On Monday night, I saw a story on my local Fox news explaining a proposal by Mayor Bloomberg for Shared Cab Rides Coming to NYC.  This would allow riders to share cabs so they each pay less while the cabbie actually earns more.  So instead of just providing one ride for $25, the driver could charge 2 riders $20 each or maybe 3 riders would pay $15 each.  And don’t forget the tips.

By permitting cab drivers to pick up additional fares, they could attract new riders who might not choose a cab if they had to pay the full fare themselves.  The Mayor said that a shared-ride system is a win-win for the city.

Think of all the people landing at NYC area airports who need rides to the city.  Grouping riders not only makes financial sense, but would also reduce traffic, cut gasoline consumption and help the environment.  Is there anything not to like?

The only problem is many people do not like to share, they prefer their privacy.  I can understand this, but wouldn’t all of these benefits offset the slight inconvenience of losing some personal space?  Most cab rides are relatively short, so it should not be that hard to tolerate another passenger.  If you do not want to talk, plug in your iPod and listen to some of your favorite music to pass the time.

So maybe next time you hail a cab, you will have some company for the ride.  Think about it, wouldn’t sharing a ride make the trip in a cab fair?

photo credit: timpearce4816

My absolute favorite magazine is Fast Company.  I consistently find inspiration every month in one or more articles.  In their current issue, there is good story about the increasing use of reviews and ratings online.  They detail how everyone on the internet knows when you are a dog.

You can see the spread of reviews and ratings from Amazon and eBay to Target and Office Depot. There are also a growing number of opinion-based sites, such as:

• Yelp – Real People, Real Reviews
• TripAdvisor – get the truth, then go
• City Search – Live like an insider
• Urbanspoon - reviews from critics, food bloggers and friends
• Zagat – Eat, Drink, Stay, Play
• Angie’s List – Looking for the best service?

When I am looking for a book, the first thing I do is go to Amazon and read the reviews and ratings.  I find them incredibly helpful and they lead me to a good purchasing decision.

Most of these opinion-based sites are for travel and dining, but Angie’s List is interesting since they rate and review contractors, service companies and health care providers.  Good service will yield high ratings, while poor service will result in a tarnished reputation.

I think similar ratings of drivers and riders would remove some of the uncertainty.  Can you give me any more examples of reviews and ratings that you find helpful?

photo credit: joeltelling

When I first try to explain this idea to someone, the reaction I receive the most is “I wouldn’t feel comfortable picking up a stranger”.  I fully understand this and I think that is the main obstacle to Pay4Rides actually being implemented.

For inspiration, I offer the Free Hugs video:

This video has had almost 35 million views on YouTube.  If you have not seen this before, please take a few minutes and watch how cautious most people are at first.  I love the way this video builds and builds on its’ own energy.  If you have seen it before, go ahead and watch it again, you know you want to.

This one video has grown into a movement and you can visit the Official Home of the Free Hugs Campaign or the The Illustrated Guide to Free Hugs.  All it takes is a trust and belief in others to make great things happen.

My wife and sister-in-law enjoy the annual tradition of waking up early and hitting the stores on Black Friday.  They like the excitement of the start of the shopping season and the hunt for bargains.  I am glad that they wait until after the morning crush and go out with the right attitude.  They are happy if they find a good deal, but I think they just enjoy a few hours of shopping without the kids.

Of course, this got me thinking of Pay4Rides.  All of these people are willing to get up early and wait on long lines just to save money.  So how do we make paid ride sharing attractive enough that people would be willing to change their current commuting habits?

The accident at a Wal-Mart on Long Island is a terrible tragedy, but I think this behavior is the exception.  At thousands of other stores and malls around the country, people exhibited restraint and respect for the other shoppers.  Unfortunately, everyone focuses on the horrible acts of a few and forgets the kindness of the many others.  So when you think about strangers, try to think about the many and not the few.

photo credit: Tavallai

Do you ever get that helpless feeling and think to yourself, what can I do to help?  Live Earth gives many suggestions on how we can all help reduce our carbon footprint.  Here are a few:

• Switching to fluorescent light bulbs
• Planting tress in our yard
• Turn off our computers when not in use
• Recycle
• Go solar

These are all wonderful suggestions and everyone should try their best to follow these guidelines.  Unfortunately, it just does not seem like enough and it can be hard to get excited about small savings.  Pay4Rides is everyone’s chance to make a big difference, every day.

