WANTED: Carpooling Application
Either this exists or someone should make it. Now! Pretty please? (I.e. please tell me what it is so I can get my sys-admin to set it up/install it or please build it.)
It's very common for workplaces to have commuting employees who commute from clusters in the surrounding areas. If employees have very set routines, then its easy for them to form carpooling teams. If, however, there's a fair bit of variety in their routine--when they want to arrive, when they want to leave, how much room they'll have in their car b/c they might have to bring something big to work---then it becomes hard to form regular carpooling teams. Many such workers might not really settle on what the next day is going to look like until shortly before bedtime the previous day (having checked evening email, finished their dayplanning, consulted with significant others or family). At that point it's very impractical to go down the roster of uncommitted but interested proximate commuters, cold-calling to find a match, hoping to avoid waking early sleepers or babies. What would be really useful would be the ability to simply notify some central database of carpooling irregulars with one's particulars (location, earliest leave-the-house time, desired arrival time, earliest-leave-work time, desired end-time, willingness to drive, available seats), go to bed, wake up, and check one's phone for match results and instructions. (I.e. "yes, you drive, pick up Yvette (address) then Kumar (address), Kumar must leave work by 5pm)" or "no, sorry, no one can carpool with you today.")
Is this really too much to hope for? The future is now!
Realistically this probably isn't going to do much for me, b/c my workplace isn't big enough, but it might help, and the probability of it helping would increase with the size of the workplace and the number of its neighbors.
What I've found so far are a website called Ridesearch.com and a Facebook application called Zimride, which I think is commendable. However, I think these are the wrong venues for a lot of people. They're not focused enough. I know that my fellow employees are unlikely to register for either of these. They'd be particularly warying of giving Facebook their cell phone number. But they might go for somethig sponsored and hosted by our employer. Also, I'm slightly wary of using Facebook or the web to vet whose car I'm getting into, and these just search too wide a field. It's true that Zimride recognizes the need for one-time carpool matching. But it appears it doesn't quite do the geography matching/morning text-message one-time on-demand arrangement I'm talking about.(Maybe I'm just bitter because neither of these found a match for me--so I can't really test them. But that' my point!) There are plenty of ways to arrange steady, long-term carpools. I'm looking for a tool for the commitment-phobic. Maybe Ridesearch.com or Zimride could provide company-specific version, much like Google produces Google Apps for companies to use internally? I also found a webpage for an Australian server-side program that sounds more geared towards long-term arrangements.
Anyway, pointers/wholesale creation would be much appreciated. Please pass on to your faorite Web 2.0 experts or engineers in case they can find it or build it.
![[octosquid]](http://www.sahelidatta.com/mf/files/2007/07/octosquid.jpg)


Apr-15: Greg on Defeating the Dastardly Guinea Worm
Apr-15: Greg on Defeating the Dastardly Guinea Worm
Mar-11: Joe W on WANTED: Carpooling Application
Mar-07: alex gong on WANTED: Carpooling Application
Mar-05: indeterminacy on WANTED: Carpooling Application
Mar-04: mil0ram on WANTED: Carpooling Application
Feb-19: Jonathan Versen on WANTED: Carpooling Application
Feb-19: Saheli on WANTED: Carpooling Application
Feb-17: Scotto on WANTED: Carpooling Application