CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 2 /PRNewswire/ -- As the spring semester ends, millions of college students will hit the road to home for the summer. GoLoco, a free online travel community with a revolutionary take on the simple concept of giving someone a ride, is encouraging students to join and explore its online travel community to plan their trips home. By sharing rides, students and classmates save money, lower CO2 emissions, and enjoy more time on the road with friends they trust.
"Seventy-five percent of all passenger cars on the road transport only one person at any given time, resulting in a vast waste of gasoline, money and time with friends," said Robin Chase, founder and CEO of GoLoco. "All those empty seats also represent a huge opportunity: Fill them with friends and save gas, money and the environment. GoLoco makes that easy through its trusted online travel community that helps turn your social network into a ride network."
At http://www.GoLoco.org, members create free online profiles with key information to prospective ride companions, including their picture, their hobbies and interests, their mutual friends and acquaintances, feedback from past ride-sharers - even their musical interests and an audio recording of their voice. Members control who can view their planned trips and then decide who their travel companions will be. Groups who share certain interests, from hobbies to music to alma maters, can connect with each other through GoLoco communities and join together to share rides to events or locations of mutual interest.
GoLoco even transforms the economics of ride sharing. GoLoco.org automatically calculates the cost of each trip and transfers funds from passengers to drivers, so nobody has to discuss or exchange money in the car. And the savings can be significant: Cars cost an average of 50 cents a mile to operate. Drivers who share trips with just one rider can cut their trip costs in half, and the savings grow as more riders come aboard. With GoLoco, friends and classmates can also share the costs of a taxi to the airport or renting a truck for the end-of-semester moving ritual.
GoLoco can also play a role in cutting dangerous greenhouse gas emissions. Twenty percent of America's CO2 emissions come from personal vehicles, amounting to about 1 pound of CO2 per mile driven. Increasing the number of riders in each vehicle cuts the number of trips and the CO2 pollution that contributes to global warming. GoLoco.org calculates the number of pounds of CO2 emission that each member is responsible for preventing through ride sharing.
"For solo drivers who haven't had the time to arrange a rideshare, or who are nervous to offer or accept rides from strangers, GoLoco is a solution," Chase said. "GoLoco works with an individual's social network of trusted friends, then helps them transform that network to meet their transportation needs and their desire to make a positive environmental change. The reduction in the cost of travel is just another benefit, and one that can be critical for college students."
About GoLoco
GoLoco is a trusted online community that allows its members to quickly and easily arrange to share rides of all distances among friends, neighbors, and co-workers. People who use GoLoco can significantly reduce their car CO2 emissions and costs, saving thousands of dollars each year. GoLoco also benefits companies, universities, retailers and event organizers by cutting the demand for parking spaces. Joining GoLoco and using the service to share rides is free. Drivers can also choose to share trip costs online, avoiding in-car money discussion or exchange. GoLoco collects each passenger's share of the total trip costs and transfers it to the driver using online accounts. We charge a transaction fee for this service. For more information, visit http://www.goloco.org.
About Robin Chase
Robin Chase, 48, founded Zipcar, Inc., where she served as CEO from 2000 to 2003, growing the company into the largest car-sharing organization in North America. In 2005 she founded Meadow Networks, a firm that consults on the application of wireless technologies to the transportation sector. Chase is a graduate of Wellesley (BA), MIT Sloan School of Management (MBA), and received a Loeb Fellowship from Harvard University. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband and three children.
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