One reason that young people, especially in urban areas, are finding it less necessary to own a car – is the emergence of social media enabled ride sharing services like the one shown in this rather hilarious vid. (grab some coffee now..)
Here, Conan O’Brien, Ice Cube and Kevin Hart share a ride in a Lyft car.
Long-distance travelers as well as commuters are connecting on sites like Zimride.com, Ridejoy.com, Avego.com, Nuride.com, Rideshare.com
and eRideShare.com.This summer, a German company with a quintessential American name, Carpooling.com, will try to break into the United States market with a trial run in the Northeast. In June, the company announced that 30 million rides had been offered through its 10-year-old network, which now has 3.8 million registered users.
Ride-sharing and car-pooling, it seems, are having a moment in the United States after many fits and starts.
“It’s been a tough sell in the U.S. for a long time,” said David Burwell, director of the energy and climate program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “A lot is due to not only the fact that people have different places they want to go, but also safety and other concerns about going into a car with strangers.”
What is different now, Mr. Burwell said, is the advancement of digital technology and social networking, “which removed a significant amount of barriers.”
To that end, eRideShare, which was started in 1999, is testing a mobile app this week foriPhone and Android phones. “I see a lot of new entrants this year” as well as new technology, said its founder, Steven Schoeffler. “I think it will be a very interesting time for ride-sharing.”
Lyft
Ease of use of app: 4 stars (out of 4)
Wait time for arrival:11 min.
Quality of vehicle: 4 stars
Cleanliness of vehicle: 4 stars
Conversation with driver: 4 stars
Safety of ride: 4 stars
Cost of ride: $15 (passengers set their own donation; $5 was suggested for our ride)
Method of payment: Credit card entered in app; no cash
changes hands
Website: lyft.me
Ever since cars
It all sounds so West Coast — and ripe for corruption, Baltimore-style. What if your driver is a whack job? How can drivers trust passengers not to stiff them? Are we really mature enough for this?
Spoiler alert: Believe, Baltimore. Lyft is pretty damn cool. First of all, as soon as you open the app, you can see where all the Lyft cars are driving. They look like little 2D Monopoly cars roving over the map of Baltimore. We hit the button to “Request Lyft” from the Avenue in Hampden. Within a few seconds, the app informed us that a car
It even showed us a photo of the driver and car and told us the driver’s name, so we knew what to expect. This could also be a handy feature if, say, your ex, is a Lyft driver. With a quick click, you can dismiss a driver and request a different one.
Exactly 11 minutes later, Regina Santiful pulled up in her impeccably clean silver Mercedes. Yesiree, Bob, a real Mercedes with the little peace sign-esque thingie on the hood. A big change of pace from a dented Corolla full of old reporter’s notebooks and empty water bottles.
We got in the back seat (Lyft actually encourages passengers to sit in the front and fiddle with the radio, but we didn’t know that) and Regina reached back for the traditional Lyft fist bump. I give the fist bump three out of four stars. It was warm and lighthearted, but lacked any sort of Fred Flintstone “Loyal Order of the Water Buffalo” flourishes.
This is going to spread. I have a 43 year old son who lives in Crested Butte CO. He has just sold his car to one of my grandsons in NJ. When I asked him how in the world he would get “anywhere” (Crested Butte is pretty much “way out there”), he said “I’ve got my bike and the shuttle bus for in town, we have an airport and the long distance bus for going far away, and there are lots of people coming and going to Denver and Boulder (where his company is based) and getting rides is easy”. Lyft would work in Crested Butte—it’s a “fist bump” kind of place.
Crested Butte is a highly “non-diverse” place, so Lyft can work there. South or West Chicago? Detroit? Killadelphia? Not a chance.
I can’t believe you googled demographic date for Crested Butte, but I guess you’ve never been there. Go there some day, it’s a great little town at any time of the year.
Yes, Crested Butte is a SKI RESORT, and even the “support staff” is not very diverse. The clientele aren’t either, and their incomes are likely way above average, and they are more likely to drive Escalades than SmartCars. Many folks in “killadelphia” probably don’t even own cars and can’t afford to go skiing in CO (the first big influx in Crested Butte seems to be mainly Texans this year).
