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This is to thank Envoy Church from South Africa for joining Rideweaver. Welcome to the community and the carpooling revolution.

CARPOOLING NEWS Nairobi

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Carpooling News for United Kite   Posted by admin  

Rideweaver's parent platform's, United Kite, venture profile is now live on VC4A (Venture Capital for Africa) platform. Follow us for updates on what is happening in our Venture here: https://vc4a.com/ventures/united-kite/.

If you would like to shoot us an email you can do so at talk@unitedkite.com.

United Kite: out to create smart and delightful transport technologies for Africa.

CARPOOLING NEWS Nairobi

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Carpooling News for United Kite   Posted by admin  

Carpooling is not a new concept. "Slugging", a concept quite similar to carpooling, has been in use in the US since the 70's Oil Crisis. In Europe, it has been a resounding success for travelers moving from one city to another. Here in Kenya we all know it as "requesting a lift" from someone.

What Rideweaver does is to popularize the concept as an alternative mode of transport. Remember, carpooling is not meant to supplant public transport; it is meant to augment it. Carpooling has a number of benefits FYI.

So how can you start using Rideweaver to share or carpool with others. Here we go.

1. First, sign up to the site. Yes, we need this :). It's a few-seconds thing and you are on your way to the next step.
2. After signing up, click on the "My Profile" link on the menu. You will be redirected to the Profile set-up page where you will be required to create a Driver/Passenger profile. Without this you cannot post rides, request lifts or verify & review other users.
3. After setting up your profile, you can click on "Offer Ride" link on the menu. This will take you to the page where you can post your ride. Click on the "Offer Ride" button on this page to bring up the form, fill in your rides departure location , destination, departure times, number of seats you are offering, currency and the price per seat and some details about the trip. Then submit. That is it. You have finally submitted your first trip.
4. To request a ride click on the "Request Ride" button on each trip posted. On the trip's details page, click on the "Request Ride" button to bring up a form. If you feel OK with your choice click on the "Proceed to Request" button. Congrats, you have requested for your first ride.
5. Do you know someone within the Rideweaver community? Can you vouch for their credibility? This is where verification comes in. Click on their profile link. This will take you to their profile. At the bottom of their profile click on the "Verifiers" tab. Then click on the "Verify Me" button. Click on the button to finally verify that user. Congrats! You have finally verified that user ensuring that it is safe for others to place their trust in him/her.
6. If you would like to review someone click on their profile link. At the bottom of the profile's description click on the "My Reviews" tab. Then submit your Kudos/Complaint review. Kudos! You have finally reviewed that user.

NB: Most of the steps above require you to create a Driver/Passenger profile first. Go ahead! Sign up. Create your profile and post your ride or share a ride with someone.

NEWS Nairobi

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Posted by admin  

Times have changed. Nairobi's streets are now teeming with cars. From the noisy matatus, honky and rowdy motorcycles to the super clean Toyota saloons and a few Porsche Cayennes here and there. The stream of these machines moving in and out of the city is the order of the day. Take the case of Ngong Road or Waiyaki Way. Not forgetting Thika Superhighway ( although, technically, it is not a "super-highway" at all). Every evening and morning there is usually slow traffic on these roads. Within urban planning circles it is well-known that road expansion does NOT reduce traffic congestion. In fact, it produces the reverse: road expansion programmes lead to the number of vehicles to increase.

What can be done to reduce this congestion? Obviously, one way is to encourage use of public transport. The other one that is gaining importance in other countries is carpooling. Carpooling allows you to share a ride with others who are going in the same direction as you. For example, as a car owner you can pick up Sheila, Mike, Mwas and Phoebe (fictitious names by the way) on your commute to the CBD in the morning. Or, you could hitch a ride/request for a lift from Omosh who is heading to Westlands. This is what carpooling is all about. For those who own vans (Toyota Noah's anyone?) you are not left out of this discussion; we could say you are vanpooling instead.

So what are the advantages of carpooling/vanpooling?

1.  It saves you some cash. You can split the costs of commuting to CDB with Sheila, Mike, Mwas and Phoebe which could defray the cost of paying for fuel for the journey. Add this up and by the end of the month you could make a tidy sum from the savings. You could even save enough to partly defray your cars servicing costs in the long term. Not only can you save some cash by splitting the cost with someone you have given a lift but also by choosing to leave your car behind for the day and getting a lift from someone else you could save the money you could have used to fuel your car that day.
2.  Helps you to go "Green". As you are aware, we are in the midst of the effects of Climate Change. Droughts, floods, El Nino and erratic weather patterns are with us now. Why not contribute your part in reducing your Carbon footprint by carpooling with someone? You can leave your car at home and request for a lift from someone heading in the same direction as you thus reducing your carbon footprint if you drove yourself to work :). By carpooling you can keep Kenya's position as the country with the cleanest air in the world intact.
3. Eases traffic congestion. Six words: "fill your car not the road". By carpooling the number of cars on the road reduce.
4. Shorter commute times. With carpooling you have the benefit of shorter commute times e.g. to your workplace or to town. No need of waiting at the stage for a matatu to come pick you up or waiting for a matatu to fill before it leaves. Moreover, since you are using private means, you enjoy the liberty of taking routes away from the congested major roads so as to reach your destination early enough. Simply, request for a ride from someone, go to the pick-up point he/she has set to pick you up and that is it. In fact, this can be beneficial for people who work in the same organization. You can carpool with your fellow employees hence cutting out the strenuous matatu journeys to and from your workplace.
5. Shorter commute times for inter-city journeys. Carpooling isn't just limited to short trips e.g. from Kikuyu Town to Nairobi CBD or from Parklands to Industrial Area. You can carpool with others going for longer, inter-town trips like from Nairobi to Naivasha. Instead of heading over to the bus companies' offices to book a bus and wait for departure you could simply request for a lift for someone going to the town you are also heading to. Furthermore, since you'll be using a private car you could travel much faster than the bus trip you could have booked. Carpooling for longer inter-city trips has been a resounding success in the West. Why not here?
6. You could meet new people while carpooling. You could meet your next employer or client while carpooling with them.

So get on-board. Let's carpool to our workplaces and other destinations. Join Rideweaver and start sharing rides.

NEWS Nairobi

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Posted by admin  

We are rolling into our second week. What's new around here?

1. The major changes have been cosmetic. Plus a few bugs.

Work is still on-going to improve the platform. If you have any feature requests or suggestions or you have found a bug feel free to notify us either via email (talk[at]unitedkite.com) or through our social media pages.

Regards

CARPOOLING NEWS Nairobi

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Carpooling News for United Kite   Posted by admin  

Rideweaver's journey has began. You can sign up on the platform to share your ride and carpool with other like-minded users. Since we've just started out, there might be a few weaknesses on the system. That is why you are encouraged to give us feedback. Keep us updated.

Let's start the carpooling revolution in Nairobi city.

CARPOOLING NEWS Nairobi

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Carpooling News for United Kite   Posted by admin  

Rideweaver Beta 1 is out. Yes, it's rough at the edges and the like. It's a work in progress.

What actually is Rideweaver? Rideweaver is a community of drivers and users who understand the benefits of carpooling. Carpooling is simply the arrangement where people instead of each driving alone to some point in their own car, they hitch a ride from another driver going in the same direction. Rideweaver allows people like these to meet and arrange for such rides on a common platform online.

Rideweaver has just started out and its on a journey to encourage carpooling as a viable transport solution. This journey will involve your input as it's user to make it work as per your requirements.

Hope to hear your feedback as we go on improving Rideweaver.

Regards,

NEWS Nairobi

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Posted by admin