Share a Car, Save the World

By connecting riders and drivers online at Facebook, Robin Chase hopes to make carpooling the hip, socially conscious way to get around

by Helen Walters

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Consider this: Nearly 80% of the American workforce drive themselves to work each day. That's nearly 98 million people driving to and from the office every day, according to the latest Transportation Dept. statistics. Multiply that by the five-day work week and that's a lot of car-fueled travel. And that doesn't even account for those who have to drive for personal reasons—to buy food, say. But given current assessments of finite oil and gas reserves, not to mention the impact of private transport on the environment, it seems clear that this situation is not sustainable long-term. What's less clear is a viable alternative.

Not for Robin Chase. The Cambridge (Mass.)-based social entrepreneur and transportation design visionary has a very clear idea of what can be done—now—to make an immense difference, at least within the U.S. And her vision takes on an all-American icon, the car.

Zipcar, Version 2.0

Chase's latest venture, GoLoco.org, is an online service linking the worlds of social networking and transport design, underpinned by an environmentally aware philosophy. Its mission is simple: to connect drivers with passengers and thus instantly cut down the number of cars on the road. Ride-share agreements are made online, as are financial arrangements, thus neatly circumventing any potentially awkward moments between strangers. "I see GoLoco as an immediate solution," says Chase. "It means I don't have to wait for the government to introduce carbon taxes or congestion charges, or put in smart development or light rail or transit. Today, with the infrastructure we have, we can do something which dramatically reduces costs and emissions."

Chase isn't just spewing the latest politically correct green-speak. She was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University, where she studied transportation design, urban design, and city planning. She serves on the Kyoto Cities Initiative International Advisory Panel, the Boston Mayor's Wireless City Task Force, and she's also the founder and chief executive officer of Meadow Networks, a consulting group that recommends and develops open-source wireless technology applications for the transportation sector.

What's more, this isn't the first time that Chase has put her money where her transportation ideas are. In 2000, she founded the car-sharing service Zipcar. Intended as a practical alternative to car ownership, Zipcar allows members to rent a car for a day, or even an hour. The company now has more than 100,000 regular drivers worldwide, and though Chase left Zipcar in 2003, she retains an undisclosed holding in the company.

The Social Network Connection

Of course, carpooling is not a new idea. Some 9% of commuters operated some kind of carpooling system in 2005, and high-occupancy vehicle lanes are common in certain urban areas, allowing faster passage for those making the most of the space in their car. But consumer-focused ride-sharing businesses have mostly foundered. "Over the past decade I've heard a dozen people invent dynamic ride-sharing in one form or another, but the programs usually die out fairly quickly," says Todd Litman, executive director and chief researcher of Victoria Transport Policy Institute in Canada.

How does Chase plan to get better mileage out of GoLoco? Well, the service is currently available exclusively through an application within Facebook, allowing GoLoco to take advantage of the social network giant's recent expansion to the world beyond college. Matching up with the popular social networking site makes sense. Facebook's primary audience, college students, provides an ideal demographic for ride-sharing—they're young, they care about the cost and environmental impact of transport, and they're already comfortable with the nuances of social networking. For this demographic, it's the obvious alternative to the paper-based college ride board of yore.