The history of joint trips in Russia and abroad

The first precedents of joint trips are known to a person from time immemorial (hitchhiking) - hitchhiking, when two strangers to each other make a joint trip. The driver, going somewhere , sees the passenger - a person (hitchhiker), who is given a gesture (raised thumb) and “picks up” him. As a rule, such trips are free (but not always), and the safety of such movements cannot be guaranteed. However, they have spread throughout the world and are used even today. An example of such a trip can be seen in the 2000 American comedy "Road Trip" (road adventure).


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In the 1940s , the basic direction of joint travel appeared - carpooling. The appearance was due to the needs of the Second World War, and then in the 1970s in the United States (the oil crisis). The sources from which people learned about such trips were posters, they were of the nature of mass propaganda and served as motivation, along with slogans calling for saving fuel for the good of the Motherland, contributing to the victory in the war , etc.
In connection with the advent of information technologies into our lives, the pace of life naturally increased, the main criterion of which was a limited resource - time. The user has become important simplicity, speed and ease of use of the service (application). As an independent direction, Carpooling mutated and divided into many subspecies:

Vanpool

Vanpool - joint group trips from 7 to 15 people for short or long distances within a certain social group (schoolchildren, students, colleagues , etc. ), which are, as a rule, permanent (as scheduled). Often such trips are organized with the help of a freight forwarding system that has professional drivers and vans (minibuses) at their disposal.
As drivers can also alternately act colleagues themselves. The fee for transportation services is based on the principle of a subscription fee (this includes the cost shared between the participants for paying for gasoline, as well as the subscription fee at the rate of the service providing special software and organizing the trip in this way). The distance of such trips is fixed, the software is responsible for the rational consolidation of trip members. For vanpool vans, as a rule, special parking spaces marked with road signs are reserved at the points of departure and destination.
Such trips in Russia have not yet found application, but in the US they have been used for a long time:
“For six months in a row, I got to work for two or even three hours in terrible traffic jams while paying a lot of money,” says Tatiana, who moved to the US three years ago and lives near Los Angeles . “And then I stumbled upon the Vanpool Commuter Assistance Program.” It turned out that in my area there were 8 more people who wanted to travel together. Now I pay 4-5 times less, and those who agree to drive a car do not pay at all.




Real-Time Ridesharing

Real-Time Ridesharing - joint travel services, a logical continuation of the classic carpooling, two or more people move in one car. The existence of this type is due to the satisfaction of needs caused by the high rate of human life in modern society. Distinctive features are:
• GPS navigation devices to determine the driver’s routes and coordinate them with the passenger;
• Mobile devices (smartphones, tablets) to fulfill travelers' requests, wherever they are;
• Social networks to establish trust and responsibility between the driver and the passenger.
• These elements coordinate the work of the service in real time (including conducting a transaction for the trip and making adjustments while optimizing the route).
The motivation for using ridesharing-services is based on the rational use of free passenger seats in private
cars (as a result - reducing the amount of fuel consumed, the division of transport costs between
travel companions, road traffic improvement). Trips can be carried out both for short and long distances;
both once and permanently; both spontaneously and planned.
At the moment, as a type of joint travel, real-time ridesharing is able to satisfy almost all
transport needs of a rapidly developing modern society (safety, price, traffic, ecology, live communication).


Slugging
Slugging - joint trips of a permanent (commute) character, occurring at the request of a passenger waiting at a specially designated, road sign (slug line)
The incident of the first joint slugging trip occurred about 38 years ago (in 1975) in Washington DC (almost immediately after the HOV bands for carpool and vanpool trips were designed and opened). The main motivation of drivers during such trips is the occupancy of their car (at least 3 people with the driver in mind) for driving along a dedicated speed lane - HOV lane ( High-occupancy vehicle lane). On such lanes, it was possible to move at a speed of 65+ miles / hour instead of a limit of 55 miles / hour. Widely distributed in several US states (Washington DC, San Francisco, etc.)


