Fare Share: An App For NYC, Only?

At the TechCrunch Disrupt event today, I had the chance to talk with Jeff Novich, Co-founder of Fare Share, which is a mobile app designed to help New Yorkers easily share taxi rides.

The app — which is not on iPhone yet, but Novich says it should be ready for Internet Week, early in June. The app does currently run as web application, though. Highlights:

• Users post a location (like Bowery and Grand), and a time where they hope to meet the other user(s).
• Users are alerted to nearby opportunities to share rides.
• Users can post a photo, or describe their clothing, so that the meeting can take place.
• After the ride, the app calculates how to split the fare and tip, even when the riders are not getting out at the same place.

I had a demo and it’s very well-done, but I will wait for the iPhone app before actually adopting it into my ‘cab flow’.

I asked Novich about rolling the app out for other cities, presuming he was planning that. He argued that other cities aren’t like NYC: they don’t have the density of people and taxis that makes this sharing model work. I suggested than maybe London might work, and he agreed, tentatively, but he has no plans at present. For the time being, this will be a NYC-only app.

(see this piece in AM New York  First mobile app to help riders split taxi trips debuts)