Trying to charge people for carpooling, something we've traditionally done for free. The "sharing economy" isn't about sharing- it's about monetizing free things and taking a cut.
This is not in any way improving humanity. It's a step backwards.
This is not in any way improving humanity. It's a step backwards.
You probably know fewer than 200 people. Sometimes you can't ask any of them for a favor. Sometimes you don't want to impose on your friends. Sometimes someone would happily do something for you in exchange for some amount of money, and you'll both be better off.
The sharing economy expands the pool of people you can ask to do things for you; is also expands the pool of people who are willing to give you money for doing things. It does not replace friendship and socialability.
I don't have stats, but my guess is that most people don't carpool. So traditionally we haven't done it at all.
After seeing the same cars every morning drive the same stretches of highway for a while, I thought I'd have a brilliant idea. Create a website where people can post their commutes to possibly look for people to share with. The site would have been free to use (it would be a portfolio piece but I wouldn't turn down a donation here or there) and wouldn't encourage or prohibit any financial exchange between users.
Turns out NYS already has a site for that:
http://www.511ny.org/rideshare/
So I guess if the site exists and no one is using it (and I didn't know about it until I started thinking about attempting to make my own) the issue is publicity. So I posted flyers around town, at the commuter rail station, at the farmers' market.
I'm not sure if there was an uptick in rideshares, but you're right, Michael (of Portland?). Here's something that's been done for a while, for free, with the state even trying to encourage it. Most cars are still empty.
If Lyft can, but offering a financial incentive, get this to take off, maybe it is an improvement. I think it's possible that:
free ride sharing > monetized ride sharing > no ride sharing
Maybe there's some pitfalls I haven't thought of though ...
Anecdotally in Chicago: Look at the Kennedy any day during morning or evening rush hour. Easily 8/10 cars have a driver and nobody else in the car.
I see this effort as more bringing the idea to the masses. Yes, carpooling has always been an option, but clearly nobody chooses to do so (for a myriad of reasons I'm sure, like logistics, coordinating, communicating with strangers, etc). Maybe things like this will help those solo commuters reduce the number of cars on the road.
Certainly can't hurt.
This opens up doors to higher number of carpools which would be a big boon for big metros like Los Angeles where rush hour traffic is a nightmare. Reducing traffic will be a big win for humanity.
Seems to me like it usually gets better when it makes economic sense for it to get better. It's on people to set up those economic situations.
Think of this as paying for the discovery of carpool companions.