[sustran] GoLoco discussion and commentary (ride-sharing, digital hitchhiking)

[eric.britton]

This is a discussion that is to take place over in the Lots Less Cars list.
Thought it might interest some of you:

 

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-----Original Message-----
From: eric.britton [mailto:eric.britton at ecoplan.org] 
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 8:28 AM
To: 'LotsLessCars at yahoogroups.com'
 Subject: GoLoco discussion and commentary

 

I propose a public discussion here of and invite your comments and
suggestions on Robin Chase's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Chase ) new
GoLoco ride-sharing service of which you have a brief introduction below and
full information at www.goloco.org. 


GoLoco: How does it work?


1.       Post a trip -- want to go to the beach? shopping? daily commute?
out of town? -- for your friends, colleagues, or classmates to see. 

2.       View profiles of people whose trips match your own. Decide if you'd
like to travel with them. 

3.       Accept a trip as is, or negotiate changes online. 

4.       Meet up at a specific location and time.  

You can use GoLoco to share rides for free. Or you can choose to share trip
costs quickly and easily online before the trip without the awkward money
discussion or exchange in the car. GoLoco collects each passenger's share of
the total trip costs before the trip begins and transfers it to the driver
using online accounts. We charge a 10 percent transaction fee. 

 

*           *           *

 

I see GoLoco as one pioneering example of a very important class of new
mobility services which we call xTransit (see www.xtransit.org
<http://www.xtransit.org/> ), and of course the sub-class ride-sharing.  And
within that, a further sub-class that we call "digital hitchhiking".  The
stack in our nomenclature, if you will, looks like this, from the more
general at the top down then getting more specific.

 

1.	Movement
2.	Transport(ation), mobility, logistics
3.	Sustainable transport 
4.	New mobility 
5.	xTransit 
6.	Ride-sharing
7.	Digital hitchhiking

 

By way of historical curiosity I thought some of you might be interested to
see an early example of this last, in the form of a 1978 proposal form this
end for a service  which we then called CHARM: Computer-Helped Area-Wide
Regional Mobility system, which I disinterred this morning and attach just
in case you feel like a quick trip through a transportation/technology
museum. 

 

I look forward very much to this discussion, and would ask you to share this
note with others, and lists, who you think may share our interests.

 

Eric Britton

 

PS. It would be great if Robin might in parallel share with us any articles
of thinkpeices she might have on her concept and implementation, including
status information if available  Again, all that over at Lots Less Cars.