[ Originally published on: Monday, March 31, 2008 ]
A few years ago, before he moved to Hadley from the Boston suburbs, Jeff Brown was sitting in traffic on Route 128 -- as he often was in those days --and got to thinking about the absurdity of commuting solo.
'I thought, 'Why are we just sitting here, idling away, all of us alone in our cars?' It didn't make sense,' he said.
Brown, who remembered carpooling and ridesharing as wildly popular when he lived in Germany, was interested in alternative fuels and also alternative modes of transportation, and he began wondering about ways that improved information technology could be combined with incentives to make carpooling a more attractive option for commuters.
His idea turned into 'RideBuzz,' an initiative that he hopes can eventually develop Web-based, 'real-time' mobile communication systems to increase the use of carpooling around the Pioneer Valley.
Ride sharing could become very, very easy -- essentially as easy as dialing a taxi,' he said.
'Just grabbing a mobile phone, pushing a few buttons and having a carpool pull up in five minutes' time, with three people and one seat open, that was driving by anyway and was notified in real time.'
The time is right, Brown said, with gasoline prices cutting more deeply into people's budgets.
Working with a variety of groups, including Greenfield-based Co-Op Power, the Amherst-based Hitchcock Center for the Environment and Northampton-based Center for Environmental Technology, RideBuzz is planning an April 3 informational forum at 7 p.m. in the Jones Library in Amherst.
'A lot of people in western Mass. are very concerned and very aware of the issues,' said Brown. He's been working full-time toward 'making it more possible for the community at large to get connected with ride sharing, to really simplify it so people can connect their ideals with actions more easily.'
That involves applying Internet technology to help people make more rapid, spontaneous connections.
Starting with simple Web posting, the model would use more advanced mobile technologies, such as global-positioning systems on Pioneer Valley Transit Authority buses that can alert people exactly how long it will be until a bus arrives at a particular stop.
Brown believes that so-called 'smart phones' are becoming the equivalent of laptop computers -- assuming that wireless connections become available in more remote locations -- and can help potential riders connect with people who can offer rides.
'We need to increase social etiquette around ride-sharing,' said Brown, pointing out that the kind of ride-sharing 'corkboards' that are commonplace on most college campuses and now are proliferating on the Internet were simply 'an advanced model of sticking out your thumb.'
The sheer numbers of ride-sharing sites may, in fact, dilute the viability of the effort, he said.
'What you don't have is a cohesive network,' he said.
'There are all these micro-networks that don't connect.'
On the Web: www.ridebuzz.org