Instant%20Carpooling

1
Instant Carpooling

• Steve Raney
• ULTra PRT (Heathrow Nov 09)
• Cities21 new mobility non-profit
• Patent Wireless carpool assistant
• Dynamic Ridesharing (DRS)
• Match within 3 days
• Instant Ridesharing (IRS)
• within 15 minutes.

2
Empty seats policy

• 1000X more cost-effective
• Duh! Reduce demand
• IRS Reduce 1 SOV ? phone
• Metro extension, 1 SOV ? new Mercedes
• Homeland economic security
• SF Bay Bridge in 89 quake, MN I-35W bridge
  collapse
• Need rapid capacity response
• Policy jumpstarts
• Charge 8/day suburban parking ? 23 commute
  shift
• Extend commute benefits tax breaks to DRS
  commuting. Federal workers, especially
• More HOV lanes.

3
Obvious Idea

• Shaheen 1 SOV mode shift
• 11 past, 8 current, 10 future
• see www.dynamicridesharing.org
• Zimride, GoLoco, nuride, Carticipate, Goose
  Networks, RideNow, ecolane, Seattle Smart
  Traveler, Google RideFinder, Hoverport, etc.
• Invention prevalence
• Not obvious
• Carnegie Mellon West theme. 4 teams vote no
• Goose. 111K WSDOT grant, 322 rides, 345/ride
• RideNow. 12 out of 3K BART recruiting.

4
Still not obvious

• Sparse GIS distribution
• Carticipate 10K members (need 1.5M)
• Avego 2,400 members
• Members form permanent carpools drop out.

5
What will work?

• 10/gal, 10 commuters, 100 GPS (API)
  smartphones in-vehicle navigation systems
• Clever
• Nuride corridor strategy (not an area)
• ZimRide college portals
• Instant via iPhone or Android high LOS
• Avego integrate seats bus, vanpool, private cars
• 40 person software team w/ 12M committed VC
• Google New mobility platform
• Maps w/ traffic, Transit, RideFinder, Android.

Homes
MCI, AOL
6
Helps Reduce SOV Advantage

• Travel utility f(travel time, travel cost,
  travel experience hassle, stress, comfort,
  entertainment value, parking hassle, parking
  cost, reliability)
• When util(SOV) lt util (HOV), then we have
• SF Bay Bridge Casual Carpooling (save 15 min 5
  bridge toll)
• DC slugging (HOV-only!)
• Microsoft Redmond casual evening rides back to
  Seattle
• Casual Carpooling and slugging perfect storm
• Very few other places where HOV is close to SOV
• IRS pilots have higher chance of success where
  there is reduced SOV advantage. IRS incentives
  increase HOV util.

7
Helps Peak Oil hurry up!!!

• Plenty of petrol (shale, tar sands)
• Gets expensive to extract
• China India drive skyrocketing demand.

8
Avego Corridors

• Bus route-like. Driver does not deviate route
• Pre-defined stops on arterials
• lt1 is fine sliver of critical mass
• Driver every day run Avego, some days give
  ride. LOS
• Drive new route w/ iPhone, mark stops, edit stops
  via web
• wiki-like. User created routes/stops/content.

9
IRS Safety

• Reality casual carpooling
• Perception Susan UCD focus group
• Axe murderers? Sensationalized
• Hitchhiking is anonymous, DRS is not
• Start Rides w/i social/work network
• Avoid 1 male, 1 female
• Reputation rating
• PIN code photo to verify ride
• Possible background check
• Possible Big Sister (homesafe).

10
Last Collaboration

• Really big world problems
• Grow more human
• 2040 humans cant understand 2009
• Web 2.0 enables collaboration with zero
  management cost
• Unleash human goodness (make it easy)
• Many people, a few minutes per day
• Satisfaction solve something that govt fails at
• IRS new mobility social movements.

11
THE END QUESTIONS
12
Technology

• Notifications
• Prediction alg
• Payment.

13
Complements Transit
14
Knowledge worker commute

• Large suburban solo driving reduction is hard
• 80 SOV to 79 SOV is hard
• But, SOV is least worst, not loved
• SOV no-brainer background task
• Charging 6 per day for parking works (9 gas)
• Pay 4 per day not to park - fails
• Current carpooling fampools
• Value of time
• Commute 50 of hourly. Lunch 200
• Waiting under uncertainty, 3X
• Each commuter basket of objections.

15
Knowledge worker commute

• 30 time penalty OK (20 min SOV vs. 26 min
  alternative)
• Traditional carpool psychology is complex
• Matchmaking anonymous, superficial rejection
  (web dating)
• Sleep, uncertainty stress, and safety are
  important
• Customer support eliminate nightmares
• Mid-day stranding mtngs, lunch, shop
• PM Stranding want no penalty emergency ride
  home
• Good commute time went fast.

16
How to grow pilot routes?

• Work with existing carpool flow vectors
• Have fixed carpools also make dynamic pickups
• Target demographic?
• Practice by picking up ghosts.

17
GrassRoutes

• Get a couple of folks together (commuters)
• Grow circle to 5 drivers and 5 riders on a route
• Avego help with phones guaranteed ride home
• 10 people can change the world
• Grow from 10 people, add routes.

18
Avego Shared Transport

• Mapflow (parent) 40 person company. Congestion
  charging in London. Maps (GIS). Tracking cars
  (GPS)
• Avego division mission reduce SOV
• (SOV single occupancy vehicle)
• Shared Transport iPhone instant carpooling
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vPgTNK85bG_k
• Integrates with vanpools, traditional carpools,
  buses.

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Avego Status

• 12M in venture capital
• iPhone software on Apple AppStore
• Very difficult to succeed (hurry up Peak!)
• Long, multiyear campaign
• We dont know what will work (try stuff!)
• Pilot project at a 20,000-student university
• Campus shuttle bus system is integrated
• Futurefleet coach bus pilot project.

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Steve Raney bio

• Launch consultant for Avego
• ULTra personal rapid transit (London Heathrow
  Airport)
• 3 masters business, software, and transportation
  from Columbia, RPI, and Berkeley
• Tech product research at Microsoft, Citigroup,
  and Silicon Valley start-ups 
• Proj Mgr for BARTs Group Rapid Transit study
• Principal Investigator for the U.S. EPAs
  "Transforming Office Parks into Transit Villages"
  study 
• Author 5 Transportation Research Board (TRB)
  papers 
• Patent "wireless carpool assistant"
• Conference presentations TRB, Association for
  Commuter Transportation, Intelligent
  Transportation Systems World Congress,
  RailVolution, Greenbuild Expo, Engineers for a
  Sustainable World, Housing California, and
  American Planning Association (California
  Chapter).