You missed my point. My son lives there but works for a company based in Boulder, and his work takes him to National Parks from CO to AZ to WY to CA to UT to ME to WA. I found it mind-boggling that he was going to give up his car, but apparently he is able to do so without great strain, and many others are going the same route. It’s not only that Lyft will work in yuppie Crested Butte, but that there’s a wave of this kind of thing coming. We have similar ventures starting up in the DC area with both cars and shared “city bikes”, and the Metro stations have large numbers of bike lockers as well.
My role here is to raise certain Inconvenient Truths. If your solution relies on any kind of capital, be it monetary capital, natural capital, or social capital, it will only work if you have enough of it and can apply it as necessary. Lyft relies on social capital. A few carjackings in an area will hurt it badly, if not kill it.
Robert H. Putnam, author of “Bowling Alone”, found that social capital is destroyed by diversity; the more differences people have, the less they trust each other. This is going to be a big problem going forward.
Have you considered that people tend to self-segregate into more homogeneous sub-communities within the larger “diverse” community? And that they “trust” each other more within those communities? If Lyft ever comes to Crested Butte, it is likely that the only minority group of any size, the Hispanics, may have their own Lyft group. By extension, it will be even easier to have “focused” Lyft groups arise in the more heavily populated areas. Look at the home grown banking systems employed by some groups for a parallel.
And it looks to me as if you are perhaps stirring the xenophobe-racist pot a little with your swing off into “the destruction of social capital, killings, and car-jackings”. In the parts of the USA where racism flourished (that’s almost everywhere), that is “coded language” that will get you approving nods from certain old white folks and raised eyebrows from nearly all blacks.
And I have to LOL at the pretentiousness of “My role is to raise certain Inconvenient Truths”. You’ve been doing better lately, but please don’t backslide. It’s enough that we have to look at the rather oxymoronic E-Pot all the time.
The Federal government has been working to prohibit and break down said self-segregation for decades, at least for the ethnic majority.
“The Federal government has been working to prohibit and break down said self-segregation for decades, at least for the ethnic majority”.
No, E-Pot, you obviously don’t understand. Are you an American and have you ever lived in the U.S.? What the Federal government has “worked to prohibit and break down for decades” is racial discrimination, not the all too natural self-segregation that results from it. In fact, self segregation is something that all living things do—-minnows do not school with sharks but with other minnows.
The government as of late has been working to “break down” other types of discrimination as well, and it is not “self segregation” for minorities to avoid majorities who mistreat them.
I was involved for years in this fight in the world of academia and live in Virginia, USA, and know of what I speak. You should confine your spoutings to things you understand.
Only my entire life, from Minnesota to Texas and Iowa to the east coast.
Like any sort of “un-diverse” community with good schools, but without high real-estate prices. Those are targeted for mass imports of inner-city criminals via Section 8 vouchers. The imported population is not altered by the new surroundings and goes right back to its old habits, but with much richer pickings from burglary and robbery close by.
But majorities aren’t allowed to exclude minorities that mistreat them. Whites were robbed, raped, firebombed (read “Devil’s Night” by Ze’ev Chafets) and murdered to ethnically cleanse them from Detroit; the house my mother grew up in is now in a “no-go zone”, if it still exists (about half the block does not).
Don’t talk to me about poor, oppressed minorities, DOG. In real estate alone, they got a 90% discount from my family. They’ve taken schools and libraries that my family helped build and proudly taught in, and turned them into wrecks (look up the Mark Twain branch library, if you dare). They were given trillions in buildings, goods, education and cash on the promise that it would lift “them” up to where “we” are. They never delivered on that promise, and still demand more. They will continue to steal more, with the help of pols who farm them for votes and “civil rights” lawyers who consider them blameless in criminal court, but they are owed nothing.
Further discussion of this topic would be a waste of your time and mine. You say you’ve lived all over the USA. You sound like some of the folks I’ve met from Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina.
Obviously, they have learned something that you have not.
How to be racists? I am glad that I didn’t. If I had, I might be as miserable and unhappy as you.
How to keep themselves safe from crime, such as the out-of-nowhere attack that killed the “non-racist” Jeffrey Babbitt in New York this past September.
