LRTWey is about encouraging usage of LRT within Kuala Lumpur for various reasons, e.g. lower cost, saving environment. How about people not served by LRT whether they are in or outside of Kuala Lumpur? What can they do about their transportation to save costs and environment? For city people, driving their private cars is still a major mode of transportation. Therefore to reduce car trips, carpool is a common suggestion. Main concerns of carpool are

  • Lack of flexibility. Participants of carpool must follow agreed route and time schedule, e.g. travel from A to B at certain time.
  • Few participants for certain routes. For less-densely populated areas, matching participants will be a challenge.
  • Security related worries. Whether it is justifiable, people still worry about sharing a ride with strangers and/or new acquaintances.

Friend-give-friend-a-ride (FGFAR) is a carpooling scheme with the following salient features to address concerns of carpooling

  • Route group. Traditionally carpooling schemes stop when they can find a car, a driver and a few passengers for a route. FGFAR goes further. It will try to find at least 3 cars for a route to form a FGFAR group. Reason for forming a FGFAR group is flexibility in time schedule. With at least 3 cars in a FGFAR group, theoritically there will 3 time schedule for a route, e.g. going back from workplace at 6pm, 7pm or 8pm.
  • Friend-give-friend-a-ride. To address security concerns, FGFAR only allows friends(Facebook) and connections(LinkedIn) to share a ride.
  • Acquaintance network. To enlarge network of a FGFAR participant, FGFAR allows a participant of a FGFAR group to introduce another participant.

FGFAR is not a car sharing scheme

What is your opinion of FGFAR?