Bay Area Commuters to be introduced to Avego Real-Time Ridesharing Options
The San Francisco Bay Area is to be the location for largest Real-Time Ridesharing pilot to-date. The “WeGo Rideshare” pilot will cover areas in both the North Bay and East Bay, and begins its staggered roll-out on Earth Day, April 22nd, in Sonoma County.
The purpose of pilots is to explore under what conditions Real-Time Ridesharing (RTR) is most likely to thrive in real-world conditions. For these pilots, San Francisco’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) wanted to test a number of different commute concerns through Avego Real-Time Ridesharing technology across three counties. Among these concerns are the “last mile” issue and overcrowded parking at BART stations in Contra Costa County and communities losing bus services in Marin County.
First, however, WeGo will target thousands of commuters traveling north on Highway 101 between Petaluma and Santa Rosa where limited bus services are available. The newly constructed HOV/carpool lanes in Sonoma County will allow WeGo rideshares to bypass gridlock, shaving valuable time off their commute. The WeGo rewards scheme for Sonoma County will be announced in the coming weeks, so keep an eye on www.wegoridesharing.com for details.
Throughout the pilot, Avego will be introducing new features for both riders and drivers in response to the particular needs of Bay area commuters, such as increased opportunities to use the Avego “walk-up” PIN to simulate slugging, which is already successful in the Bay Area (where it is known as “casual carpooling”).
A five-week beta testing phase will begin in Sonoma County on March 22nd. If you commute north on Highway 101 please send your details by email to teresa.gaynor@avego.com with the subject “Sonoma Beta” to become part of a pioneering community. There will be fun prizes and rewards for those involved, so get your name in early.
The WeGo project, administered by the MTC, will be implemented by Avego in conjunction with Sonoma County Transportation Authority (SCTA) and Climate Protection Campaign (CPC) in Sonoma County, Transportation Authority of Marin (MTC) and Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA).
May I nominate an area of need? AC Transit discontinued service from Richmond/El Sobrante to The Orinda Bart Station (ten minutes away) and forced everyone to go all the way across town to The Richmond Station (30-40 minutes), about 6 months ago. The service to Orinda was free, and that was obviously unprofitable another brilliant mystery from AC Transit. Meanwhile, commuting to and from El Sobrante to anywhere is now a nightmare. We need access to Orinda Station, via San Pablo Dam Road- Camino Pablo.