Where Real-Time Ridesharing can help in a crisis
The effects of Superstorm Sandy are still being felt by hundreds of thousands on the East Coast of the US. Entire communities remain without power and heat, some with flooded homes beyond repair and evacuees take refuge in local emergency accommodation. However, every day life must continue, people must vote, people must work.
With a large amount of the subway system and ferry services out of commission last week, Mayor Bloomberg quickly recognized that operational busses would not have the capacity to transport some 500,000 commuters into and around New York City and streets and parking simply could not cope with this sheer volume of vehicles in the city. By mandating HOV 3 lanes on Manhattan bridges and tunnels on November 1st and 2nd, Mayor Bloomberg essentially put an emergency rideshare program into place.
On Thursday morning people dropped their vehicles and began to que up along the entrances to bridges and tunnels trying to catch rides with drivers who needed to fill seats once it became apparent the police dispatched to enforce the HOV 3 rules meant business. For two days New Yorkers worked with each other to rideshare to and from Manhattan creating slug lines and real-time ridesharing situations to fit their basic needs.
That’s where Avego neatly comes into the picture. While we have focused most of our energy on California and DC, some customers in the New Jersey and New York areas used the Avego Driver app to pick up riders and find drivers in real-time.
If people can use Avego Driver during a crisis then we at Avego are proud and honored to have helped in even the smallest of ways. In the future we’ll explore other ways we can help people, not just in the middle of a crisis, but continue the hard work of introducing real-time ridesharing for commuting every day.