Online Dating for Carpoolers

By Perry Bacon Jr.

While car sharing is a concept that's catching on fast, old-fashioned carpooling has always faced an uphill grind. In a survey about traffic problems by TIME, ABC News and the Washington Post, 84% of those who drive to work say they still go it alone. More than half of those lone riders insist that carpooling is just too inconvenient, and 18% say they simply don't know anyone to share a ride with.

Now technology is offering a solution. NuRide, an online-carpooling service, promises to make carpooling easier and more fun. The company, which launched its site last year from an office in Herndon, Va., offers commuters in the Washington area not just a Web-based directory of potential carpoolers but also a way to arrange a trip online. Here's how it works: ride seekers enter the locations where their trip will begin and end, the time they want to leave and if they're willing to drive or just ride in someone else's car. The site's search engine then looks for matches and makes lists of the screen names of compatible traveling companions, along with the car model and the exact time and departure point for each trip. People who want to share the ride can click to register their interest in joining in and then meet their car mates when it's time to go.

While anyone can log on to set up a trip, NuRide users aren't riding with total strangers. Participants are required to provide the name of their employer and a work e-mail address, both of which NuRide says it verifies before listing people on the site. Users can also specify if they want to ride with only men, women or nonsmokers. And in NuRide's nod to eBay, they can rank one another on a scale of 1 to 5 on criteria ranging from showing up on time to being a safe driver. People who drive enough users mad can be off-ramped to "do not ride" lists.

To woo participants, NuRide offers a frequent rider bonus: anyone who shares a ride gets a $1 gift certificate from such companies as Brookstone and XM Satellite Radio. So far, 2,300 people have signed up. NuRide CEO Rick Steele estimates that more than 50,000 rides have been arranged on the site, resulting in 1.4 million fewer miles driven and 650 fewer tons of automobile emissions. "I do it to save on gasoline and reduce my stress load," says Dan Kulpinski, a senior programming manager at America Online, who has arranged 100 trips, mostly for the 55-min. commute from his suburban Maryland home to his office in Sterling, Va.

NuRide, which got much of its seed money from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, is currently focusing its service on a few major companies in the D.C. area that have enough employees who are likely to find others with a similar commute. But Steele and his partners think their idea can help ease traffic congestion around the U.S. They recently began operating in several counties outside New York City and want to start in three other metropolitan areas by the end of the year. They're also working on a more ambitious phone version of the service that would use global-positioning satellites to match riders with cars already on the road in their area. With NuRide, Americans might soon be able to hitch a ride from anywhere. --By Perry Bacon Jr.