Saturday, December 09, 2006

New Ridester Review

Lifehacker.com had a great review about Ridester on Friday. We're pleased to see more people across America discovering the value of our unique service. However, with something so new and different, there are inevitably new questions and occasional confusion. One of the review's comments asked , "...isn't this comparable to being a gypsy cab? isn't that illegal?..."

The answer is no. Ridester.com is not a gypsy cab service in any way.
According to Merriam Webster, a gypsy cab is "a taxicab licensed only to answer calls." In other words, someone says, "Hey there, I need a ride from A to B and I'll pay you X dollars to take me. The driver is then a 'gypsy cab.'

Ridester doesn't allow drivers to 'answer calls'. Quite the contrary, drivers must list trips in advance, and can only receive requests from riders who need to travel along the routes of those listed trips. This is known as 'ridesharing', not 'gypsy cabbing'. Shared transportation is generally defined as "ridesharing" if the intent of the trip is personal and the driver is offering rides to defray travel costs - that is exactly how Ridester works.

With thousands of miles of highways moving millions of people all over the place, we're proud to offer the first service that provides a passenger marketplace for sharing road trip costs anywhere in America (and eventually Canada).

Monday, December 04, 2006

November was an exciting and eventful month for Ridester - the Greyhound bus alternative. We welcomed our 10,000th member and appeared in US News and Time Magazine.
We also listened to your thoughts and responded with some cool new features. Below are a few things you'll notice next time you visit.

1. 30% site speed increase.
2. Improved payment and price flexibility.
3. An even easier interface for requesting rides.
4. A messaging system to anonymously communicate before committing.

Four months into our Beta, we're proud of what you have helped us achieve. We're also deeply thankful for the support from our growing community.
And as always, if you'd like to share a few tips or ideas, we're slaves to your suggestions!

Sincerely,

Ridester Team