Avego is a soon-to-be-released service that aims to enhance ride sharing in order to increase the efficiency of our transportation system. This iPhone application for commuters comes from Mapflow, a Dublin, Ireland-based company with Sean O’Sullivan, the co-founder of MapInfo, as Executive Chairman.

The Avego application connects drivers and potential riders to reduce commuting time and cost, and provide financial incentives for drivers frustrated by the high price of fuel. The service uses the iPhone’s GPS feature to locate drivers, guide them to potential riders, and to individual destinations. Riders can access the system via any mobile phone via text messaging.

The system has a sophisticated GIS routing and navigation engine on the back end that provides detailed navigation to the driver with voice instructions. The driver simply enters in their destination, and indicates an interest in having a passenger. The system guides them to the location of the rider, displaying a picture for visual confirmation. The rider gets a message with vehicle make, model and licence plate. Once the ride is complete, the system calculates a fair and automated ride share amount, with the transaction happening online with a monthly statement for both drivers and riders. Both driver and rider are asked to rate each other on each transaction, and this detail is added into site profiles to help make future matches.

This is a clever and exciting development to help make use of all the wasted capacity of our transportation networks and to lower emissions. Avego estimates that 80% of our road capacity is wasted by vehicles that travel without passengers. The ride matching can save individual drivers as much as $3,000 per year in fuel costs. Riders can also get to work quicker, rather than navigating many different public transport options when their commute doesn’t match routes.

I’m encouraged by the idea of this service, particularly in very dense and traffic clogged cities. There’s a bit of a mental obstacle here to get this running, but the younger tech-savvy generation could give this a big boost. It may first prove helpful for student ride shares during campus breaks or for current van pool operators. The automated accounting system coupled with navigation make this an exciting offering to streamline these already-available options. We may need to see another spike in oil prices for this to take off for the commuting crowd.

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