What is Rideshare?

Aren’t we get tired of traveling everyday whether we go to work, malls or to our best friend’s place? Aren’t we got fed up of the traffic that we encountered every day? Are we all losing our patience especially when we are late going to school or to work? Headaches starts kicking in when you have to add up a little more amount on your travel expenses because of a gasoline prices hike that was announced by Mr News reporter last night when you are watching your favorite news channel. This is where Rideshare came in to solve your traveling concerns. So, what is Rideshare 

Rideshare is a kind of service that is already popular and offered around the world. It aims to diminish vehicle trips, traffic congestion and automobile emission by sharing of vehicles by passengers. Rideshare will be called Rideshare if a motorized vehicle is involved and being used for a trip such as carpool, vanpool, transit or any public transport. It has different names such as Transportation Demand Management, Alternative Transportation, Active Transportation and Mobility. Yet, people are used to call the service using the name of the company such as Uber or Lyft.

Real-time ridesharing is one of the services offered by Rideshare which began in early 1990s wherein they faced issues in launching the project such as developing user network and means of communication but later on solved with the help of big technology companies. Real-rime ridesharing is a kind of service that offers one-time shared rides on very short period of notice. It uses a modern technology such as GPS navigation to determine the route or location of the driver and arrange the service, Smartphones for passengers to request a ride from their location and the most common, social networks for trust and accountability records between the driver and passengers. Examples of Real-time ridesharing are the infamous Uber and Lyft and they are both provided by the Transportation Network Companies.

Rideshare is being promoted to better utilize the use of empty seats in most passenger cars, it will reduced your headache in budgeting the cost of fuel and transport. Unlike taxis, it serve areas that are not covered by public transportation.

Just like other services, rideshare encounters controversies as well such as lacking adequate regulation, insurance, license and training.  In fact, Uber is now considered illegal in Berlin and to other European cities on 2014 because the company did not comply with German laws on the carriage of passengers.

Despite of the controversies and doubts it faced and still facing right now, it still holds the trust of 20% passengers who are still willing to use the service at least once a week according to 2010 survey held at University of California in Berkeley. In fact, it was more way popular than transit or non-motorized commuters. 

If you want to save money for fuel and not to be stuck in traffic especially when you are already 5 minutes late to your work or to school and your car suddenly stop and not working then go ahead and grab your smartphone and dial the number or type a message and sent it to the Rideshare service on your area to save your day!