Sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s, hitch-hiking around town or cross country became dangerous. Around the same time, credit became more abundant in the US and more people were able to buy cars than ever before. Cars also became increasingly important as people looked to raise their families in affordable housing further and further away from city centers. This helped to create an environment perfectly suited for Americans to get in their cars one-by-one and drive everywhere around town and beyond.

This perfect storm created an America of single occupancy vehicles, urban sprawl and commute times expanding from a few minutes to hours a day. The days of hitch-hiking were gone and carpooling became the ugly step sister for many years, considered dangerous and inconvenient by many.

However, in the last five years, as the US becomes more environmentally responsible and resistant to foreign oil dependency, we’ve come to realize a long-term solution needs to be found. Beyond hybrid vehicles, electric cars and public transit, we have to get more people to change their narrow view of owning a vehicle for themselves and instead think in terms of maximizing seat capacity for a better way of life.

The Avego solution is simple. Reduce the number of single occupant vehicles on our roads by creating a network of Shared Transport vehicles, in which people are matched together in real time to occupy a single vehicle, thereby saving gas, money and harmful C02 emissions.

Now, you can become part of the solution by sharing your car in a safe and economically positive environment by broadcasting empty seat availability and choosing to take on riders (for compensation). Conversely, as a rider, you can broadcast your destination and be matched in real time with drivers going where you need to go, when you need to go.

Safe, efficient and environmentally friendly… that’s the Avego Shared Transport solution.

Avego Shared Transport is available as a free iPhone app.

Riders do NOT need an iPhone to request rides – they can sign up for a free account to book rides online. Create your free Avego account here.

Learn more about Avego Shared Transport here.

Follow Avego on Twitter.