What if we could reduce daily gas consumption by 25%?  Without spending any money?  Too good to be true?  Maybe not …

All it would take is a trust in our fellow US citizens.  We trust taxi drivers, why not a stranger?

* These savings are based on just 1 in 4 sharing a ride instead of driving themselves.

photo credit: azrainman

Almost everyone has a cell phone now and many have built in GPS capability.  Most cell phone networks are offering location-based service (LBS) to easily identify the whereabouts of an individual. 

Some of these are combined with a web based service like Loopt to identify a precise location of a friend or family member.  Wherify and Sprint Family Locator are two other examples of this technology already being implemented around the country.

This type of technology could help ease concerns when accepting rides.  Now you can easily find the location of your family and friends through their cell phones.

photo credit: kalleboo

In the summer of 2003, a major portion of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States along with Ontario, Canada experienced the largest blackout in North American history.  It affected over 50 million people and financial loses were estimated at $6 billion USD.  Mass transit (trains, buses, ferries) came to a standstill and millions of people were stranded without a way to get home.  Many began walking and crossing the bridges out of New York City on foot.  It was a strange occurrence and created massive confusion, but something very interesting happened.  Anyone who had transportation (car, van, truck) became a makeshift bus.  You could see flatbed trucks with dozens of people jumping aboard to get a ride out of the city.

While this was an extreme situation, is raises the question why can’t we better harness the power of over 250 million vehicles in the United States?  The majority of drivers make their daily commute alone in a car.  If people would share rides, it could dramatically reduce traffic, slow global warming and lessen our dependence of foreign oil. 

Everyone could keep their own car, but just use it less.  Think of it as turning your personal vehicle into a passenger vehicle.

In our current financial crisis, loaning money to complete “strangers” is an emerging market.

Prosper.com is an online auction website where individuals can buy loans and request to borrow money.  This microlending concept verifies selected borrowers’ identity and personal data before funding loans.  Prosper assigns a “credit grade” for each borrower based on several factors.  Lenders then have the option to bid on requested loans. 

Lending Club is a social lending network that lets borrower members borrow money through personal loans, and lenders fund these loans by investing in Notes. Each Note corresponds to a portion of a borrower loan.

This concept of lending money to strangers may seem scary at first, but all lenders are rated and the loans are guaranteed.  This idea is growing dramatically every year and would seem to confirm that “strangers”  can be trusted when peer review is part of the process.

Hitchhiking is a means of transportation that is gained by asking people (usually strangers) for a ride in their cars.  The problem is that hitchhikers want a free ride.

Now Pay4Rides is attempting to introduce the concept of organized hitchhiking.  Driver and passenger ratings could take out some of the uncertaintity whie payment for rides would make it profitable.

Organization:

• pick-up/drop off stations @ each exit/entrance of major highways
• lanes for each exit so you get picked up by a driver for your destination
• cash initially, EZ Pass in the future?
• credit driver, debit rider

When I think of a hitchhiker, I conjure an image from the classic movie Easy Rider.  Times have changed and cell phones allow us constant communication with freinds and family.  Simple text messages could let anyone know all the details of any trip.

Today, paying passengers could be well worth sharing a ride.

Craigslist was started when it’s founder observed people helping one another in a friendly, social and trusting community way on the internet and decided to create something similar for local events.  The site has since established itself in approximately 450 cities and 50 countries with over nine billion page views per month and over thirty million unique visitors.  The founder Craig Newmark says that

Craiglist works because it gives people a voice, a sense of community trust and even intimacy.

If you are familiar with Craigslist, then you know that it provides an incredible service mostly for free.  If you are not familiar with it, then get the DVD 24 Hours on Craigslist.  It highlights people from all walks of life working together with complete strangers for common good.

Why couldn’t similar results be found in Passenger Energy?