In a new pitch to entice commuters to ditch their cars, Mountain View's Transportation Management Association (MTMA) is now offering a package of incentives to encourage carpooling.
The transportation group is offering discounted rides and other incentives over the next six months as part of a new deal with Waze Carpooling. Best known for its traffic navigation app, Google-owned Waze also provides a carpooling platform that connects drivers and riders.
Waze Carpooling functions much like Uber or Lyft, but with some key differences. Users have more discretion in choosing their carpool buddies. Drivers aren't supposed to make a living from chauffeuring passengers Waze drivers are limited to just two rides per day.
Under the new discount promotion, Waze is charging a flat $2 rate per carpool ride using its app. New drivers who sign up for the services will receive $20 once they complete their first carpooling trip. Waze will also give $20 in credit to any new riders who begin using the app.
The new incentives come in the wake of other promotions by MTMA to reduce solo driving. In April, the group began offering $5 discounts for shared rides using Uber or Lyft. To receive this price cut, riders must begin or end their ride in Mountain View.
As part of the new announcement, MTMA officials said they would extend the deal with Uber and Lyft through the end of 2019.
More information about the new promotions can be found at MVgo.org.
Comments
Another Mountain View Neighborhood
on Jul 24, 2019 at 10:00 am
on Jul 24, 2019 at 10:00 am
at least sometimes you can get "Around Town".
Former Councilmember Kasperzak deserves credit for helping drive the formation of MTMA when he was serving on our Council.
Old Mountain View
on Jul 25, 2019 at 9:41 am
on Jul 25, 2019 at 9:41 am
Uber and Lyft double the number of vehicle trips created by the rider? If the commuter drives themselves to work, they make one trip to work and one trip back = 2 trips. If they rely on Uber or Lyft, the ride-hailing vehicle makes one trip to the worksite, leaves to go somewhere else, another vehicle makes a trip back in the afternoon, and drives the commuter back home = 4 trips. This doesn't seem like a good idea to reduce traffic or congestion.
Registered user
Another Mountain View Neighborhood
on Jul 25, 2019 at 3:42 pm
Registered user
on Jul 25, 2019 at 3:42 pm
This sounds similar to what Scoop was doing 3-4 years ago when it was getting started as a convenient carpool-scheduling app. What makes the system work in the long run is for there to be enough drivers in the system that riders can be confident that they'll be able to get to work in the morning and (especially) to get home in the evening, and for there to be enough riders in the system that drivers can be confident that they'll get matched with riders that don't require too much of a detour.
@Commuter: Yes, if you look at the home (or workplace) of a rider, then someone carpooling instead of driving exchanges 1 departure and 1 arrival for 2 departures and 2 arrivals. But if you look at the overall situation, the carpool driver and rider are trading 4 long commute drives for 2 long commute drives and 4 short detours to pick up or drop off the rider.
And based on my experience using Scoop for 2.5 years, not all riders own cars (or they're in 2-worker households with only a single car). So if you look at the overall situation, car ownership can be reduced, with all that that means.