Kristian, an avid Avego user from Bergen, Norway shares his story
I would like to call myself an environmentally conscious citizen. My first car purchase was not the traditional kind – rather than buying a car, I paid to become part of a local car-sharing community of 35 cars. Later on, I bought a tiny all-electric car.
When my local Public Roads Authority announced they were going to develop a dynamic ridesharing app for smartphones from scratch, I decided to learn more about the ridesharing concept and quickly became very interested. However, the plan was very costly for little Norway and they would not be ready before 2014 at the earliest. I thought to myself: someone else in the world must have already developed the idea of ridesharing in real-time. That’s how I found Avego.
I tested Avego for the first time in Spring 2010, with a small set of other apps for comparison. Avego was the best app. I filmed the app and myself driving to try to convey to my local area that dynamic ridesharing was actually ready to be used in Bergen, Norway immediately. The business community, nine companies in particular, applied for public funds and set up a project in 2011 to prove that it was possible to get 50 people to use real-time ridesharing in Bergen.
We succeeded and now we are anxious to boost the number of participants and calculate the effect real-time ridesharing has on both our local community and the global environment. Please send your positive thoughts!
We are blessed with a long high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane (called “2+” in Norway). The initial users became active after we arranged “rideshare workshops” at the different workplaces. It was a 1.5 hour session comprising a general introduction, a demonstration of the user settings and then an on-the-road real-time ridesharing experience. It was a great experience with much laughter when people were matching as driver and rider.
The app has an audio function and it was great to hear “Passenger up ahead” as we drove along the corridor. 1.5 hours was enough to enable the participants to train other employees. I would love to hear about other communities and hear the methods you have used to introduce a new and innovative way to commute. Thanks for a great idea and a great system!
Regards,
Kristian Amlie
Ridesharing Enthusiast in Norway