How many people does it take to set up a successful ridesharing community?
Ridesharing: the ultimate chicken-or-egg scenario. You need enough drivers to provide the seats – but you also need enough riders to fill the seats. This is the conundrum that often deters people from taking the step to start their own community.
Our headquarters office with 35 people recently relocated from Kinsale, a small fishing village in the south east of Ireland, to Cork, the second-largest city in the Republic. The move has given us a great test case with a pretty interesting result. We are finding that even with only ten people commuting from a bedroom community to a city center, our ridesharing community is working very well.
The main motivation for ridesharing was initially cost-saving. Drivers are keen to share their costs for city parking (€8 per day) and gas for the the 35 mile daily round-trip. For the riders, their need is simple: they need to get to work on time every day – and may not have access to a car. A single bus journey from Kinsale to Cork costs €8.50 ($11.20) but the same journey with Avego will cost approx $4.
So, what does this group look like?
It is made up of three women and seven men. Two of the people work part-time. Two of the people have young kids and need to come in late or leave early to pick up or drop off their little people. Seven of us are from Avego, and 3 are from another company that is located in the same office complex.
Some people have defined their roles as driver, rider or either over time. All but one of the drivers swap roles to some degree, some of them moving more fluidly and effortlessly from driver to rider, and back again. Just two of the ridesharing group will only ever be a rider as they don’t have access to a car or can’t drive.
Success! Instead of ten cars driving the same stretch of road every day, there are normally just three.
This group dispels many of the preconceived notions people have, preventing them from trying ridesharing:
1. As a female, I feel uneasy letting a man in my car (or vice versa).
2. I have commitments, before / after work (school run for example)
3. My schedule doesn’t match with anybody else because I am on shift work / part time hours.
4. I don’t want to get stranded.
How does the group actually organise themselves?
Some like to plan ahead and will make arrangements the evening before. Some have standing arrangements – same time, same place every day. While a few tend to arrange their rides on the fly, with very short notice.
They message each other from within the app – it is free and it works well. Normally, the riders reach out to the drivers to make the arrangement, but occasionally the drivers make the connection. The riders generally do not expect to be picked up at their houses, unless, it is directly on the route that the driver will take. The rider will normally walk to a convenient place a short distance from their house, a place that is safe, well-lit and usually with some shelter.
Who is this group and what do they have in common?
What we have found, is that ridesharing together has bonded this group. A good sense of community has grown from what might otherwise be an unlikely bunch, people from across the R&D organization, HR, and even one of the co-founders! They look out for each other – nobody has ever been left behind or left out. Certainly there is a sense of security in the fact that the group works together and live in the same town. There is no stranger danger. In car, they usually chat and there is a sharing of information – a transfer of knowledge about what they are working on.
Some of the group are “morning people” while others prefer to wake up gently; these quirky elements are things that the app just can’t handle! The fact is that the app can bring people together, but once together they need to work out the soft side of things and the interpersonal elements themselves and the understand the subtle nuances of their ridesharing group.
As time goes by, is there still a need for the app?
One could assume that regular carpools would build and conform, and the need for an RTR app would wane, but we’ve found that the app remains essential: with varying schedules and people going on holidays, getting sick, people with early meetings or working late, or just because life likes to throw you a curve ball every now and then, the flexibility, communication and commute options the app offers create a great deal of everyday usefulness.