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Need to bum a ride? Shout coordinates carpools with friends

It's all about efficiency with Avego. The ride-sharing startup released a casual carpooling app that can help coordinate rides with friends on the fly.

Avego Shout is sort of a lightweight version of the Avego Driver iPhone app. When you're going somewhere, it lets you advertise extra space in your car to a group of friends using the app, but it doesn't include Avego Driver's cashless payment system to get riders to pony up for their fair share of gas money.

Shout is designed for people who share rides from time to time with friends. If you have a group that you regularly carpool with, the app will help reduce the anxiety and back-and-forth communication that comes with negotiating pickup times and locations. Instead of e-mails, calls, and disparate SMSes, push notifications send instant messages to help everyone communicate their whereabouts, and riders can trace the driver's progress on a map so they can see how close they are to getting picked up. … Read more

Three carpooling apps to cut commuting costs

Now that hybrid vehicles lost their single-occupancy privileges in California carpool lanes, ride sharing could start to sound a lot more appealing to commuters. To make it easier to fill empty seats and get back into HOV lanes, commuters can download free mobile apps that help match drivers with riders.

Carpooling apps take different approaches to finding rides. They range from casual hand-raising trips to the airport to carefully guarded destinations and requests with details divulged if and when a match is found. Others, like ZimRide, use a network-based approach that restricts carpools to people within the same university or … Read more

Washington using iPhone app for carpools

Seattle earned the dubious distinction of being rated No. 9 for worst traffic in the country last year. Now the Washington Department of Transportation is trying to alleviate the problem by using an iPhone app to encourage carpooling. Avego, which describes itself as a transportation efficiency company, runs the online system behind the app that matches up drivers with potential riders.

Washington is initially using the Avego app in a pilot program dubbed go520. The name refers to State Route 520, the road where the application is designated to work. For the pilot, Washington is taking 250 drivers and 750 … Read more