GRAY HOMES, SMARTPHONES

The Near Future Of Mobility

new trends, transportation, travel and the elderly, travel, cars

DialARide Died -Elderly Transportation

oldedriver

“Dial A Ride” is clearly an anachronism. With a Smart Phone you don’t dial- you  click numbers, or just speak into the microphone. So, the olde van business which served elderly transportation needs should change its name. Outmoding it, perhaps, will be a new business model. A San Francisco startup called Hitch  (www.takehitch.com) uses GPS to match unrelated passengers who are going to proximate destinations. Instead of hiring a personal car, as you do with Uber or Lyft, the  takehitch algorithm pairs  the driver with you and two or three other likely passengers.  It could be called a share-taxi. Although it is starting service for hipsters, there is no reason that the model could not work well for former hippies (the Baby Boomers). It seems like a better working model, and certainly a better name, than the clunky “Dial A Ride” van.

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