Technology and Behavioral Economics are Finally Riding Together!
From funded vanpools to carpooling apps, most current carpooling solutions fail to overcome the simple human factors impeding participation: fear of the unknown and low motivation. Fortunately, through Metropia’s managed carpool platform, agencies and employers are able to easily remove these perceived barriers from carpool participation, allow both drivers and passengers to progressively approach carpooling at their level of comfort, and actively incentivize shared rides.
Alleviating Fears of the Unknown
Many people simply aren’t comfortable getting in the car with a stranger, but the user-centric design of Metropia’s PoolEZY carpooling feature empowers agencies and employers to address those concerns and allows users to approach carpooling gradually to their individual level of comfort.
At the heart of PoolEzy are public and private carpooling groups. Users can be invited to join carpooling groups by their personal contacts or create their own carpooling groups with friends, family, classmates, and coworkers to share rides exclusively with those they know and trust. Users may also join public and private groups set up by others. To further facilitate convenient carpooling solutions within their system, employers and agencies can work directly with partners and stakeholders to establish PoolEzy groups for employees, institutions, major events, and more.
Once a user is comfortably immersed in the PoolEzy community, our system is able to match up potential carpoolers based on similar upcoming trips even if they aren’t members of the same PoolEzy group.
Overcoming Low Motivation
The Metropia app has many powerful features and tools that appeal to drivers of single-occupancy vehicles, which allows users to build a relationship with those drivers and gradually pique their interest in carpooling. Through the strategic deployment of brief informative tiles highlighting the benefits of carpooling--savings on fuel, use of expedited carpooling lanes, and more--Metropia is able to incrementally raise user opinions of carpooling as a viable mode and execute persuasive campaigns with proven results.
If motivation to carpool was generally high, we’d see far greater participation in funded carpool and vanpool programs as well as the success of carpool-focused apps. But these programs all require significant interest, inertia, and commitment just to get started, which makes participation unlikely from anyone but the most motivated carpoolers. Fortunately, through PoolEzy, your agency now has the tool to circumvent low motivation and naturally progress a traveler with no interest in carpooling into a ride sharing devotee.
Added Incentive
By incorporating Metropia’s behavioral modification platform, agencies and employers can more proactively incentivize and reward people for participating in a carpool as a driver, passenger, or both!