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Public Workshop to discuss Discrete Early Actions Under AB32 April 23, 2007
California Air Resources Board
1001 I Street
Sacramento, CA 95812

Mr Chairman, members of the Committee.

My name is Joseph Bishop I am the founder of http://trafficbulldog.org a commuter advocacy group that is dedicated to solving our states traffic crisis through carpooling and rideshare. At 1.3 riders per car, there is no more traffic congestion. Also at 1.3 riders per car, we will have reduced our transportation emissions by 19 MMT CO2.

Today’s presentation is available at http://trafficbulldog.org .

Rideshare or Carpool represents one of the greatest areas where we can make reductions traffic congestion and vehicle emissions at the same time. And when traffic congestion is eliminated, the remaining traffic runs more efficiently and with less vehicle exhaust for those same miles traveled.

Web sites like Ridebay.com have surveyed State and Federal Laws related to rideshare and have come up with the best guess of a Market Based Approach for Rideshare. Ridebay.com is a ridematching service represents the fundamentals of Ebay as applied to Rideshare.

Early on, the founders of Ridebay.com recognized the need for drivers to be compensated by passengers for providing the ride. This is critical to the success of the Market Based Approaches of rideshare. Rideshare compensation rules generally state that the driver’s receipts of reimbursement for the passenger’s share of the expenses to operate the ride are not considered income as they are less than the total expense to operate the ride. Using this as a key incentive to rideshare, the drivers will be able to pre-negotiate the terms of a ride reimbursement for the passenger share of the ride.

Ridebay.com is ready for business and will be launching full operations in the very near future.

Ridebay.com represents just one web site providing ride-matching services. And Ridebay.com recognizes that there is a need for cooperation nationally between ridematching services for the best success of rideshare. In order to faithfully fulfill the will of the people of the State of California to clear our traffic congestion and to reduce Green House Gas emissions, Trafficbulldog calls on the California Air Resources Board to take action in support a public dialog about ridematching services.

What Early Actions can be taken to make the Market Based Approach to rideshare better?

(1) TrafficBulldog advocates the immediate outsourcing of all government funded ridematching services and operations to commercial ridematching services that can support a Market Based Approach to Rideshare. This will also eliminate the current conflict of interests related to rideshare operations as discussed at the Feb 22, 2007 ARB meeting. Trafficbulldog believes in outsourcing services to a bench of ridematching service companies much like the Los Angeles MTA has contracted a bench of commercial companies to provide vanpool operation and matching services.

(2) TrafficBulldog calls for support of a ridematching data exchange standard so that ridematching service providers can maximize success in pairing drivers and passengers. Trafficbulldog is in the process of designing a secure and confidential method of exchanging information of potential ridematches and for sharing of success among rideshare matching companies for pairing the passenger with a driver.

(3) TrafficBulldog advocates the outsourcing of government database operations of current rideshare / carpool members in order to support the ridematching data exchange. In addition to the government contract for providing ridematching services, a separate contract should be issued for an independent data access provider to support the ongoing operation of the ride data exchange.

(4) TrafficBulldog calls for legislation to define a process for resolving claims between riders and drivers. California State Civil Code 1369.5 is a good place to start. 1369.5 is the law that provides alternative dispute resolution basis for home owners associations of multi unit buildings and outlines dispute resolution steps between unit owners.

(5) TrafficBulldog calls on CARB to recognize a need for a 50-25-25 rule for rideshare / carpool drivers reimbursement. Currently drivers compensation is roughly 50% for 1st passenger, 66% for two passengers, and 75% for third passenger. This represents a diminishing return for picking up additional passengers 1st – 50%, 2nd – 16%, 3rd – 9%. Trafficbulldog calls on the CARB to advocate a 1st-50%, 2nd-25%, 3rd – 25% so that by the time the driver has three passengers in the car, the driver’s portion of expenses can be covered by passengers. This will provide additional incentive for those environmental angels known as carpool or rideshare drivers to pick up that 2nd and 3rd passenger.

(6) TrafficBulldog calls on the California Air Resource Board to hold meetings to develop a rideshare emission reduction protocol to determine carbon credits related to the voluntary action of participation in rideshare and carpool. We believe that Voluntary Carbon Offsets are very important as controlling Green House Gas emissions boils down to each citizen taking action.

In conclusion, rideshare sites such as http://ridebay.com represent a market based approach to rideshare that results in a zero-emissions technology for the passenger. I call on the ARB to use it’s authority under Assembly Bill 32 to promote early actions to support the roll of rideshare in reducing our Green House Gas emissions.

Sincerely,


Joseph Bishop
Founder – http://trafficbulldog.com
15030 Ventura Blvd, #19-456
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
626-824-7353