Carpooling's social network: The idea is gaining traction

Editor's note: The "Innovation Exchange," a regular feature in Local Tech Wire, is written by Noah Garrett, former director of communications for the North Carolina Technology Association, is a creative spirit, from writing music to news stories, who owns and operates NGC Communications. The focus of the Innovation Exchange is just that – creating a Web community through which people can exchange ideas and foster creativity.

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Not everybody wants to ride to work with strangers, but a new Web site launched in South Carolina looks to streamline the carpooling concept while helping the environment and saving users a few pennies along the way.

Ride sharing and conservation, in general, offer a significant cost benefit. However, the reality is that when conservation is weighed against quality of life and convenience, often convenience wins. The challenge is to make setting up carpools easy for individuals and businesses.

Thus the idea of Carolina Commuter was born.

Developed by Nelson Ohl of Folly Beach, S.C., the site utilizes the power of the Web by incorporating social networking concepts into the carpooling idea. It is a simple step to help improve the environment by impacting the conservation side of the energy equation, which deserves as much attention these days as developing new energy technologies.

I caught up with Nelson this week to find out more about the site and the overall initiative.

What gave you this idea?

When I first moved to South Carolina, I was driving behind someone leaving Folly Beach one day and saw them throw some trash out of their window. I thought to myself, there must be an organization I can call to report the offender. I later discovered South Carolina's Palmetto Pride anti-litter campaign where you can report incidents of littering originating from automobiles. Shortly after that I thought to myself, it's entirely possible that South Carolina could have its own brand representing individuals and organizations that were concerned about smart and efficient commuting. Through the CarolinaCommuter.com website, "Carolina Commuters" can easily and affordably (free) connect to organize carpools. One day I hope that the "Carolina Commuter" brand will be recognized as a group of dedicated commuters who are committed to making a real difference to quality of life.

In reality, how many people actually carpool?

In the Charleston metro area alone, according to the SCDOT, about 140,000 cars traverse I-26 to Charleston every day. It should be pretty easy to do the math to come up with a target ride-sharing goal above 10.7 percent that would make an appreciable impact on congestion that could be compared to capital improvement projects.

How has technology's progress helped you do this?

The Internet and technology is what has allowed me to consider pursuing the idea of building a coalition of green-minded commuters on a state-wide level. Without an affordable means to reach out to commuters throughout the state, it would be impossible to consider the initiative. The internet and development of smart phone technology is what's going to make it possible on a limited budget.

How's your traffic so far?

Since late August of 2008, I would say Web traffic has been minimal at best. However, until a recent interview with Mike Switzer of the South Carolina Business Review on our public radio station, and the article you read in the paper this week, I did not have access to the state-wide media. I've been contacting various organizations and blogging to bring attention to the initiative. At this point I still have less than a 100 members. However, commuters are joining at an increasing rate, and I hope to attract businesses to participate as "Organizational" members, which should increase traffic even more.

What is an "Organizational" member?

Ride sharing coordinated by CarolinaCommuter.com is easy, good for the environment, and free for individuals. Companies and organizations wishing to use the site exclusively pay a small fee to set up their account. The cost is $100 for companies that have up to 200 employees. It's important to mention that "Organizational" members do have the capability to search outside of their organization membership if they want to broaden their search.

Can you describe what end users will experience by using this resource?

The end-user experience is trivial by today's online standards. To find one another, commuters simply 1) log-in to the site's user friendly ride-share matching service, 2) Enter their "commuter profile" describing their origination and destination, and 3) search for other commuters with similar profiles.

Sounds pretty simple, what technology are you using to make this work?

I'm currently migrating the site to Microsoft's .Net platform. As I progress I'll incorporate Microsoft Source Safe as my development CMS. From a Customer Management System standpoint, currently it's all me - with assistance from Microsoft Office tools that I'm very familiar with, as well as, the automation of the individual tools.

This all sounds great, but how are you looking to make money with this?

I'm very much looking for sponsors, (and volunteers). I'm hoping that when the Web site traffic increases that companies that are interested in participating as "Organizational" members will also be interested in becoming sponsors. I've established a pricing/revenue model largely around sponsors and setup fees from organization memberships. I'd also like to approach colleges to see if I can establish internship opportunities from both marketing and transportation demand management students interested in assisting.

So, what's next for Carolina Commuters?

Next steps are to establish an infrastructure of sorts. I think one approach to make carpooling stickier is branded infrastructure, such as well defined "CarolinaCommuter.com" park and ride locations, supported by a strong backing from the business community (which could include many of the state's colleges and universities and government agencies). I think my discriminator among other ride-sharing initiatives is the goal of building a statewide coalition. The neatest part is that when you consider the cost of increased popularization/marketing of the benefits of ride sharing, against the cost of building additional roadways, I'm pretty sure the cost benefit tips heavily in sharing the ride's favor.