Oh, also great job stereotyping millions of people. You hater.
If you wind up as the next Jeffrey Babbitt, don’t come crying to me… oh, wait, I mean don’t have your heirs come crying to me. Ditto if you wind up as the next George Strait, the next Earl Gentry (and your family like his)… how far do you want me to go on?
I’m far from miserable, and I want to keep it that way. Part of that is keeping the sort of people who commit out-of-the-blue deadly assaults and racially motivated torture-murders at a safe distance (ditto for religion, etc.). I’m sure you already do (far from Detroit, Gary, Memphis, Cincinnati, etc.) which gives you the luxury of pretending that nobody else needs to be on their guard. Southerners don’t enjoy that, and (unlike you) many refuse to engage in denial. Good for them: truth is truth, no matter how Inconvenient and downright upsetting some people may find it.
Are you actually that much UN-self-aware and out or touch with reality that you’re calling ME a ‘stereotyper” and “hater”? Hard to believe.
“… how far do you want me to go on?” I don’t know….maybe until you clean all the hate out of your head? Perhaps I can match you ten-for-one with the names of minorities, gays, Native Americans, etc. who have been slaughtered or lynched in this “white” country you try to defend as you paint whites as “victims”.
Fear not for me becoming a victim, either. My Glock .40 and my Remington 870 Tactical 12 GA. are my “rod and my staff” and they will protect me. Do you do guns, E-Pot? (Have you played football or been in the military? Have you lived and worked day-to-day with minorities?)
You say, “I’m far from miserable, and I want to keep it that way”. Beg to differ, E-Pot. I spent a career in the people business, have some training and experience in the field, and from reading your comments, you seem quite miserable to me.
“Southerners don’t enjoy that…” you say? Perhaps you didn’t notice in my other comments that I have said that I live in VIRGINIA? Last time I looked, it was “south”, and in fact Richmond VA was the capital of the CSA. And I live in a part of VA in which whites are in the minority. Actually, the scariest people I see here are the white folks, all too many of them with fundamentalist, racist and extreme right wing ideas (you’d undoubtedly like them).
The “truth” that “upsets” me is that YOU keep reinforcing a rather negative picture of yourself for the whole world of Crock to see by ranting at me.
I agree with (not so) dumboldguy! I live in Denver and my place is right off the Cherry Creek bike path. When I’m up for it I literally ride to the corner to get on the path and exit right across the street from where I work. That’s the only time I have to deal with traffic. Here in Denver there’s also the Car2Go program started in Europe by Daimler. If you’re going to be in the Downtown area, just go to their website and Google will show you where a car (SmartCar) is parked. They charge by the hour and let you park it in place after using it. You should see what our city looks like on the weekend during mild weather! All these families spending time together, leisurely riding through the Metro, taking in the LoDo neighborhood, museums, parks, etc. I fear for what may be happening to these people, (better fitness, closeness, hapiness, more positive outlook on life). No wonder a local candidate suggest that this metro bike program was a tool of Agenda 21! https://www.car2go.com/en/denver/
So you get to ride IN the weather before you report it? Cool. We have a station here in the DC area that reports the weather from their “glass-enclosed nerve center”. Presumably some of their “glass enclosure” opens to the outside. LOL
Swedish govenment published a 1000 page report yesterday analysing how sweden shall be fossil free on the roads by 2030. Or almost free, target is 20% of current fossil fuel use. See http://www.regeringen.se
So, if we one day get smart and make electric-inductive streets that power small, light, battery-free electric cars which might get us to our destination without emitting any more CO2 than a bike-rider might exhale, could we agree that it would be OK to not feel guilty about not car sharing?
IMO, the answer would be a very weak yes balanced by a much stronger no. Lots of variables to be factored in. Electric-inductive streets are likely quite a ways off—it is one thing to put in wires that carry control signals for “automated” cars powered by batteries or fossil fuels, quite another to run adequate current under the pavement for what you suggest.
I HAVE seen on model railroads some small vehicles that appear to be induction powered, probably with comparatively large amounts of current for their size and weight. Doubt that it would scale up, though. Maybe an electrical engineer like E-Pot can educate us here.