Passengers wishing to take advantage of this type of joint travel, go to special websites , choose the slug line nearest to them, come to the appointed place and wait for their driver in a live queue, the principle is First Come - First Served (first came - first left) . The fee for such a trip is not charged, the shared expenses are only funds spent on tolls (toll roads).
Such joint trips do not require interaction with special software and services that organize trips. At the same time, the authorities completely remove from themselves any responsibility for what happened, shifting it to the fellow travelers themselves, their instincts and chance. In comparison with hitchhiking, slugging trips are more convenient; By the criterion of security, there are still many questions.


Taxipooling
Taxipooling is a type of joint travel involving the use of a taxi by several (2 or 3) passengers simultaneously. The benefits of such a trip are clear - passengers share the cost of the trip, and the taxi service has guaranteed customers.
The interaction of passengers occurs through the mobile application (the user selects the final and starting points of the trip, sets the trip time, including the interval (5, 10, 15, ... min.) Through which he waits for a taxi; the application selects the desired route for the user, displays suitable car and offers the user a ride). On board a taxi there is a similar software. Organized prior arrangement in the form of instant text messages.


It is worth noting that in many countries the state actively supports joint movements: they allocate special parking spaces for people traveling in one car, in some US states one can go on special roads faster, provided that there are at least two people in the car.
The Russian market in this area is only being formed, but there is already support for various structures, for example, the Foundation for Assistance to the Development of Small Forms of Enterprises in the Scientific and Technical Sphere or the Krasnoyarsk Regional Innovation and Technology Business Incubator . With their help, our company “VPuti” has developed a joint travel service with the same name, which is one of the most reliable and modern type, namely, real-time ridesharing. We have developed applications for searching for travel companions on various platforms: Android, iOS, Web, as well as for the social network Vkontakte. The applications are simple and easy to use: you just need to enter your number and you will receive an activation code on your phone (for free). Then you specify: the driver is you or the passenger, determine the route, the time of the trip and the application automatically selects your companion. The popularity of such services in Russia, compared with the United States and Europe, has acquired not so large scales. but we are trying to spread information, and our users share their own travel stories on various social networks. Here is an example of such a story, sent by the user of our service Natalia:
“I would like to share with you my experience of one of my unexpected trips with a companion!
I was traveling from Tomsk to Yashkino via Kemerovo. And at the weight control, located not far from Kemerovo (about 60 kilometers), a traffic police representative is slowing me down. I, like any driver, “strain myself.” It did not seem to have broken, I’m not afraid of document checks, but still something moved in my heart. I stop, open the window and, without having had time to ask anything, hear the question: “Are you in Kemerovo?” In five seconds of my silence, a thousand thoughts passed through my head. From the category: there is mined the entrance to the city, sappers with dogs, you have to go the other way, and so on, in the same spirit! I answer in complete confusion: "in Yashkino". “Well, through Kemerovo?”, He wondered. “Yes,” I reply, still struggling to understand what is happening. And then the intrigue was asleep to everyone's joy. “Will you take our employee to Kemerovo?” I was already confused, as it turned out everything was simple! The only thing that I was able to squeeze out of myself from surprise: "Is he good?". “Good,” the traffic cop answered me and went to call his colleague. A man of about 60 sat down in my car and we moved towards Kemerovo, nicely discussing Tsarist Russia and Russia during the Bolshevik rule. This is how the representatives of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate organize joint trips. ” Have you ever had such trips?



And there are many such examples. Most people learn about us through various online resources and, less often, from friends. Over the past year, the audience of our applications has increased by several thousand and today is more than 11,000 people. Many people learn about the service through Vkontakte groups. Initially the group was in the city of Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk. Over the past year we have been joined: the Tyva Republics, Kazakhstan and Tatarstan, as well as Omsk and the Arkhangelsk Region. The total number of group members to date has almost reached 10,000. Now one of our main tasks is to disseminate information about such a method of movement as joint trips within the city and between cities.


The application can be downloaded from the following links: iOS - bit.ly/1l6b5cC , Android - bit.ly/1av6Izz , VKontakte - bit.ly/15VucNr .

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