weight. And such endorsements on Facebook for example could have a profound effect on Avego catching on.We need to be better at communicating and getting our message out there. So watch this space.
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@audrey – re: screening
like the new TSA program – there has to be a voluntary quid-pro-quo for the transaction.
I would submit that the business model is doomed to fail if there is not some way to validate the identity, qualifications and suitability of participants.
It’s sorta like the EBAY system where everyone can play but a lot of people won’t deal with anyone other than individuals who have met the EBAY certification criteria.
Anyone who has a problem with a background check or a traffic violation check or an insurance check – is not going to be someone that others are going to be comfortable with …. and if a program goes forward without those things – ultimately there will be an incident and when that occurs and it becomes known that participants are not well vetted..a lot of existing and would-be customers are going to go away.
I think this aspect is imperative for long-term success.
You would not willingly get into a car with someone you knew …say… had a drinking problem and was now driving on a revoked license because of his last driving-while-intoxicated conviction.
People take it for granted – but when you hop a bus or get into a cab – you believe that the driver is qualified and is not a convicted felon or been judged a habitual impaired driver or whatever.
there’s got to be some level of assurance.
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