Find your way to Coachella this year again with PickupPal! Thanks guys for supporting us once again, we love the fact that we continue year after year to help people get their the eco-friendly way.
Great article here from the Daily Bruin, giving some great heads up pointers about doing the event as a group.
Have a fantastic event everyone and be safe!
Yes it’s true! PickupPal for the iPhone®, and iPod touch®, is available today as a free app in the iTunes store. We’re super excited about this, and we hope that you will be as well.
This is a phenomenal addition to our existing service, but most importantly it is the ultimate app for all you who are on the go, looking for more convenient, economical and environmentally friendly ways to get to work, school or even to concerts.
Think of it as your personal GPS-enabled transportation dispatcher!
GET IT HERE!
The iPhone app enables PickupPal members to:
• Utilize Facebook Connect™ to sign in
• Add rides as a Driver or Passenger quickly using a wizard interface
• Use the iPhone’s GPS function to capture current location as the start location
• Use maps to select start and end locations
• Be matched with other PickupPal members who are on the way
• Review member profile details in order to find best suited match
• Communicate with other members using PickupPal secure messaging
Tips and Tricks for the PickupPal iPhone App
• Shake your iPhone to refresh the Matches and Message Inbox.
• Tap the “i” icon on the driver or passenger photo to view profile information.
• When adding a ride, use the maps feature to tap and select location.
• To change the location in the map, tap on a different spot.
Enjoy and please spread the word!
We welcome all feedback at support@pickuppal.com
Brent
PickupPal Business Development
Anne Stephenson from Clean Air Cool Planet was kind enough to invite us to present at an upcoming webinar on March 30th that they are producing, all about Single-Occupancy Vehicles.
According to recent research 77% of us still commute alone.
Here is one solution:
The webinar will address environmental impacts and present additional strategies for reducing SOV’s. From the Clean Air Cool Planet site:
“Reducing transportation related emissions remains one of the thorniest problems in carbon management, and one shared by institutions ranging from college to hospital to business. As we work to move to a culture of greater sustainability, how can we address the environmental impact of commuting via single-occupancy vehicles (SOVs)? Hear about some of the newest strategies for reducing SOVs, including lower-cost and more engaging alternatives to those ever present, ever inconclusive commuter surveys. Solutions discussed will be applicable to commuter populations of varied shapes and sizes.
Our featured speakers include Susan Sloan-Rossiter, Mike Scott, and Brent Drewry. Ms. Sloan-Rossiter, LEED AP, is a principal of Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. (VHB). VHB provides integrated transportation, land development, and environmental services to public, private and institutional clients. Ms. Sloan-Rossiter has extensive experience in the planning, permitting and technical transportation analysis of large complex multi-modal mixed-use development projects.
Mr. Scott and Mr. Drewry represent two of the most interesting web-based applications for commuters to date – Moblu and PickUpPal. Mr. Scott is the co-founder of Moblu Inc., a Vancouver-based web company that helps groups track the environmental of their commuting and other transportation choices.
Mr. Drewry is the Business Development Director at PickUpPal, a ride-sharing service that interfaces with the most popular social networking tools. Mr. Drewry and Mr. Scott will discuss how employers and campuses have employed these web applications for reduced SOV use and better commuter data.”
Register for the Webinar here.
As an avid runner, I’m always thrilled when drivers of cars going by give you that extra bit of space…you can almost always tell the drivers that are runners themselves, by the degree of latitude (courtesy) they provide - and likewise for courtesy and safety as well, I try to keep to the sidewalk or roadside as much as possible when cars approach.
Well if you are training for the LA Marathon, or plan to attend the race or events related to it, you can now find other like-minded individuals to carpool with to get there via the LA Marathon and LA Roadrunners custom PickupPal Rideshare Groups pages on PickupPal.com.
Running in California sounds pretty nice right now, particularly when my 10 mile training run on the weekend involved freezing sleet and high winds…
Thanks LA Marathon folks, for carpooling with PickupPal - great way to make getting there easier and more eco-friendly for your racers and volunteers!! We wish you every success as the race rapidly approaches. Only 75 days to go!
More details here:
LA Marathon Rideshare
http://www.lamarathon.com/runner-info/rideshare/
LA Roadrunners Rideshare
http://www.lamarathon.com/roadrunners/rideshare/
The Canadian Football League (CFL) has chosen to work with PickupPal for the second consecutive year for the annual Grey Cup game.
The 2009 Grey Cup game will be held on November 29th, 2009 in Calgary, Alberta.
The CFL is dedicated to making the annual Grey Cup game more eco-friendly, through their Green Drive initiative.
Of course at PickupPal we strive to connect like-minded people who wish to reduce their carbon footprint while making it easier and more fun to get where they are going.
So whether you are planning a cross-country tour to get to Calgary for the game or a cross-town adventure, do it the eco-friendly way and use PickupPal to share a ride:
In a positive move for the environment, and drivers of hybrid and electric vehicles, the Ontario Government has introduced a new green license plate signifying that the owner can drive in HOV lanes without the need for passengers:
Electric vehicles with the plates will be able to travel in the province’s carpool lanes until 2015 — even if only one person is in the vehicle.
Owners of eligible vehicles can also use recharging stations at GO Transit and other provincially owned parking lots. Owners of those vehicles will also have access to special parking spots at University of Toronto, some Wal-Mart locations, and at other private companies.
