AUSTIN, TX, Aug. 13, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, RideScout is proud to introduce new rideshare capabilities as a result of its recent partnership with Carma, a service that matches users with people nearby who want to set up carpools in advance or on demand. Ridesharing, which consists of two or more people going in the same direction sharing seats in a car, is a key part of the transportation ecosystem within RideScout.
"RideScout was founded with the mission to connect people with rides to help facilitate more shared rides and I'm thrilled to partner with ridesharing company Carma and shared ride-for-hire platform Bandwagon to help bring the shared transportation economy into RideScout," said Joseph Kopser, Co-Founder and CEO of RideScout. "By saving, time money, and precious resources like foreign oil, we all win."
As a mobile platform for carpooling, Carma's goal is to make ridesharing easy and flexible, reducing the number of cars on the road and improving upon traffic issues across the country. A partnership with Carma extends RideScout's functionality within cities and into suburbs and less densely populated areas. Now users can set up ridesharing in markets where Carma has esttablished federally funded real-time ridesharing programs in the United States, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Austin, Santa Barbara, and Washington, DC.
"This is yet another sign that carpooling (or Carmapooling in our case) is on the rise. People are adopting Carma as their best commute option because they realize it's the smart solution to our congestion and pollution problems," says Paul Steinberg, VP of Business Development at Carma. "True ridesharing only happens when drivers share seats in order to help their fellow neighbor; not in order to make a profit. Now, through our latest collaboration with RideScout, true ridesharing matches can be found alongside bus and train schedules, helping people utilize the millions of wasted empty seats on our roads every single rush hour."
As Carma extends RideScout's functionality in sprawling urban areas, the company's partnership with Bandwagon facilitates shared taxis within cities, helping passengers find each other and share the cost of transportation in New York City and at places and times of critical density anywhere in the world. Shared rides can shave around 40% off the cost of a taxi, and save passengers long waits on taxi lines. Founded in early 2013, Bandwagon's model of taxi and ride-for-hire share has been adopted by Uber and Lyft.
"A staggering number of seats in cars remain empty," says David Mahfouda, CEO of New York City-based Bandwagon. "Giving people the power to make better use of those seats is an important tool for making our transportation more accessible, affordable and efficient, and it depends upon an openness to sharing. In providing a layer on top of taxis and ride-for-hire apps, Bandwagon allows people to find each other nearby and share rides without being bound to a single vehicle provider. We're proud to be partnered with RideScout, and we share its vision for the future of transit—keeping it easy, accessible, and open."
Bandwagon and Carma compliment each other because of their openness to data exchange, their shared mission in reducing the numbers of cars on the road, and a desire to improve the quality of life for people in cities and suburbs. RideScout is proud to feature both services on their transportation discovery platform.
About RideScout: RideScout is a technology platform that aggregates over 300 public, private and social rideshare services on its free iOS and Android apps, allowing people to search and compare ground transportation options on demand and in real time. Hailed as the Kayak™ of ground transportation, RideScout shows users transit, taxi, ride share, car share, bike share, carpool, walking, biking, driving and parking in one view. The company is based in Austin, TX, with a Washington, DC, office at startup campus 1776. Please visit www.ridescoutapp.com for more information or access app screenshots here.
About Carma: Carma is a breakthrough ridesharing app that matches users with nearby people who want to share empty seats, reducing costs, traffic and emissions. It keeps a log of all completed trips for added safety, making it the world's only verified ridesharing app. Carma operates federally funded real-time ridesharing programs in the San Francisco Bay Area, Austin, Santa Barbara, , and Washington, DC. Its customers include cities, governments and tens of thousands of individual commuters in Ireland, Norway and the USA.
About Bandwagon: Bandwagon makes it easy for people to share rides in taxis and car services, matching passengers in cities, at events, and airport taxi lines in real time or on a schedule. Bandwagon matches riders and routes in any city, and provides shared taxi service in NYC, particularly to and from airports. In addition to thousands of users, its customers include events, organizations and transportation hubs seeking to improve transportation and reduce financial and environmental costs. See more and get the free app at bandwagon.io.
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