Stanford engineers have said publicly that the technology for electric streets will work:
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/february/wireless-vehicle-charge-020112.html
Read it again. What they propose is just a first-step system that will recharge the batteries in electric cars as they go and extend their range. It looks like it can’t transmit enough power to eliminate the batteries entirely. The “electric street” that you envisioned is still a ways off. E-Pot, where are you when we need you?
In another article, the chief of this research project at Stanford said that he believes one would arrive with more juice in the battery than when one left.
“In another article, the chief of this research project at Stanford said that he believes one would arrive with more juice in the battery than when one left”.
Let’s hope so, because that would make the condcept more attractive. But “arriving with more juice thanwhen one left” STILL doe NOT eliminate the need for batteries. The electric street will really become attractive if and when they can have the small no-battery cars first mentioned. Until then, IMO it’s just another nice idea to explore further.
You expect me to make your argument for you?
Hell, I’ve been making the same argument on Green Car Congress for quite some time (esp. look for anything that mentions Hanazawa). You can look it up yourself and cut-and-paste my remarks here if you want.
Uh-huh. E-Pot has a chance to “be nice”, contribute his expertise, and make his argument in a new place. Does he do it? No, he shows us that he truly is a “miserable” person and instead says “go look it up”.
I have a “knock knock” thought for you, E-Pot—-remember “Argo”?
Again: You expect me to make your argument for you?
Especially when you are unremittingly hostile, even when you’re supposedly pleading for assistance? I told you where and how to find my commentary on the subject, which I gave you permission to copy instead of just using for reference… and that’s not good enough for you?
I remind you that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, but you’ll ignore that too. Oh, yeah: you’re also funny. Which is one of the reasons I continue on these threads.
E-Pot doubles down on a bad bet and proves my point.
“Again: You expect me to make your argument for you?”
No, I made my argument, but I am no electrical engineer—you say you are, so I gave you a chance to shine and expand upon what I said. Unfortunately, YOUR “unremitting hostility” wouldn’t allow you to do that.
And I do not “plead for assistance” from you (in particular), or actually from anyone else on this site. Like most others here, I contribute what I can and learn from others, asking questions when needed. None of us plead.
“I remind you that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, but you’ll ignore that too”. LOL Mr. Vinegar-Poet himself is lecturing me about using honey. More irony there.
I think the electric street has already been invented. It’s called the electric trolley car. The ultimate ride share. I do get the point that ride sharing might afford more flexibility. What we are witnessing is a transportation transformation. More options, more flexibility, allowing more affordable travel. The private vehicle thing is changing, as Peter has documented, for reasons of cost and efficiency. This is a welcome and necessary development. The isolation and alienation of society is giving way to a better way of life, with less fear if others and a better community.
Yes, “trolleys” are cool, except that modern drivers can’t seem to coexist with them.
But that’s not the “electric street” they’re talking about—it has no fixed rails, no overhead wires—-just an embedded grid that is under all the pavement, and from which cars can “absorb” power to run (if they have no batteries), or to recharge their batteries (if they have them).
Kind of Tesla-ish and seems a long way off.
This is a strange concept. It is basically a cloud-based taxi service? In the example above, it took the Mercedes 11 minutes to get there to pick up the rider(s). So, eleven EXTRA minutes of CO2 emissions was released just to arrive, compared with the scenario if the rider had his own car, and simply drove it to his destination.
I can see that this service might save you money compared to a taxi service, but is it doing anything at all for the environment?
Yes. Four people on separate paths with separate cars? Of course, it is a simple matter to program a computer to calculate whether biking, walking, ride share, EV, or public transit is the best commute, and what combinations of those.
http://climatecrocks.com/2013/12/27/us-ice-storm-underlines-need-for-smarter-grid/#comments
This is not the only one. There are ones in many cities with light rail or public transit.
All this fist bump and pink mustache stuff are fine and dandy for folks in SF but as a woman living in Miami, I would not get into a car with a stranger period. All it takes is one bad incident for these guys to be shut down. Game over. It’s best to ride with people you know and trust. For a safer alternative, check out: http://www.schlep2p.com.