There have been great debates in the U.S. and Canada over the costs/value/usage of HOV lanes, and over the best way to administer them for maximum effectiveness in terms of reducing traffic congestion and encouraging more eco-friendly travel.
The facts are clear though. There are approx. 500 million cars on the road in North America, generating upwards of 1 billion trips per day. More than 75% of those trips are single occupant. And the worst part? The resulting traffic congestion costs the U.S. over $200 billion per year in lost productivity due to the 3 billion+ hours a year we all spend sitting in traffic, making loving gestures at each other.
Our habit of driving alone has made traffic rapidly outstrip our capacity to build infrastructure to support it.
We live in an incentive driven world, and with the proper incentives, HOV Lanes are a great way of modifying our behaviour to make life easier, more productive and more eco-friendly.
While I applaud the government for pushing a green agenda with this move, the onus is now on those hybrid and electric vehicle drivers to share some seats in their cars and help to reduce traffic congestion as well.
Brent
PickupPal is thrilled to be associated with Sierra Club’s newest online initiative, Climate Crossroads.
The Sierra Club, as the oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization in the U.S. (with more than 700,000 members), has a very long and proud history of protecting and sustaining our eco-system.
Here is a description of this innovative and very useful service:
ClimateCrossroads.org fuses social-networking opportunities with fresh environmental journalism and authoritative global warming expertise — giving it the ability to connect users with a wealth of multimedia information, expert opinions, and each other. ClimateCrossroads.org, created by the Sierra Club, is the go-to site for people eager –after eight years of inaction on global warming — to share ideas, information, opinions and opportunities to make real and urgent progress on climate change.
Visitors to the site can also easily sign up for PickupPal, add trips and search for matches, from a built-in widget: http://connect.sierraclub.org/Groups/Rideshare_Resources
Brent
brent@pickuppal.com
This Saturday is the International Day of Climate Action. Lets hope it is a day that will long be remembered as the time when science and society finally acted in unison to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere!
Scientists say that 350 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe limit for humanity. We are above that level now, and need to act together globally to reduce it.
350.org is an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis–the solutions that science and justice demand.
On October 24th, groups of people around the world will gather to act on climate change - rallys, biking, walks, school projects etc.
We hope if any of these International Day of Climate Action events involve driving, that 350.org event organizers will organize a carpool for it. Easy to do at PickupPal Groups http://groups.pickuppal.com
Brent
Having just completed the 300 mile Brita Climate Ride, which finished in Washington, D.C., I can tell you that it is one of THE most amazing cities to bike through! The combination of Rails To Trails routes and monumental buildings left me awestruck.
Here is a message from one of our partners:
“Bike DC is a noncompetitive bike ride held on Saturday, October 17, 2009. It is your one opportunity each year to enjoy our Capital, our community in a very special way by bicycle on car-free streets. See the expected in a new light: the Capitol, the Supreme Court, the White House, Embassy Row, the Pentagon, the Marine Corps and Air Force memorials. And explore the unexpected: the George Washington Parkway, Twin Oaks Estate, the Whitehurst Freeway and much more.
Join with your family and friends through a car-free District of Columbia and Arlington. There is a family friendly 12 mile route and a more challenging 25 mile option. Kids under the age of 15 ride for FREE!
Bike DC’s principle beneficiaries are the Washington Area Bicyclist Association and the American Heart Association. To register, visit the website www.bikedc.net”
If you would like to carpool to get to the event, please join the PickupPal BikeDC Rideshare Group:
http://www.pickuppal.com/pup/group/Bike-DC
So far the greatest thing about this 300 mile trek to Washington, DC has been meeting SO many dedicated, smart people who are committed to interesting and valuable projects in sustainability.
Today riding through Amish country I think everyone was struck with a couple of thoughts:
1. How does the climate change msg get effectively communicated to such a wide variety of people and cultures in the world so as to compel people to action?
2. We all can take a page out of the Amish book and simplify our lives by reducing our consumer appetite, even in small ways.
Here are some of the many many interesting people actually on the ride who are doing amazing things:
David Kroodsma - biked 21,000 miles from US to southern tip of South America to raise awareness for climate change and experience first hand those changes.
Elliott May - with Reverb.org, the non-profit environmental organization that helps musicians green their concert tours all across North America, significantly reducing their carbon footprint.
Fernando Migliassi - startup venture in the area of Biochar - more updates on this to follow, something completely natural that could replace synthgetic fertiizer.
Alison Gannett - extreme skier and founder of Save Our Snow, taking the climate change message around the world, having experienced first hand retreating glaciers and what that means to our worlds water supply.
Roz Savage - ocean rower from the UK who has solo rowed across the Atlantic and took a break from her journey across the Pacific to Australia to join the Climate Ride. She is taking her life-changing experience and compelling others to action all over the world.
Kristen & daughter Isabelle riding a tandem bike - what a phenomenal way to broaden the perspective of your early teens children!
Overriding messages:
1. Small things matter - individuals can do so many no cost or low cost things to make a positive impact.
2. Corporations are slowly turning the sustainability corner - smart ones realizing there are huge cost savings or profit opportunities to be realized, but consumers still not pushing them hard enough through educated choices.
See www.climateridelive.org for ongoing updates.
Note: Brent Drewry is on the Road - (Eric is only posting for him) - Way to go Brent!!!