App Shopper: Avego (Travel)

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Avego

iOS iPhone

***** Version 2.0 is now available under a different name: Avego Driver http://itunes.com/apps/AvegoDriver *****

Avego Shared Transport enables private cars to become part of the public transport network by providing a marketplace for drivers to offer their unused seats to other people in real time.

The Avego iPhone app uses GPS technology to connect drivers with anyone searching for a ride along the same route. The cost of the journey is automatically and fairly calculated and charged to the rider.

With Avego, travelers cooperate to improve transport efficiency. A five-seat car traveling with only a driver wastes most of its capacity. With the Avego app, web services and your participation, we can fill up those empty seats.

Avego is currently in “launch & learn” state. Use the system today to register your routes, to create new stop locations along your routes, and to drive simulated riders. You can pick up and drop off simulated riders along your route exactly as you would with real people. When other real drivers and riders appear in your area, we will notify you.

Use Avego to save money, protect the climate, expand affordable commuting options and reduce traffic congestion in your area.

PRAISE FOR AVEGO:
Soon you may no longer need to stick out your thumb to catch a ride. Instead, you may get one by tapping your fingers on your iPhone. (The New York Times)

This is a great way to reduce commuting expenses. It should resonate with anyone looking to help the environment and save money in the process. (KillerStartups.com)

The folks who organize the DEMOfall conference name their picks for top 10 presentations to the DEMOgods. Here's a more exclusive list: My top five. 1. Avego. This service, which uses common cell phone and computer technologies to arrange ad-hoc carpools, is perfect for a time of high gas prices, environmental concerns and poor public transit options. Not only does the system promise to make carpooling easier, it also gives drivers a financial incentive to pick up passengers because riders pay drivers a per-mile fee to defray gas costs. (The San Jose Mercury News)

As someone who drives in the San Francisco area, I am well aware of the wastefulness and congestion caused by single drivers clogging up three lanes of traffic. The Avego paradigm optimizes the daily commute by consolidating riders into fewer vehicles. It’s a new way of thinking about commuting, offering more efficient transit options, lowered gas costs and environmental benefits. (Chris Shipley, Executive Producer of the DEMO conferences)

Peak oil presents the potential for catastrophic upheavals, but ultimately also some more hopeful possibilities: a chance to address many underlying societal problems, and the opportunity to return to simpler, healthier and more community oriented lifestyles. Avego could represent this hope. (Bart Anderson, co-editor of the Energy Bulletin conferences)

America hasn't the time or the resources to scale up its public transportation system to meet our energy conservation needs, especially with such a distributed population. Our focus should instead be to use the existing fleet of private automobiles as mass transit. The Avego system is an ingenious approach of shared transit enabling private individuals to become part of the transport solution to rising fuel prices and coming fuel shortages. (Pat Murphy, executive director of Community Solutions)

The most promising app I saw is the carpooling app Avego (currently in a "launch & learn state"), which is described as a "cross between carpooling, public transit, and eBay," with a user reputation/feedback mechanism included; it also would include a payment function—i.e., a way to help out with gas money—which, as one rideshare expert put it to me, "is always awkward in person. (Slate.com)