Ridesharing has gained quite a lot of popularity in recent years. Since the world is looking for more eco-friendly solutions to everyday tasks such as ordering food, going to work, and merely traveling short distances, ridesharing provides the essential solutions that are currently skyrocketing in demand.
In this article, we’re going to objectively be reviewing ridesharing as a whole – including all its pros and cons. We’re also going to be answering some critical questions such as is ridesharing an eco-friendly way to travel short distances, order food, and go about general delivery.
What is Ridesharing?
Ridesharing is a process in which a person shares a ride with a stranger in a taxi-like manner. The pioneers of ridesharing are Lyft, Uber, and CarGo. All these services operate on a peer-to-peer riding method, allowing someone to order a ride through an application, and third party chauffeurs to bid on the trip itself.
These companies have also integrated food delivery, ridesharing itself, and micro transportation into their services. Food delivery operates much like peer-to-peer riding, where a chauffeur will bring your desired order from your chosen restaurant at a preset price and time window.
Micro transportations are also used, but they’re primarily used for food deliveries. Micro transportations include delivery services mostly on vehicles such as electric bikes, electric scooters, and similar smaller modes of transportation.
Ridesharing is a great way to get a cheaper ride when compared to traditional taxi services, and it allows you to cut down on your carbon footprint. It’s an indisputable greener option when compared to one party taxi cabs. The added discount price-wise that ridesharing has, made it an increasingly popular alternative to traditional transportation.
Ridesharing has since evolved into the private party sector, meaning that anyone can post rideshare from one destination to the other. In most cases, all you need to do to get rideshare is visit a rideshare website such as rideshare.com, enter your start and end destination, and select a ride from a list with dates, hours, and amount of people in the trip itself.
What is Ridesharing Used For?
As mentioned above, ridesharing is a sustainable transportation method. It allows for many different things and has a devoted community of companies and consumers – mostly mingling around rideshare blogs.
Ridesharing is used for the following purposes:
Food Delivery
Transportation
Car Alternative
Micro hauling
Chauffeuring
The Benefits of Ridesharing
1. Environmental Aspect
There are quite a lot of cars on our roads, all of which produce dangerous emissions. Even if the emission standard laws are quite strict when compared to the past, the sheer amount of cars still disperse a lot of CO2 into the environment.
Through ridesharing, the amount of cars on the road decreases, and thus the amount of CO2 emissions, as a whole, decreases. Ridesharing is beneficial for the environment.
2. Cheaper Cost of Transportation
Cars aren’t cheap, and neither is gas. One thing that people seem to overlook when purchasing a vehicle is the added expenses aside from car payments and gas. Cars can break down, and regular car maintenance can get quite expensive. If you don’t maintain your vehicle properly, the mechanic’s bill can also be sky-high.
With ridesharing, you don’t have to worry about any of these things. You’re riding in someone else's vehicle, and since ridesharing is arguably cheaper than a taxi, you’re still saving some money, and nerves, in the long run.
3. Longer Distance Travel
Taxi cabs will mostly take you through the city, and at times, cross-city as well. Taxi cabs aren’t that well known for taking you to another state – but ridesharing is. Ridesharing can take you virtually anywhere across the country, as long as there is a car going in that direction.
4. Food and Other Delivery Options
Through ridesharing platforms, you can order food and other small items to your location. If you are looking for a quick lunch, but your favorite restaurant doesn’t do deliveries or you are simply a bit lazy to go to the supermarket, ridesharing has the solution for you.
5. No Cash Payment Required
Before you even order a rideshare delivery or trip, you’re going to get a rideshare fare estimate upfront. All of it is done through the use of credit and debit cards, meaning you don’t have to worry about cash in your pocket. As long as you have a card and some funds on it, you can use rideshare without a problem.
6. Driver Tracking
When you’re using drive sharing, you can track where your driver is at all times, adding security to your delivery, and reliability to the ridesharing platform as a whole.
The Potential Downsides of Ridesharing
1. Safety Concerns
While ridesharing might seem like a fun, cheap, and eco-friendly alternative to traditional taxi cabs and delivery, it still brings up a security concern. When you’re riding in a taxi, you’re riding with a professional driver who reports to a very strict company. When it comes to ridesharing, you’re virtually driving with a stranger who might not have a lot of experience.
Many rideshare platforms have included a vetting program, making sure that only the most reliable drivers have the ability to work with them. While ridesharing might be a bit scary for some, there is nothing to worry about.
2. Driver Phone Use
Before a driver accepts a trip, he will have to do it through his phone. This means that he is going to have to use his phone while driving at times, which might lead to distracted driving. Distracted driving is both a crime and unsafe.
The best rideshare drivers will wait for a proposition, and only then start their engines. With all this in mind, phone use during a car ride is still a safety hazard.
3. Privacy Concerns
When you’re applying for a rideshare or delivery option, you’re actively giving out your personal information to a practical stranger. The stigma behind rideshare drivers isn’t true, though, as in most cases, they’re professionals who aren’t going to misuse your information in any way.
But, even if this is the case, some people aren’t as comfortable with giving out their personal information as others.
In Conclusion
Ridesharing is a great alternative overall to regular food deliveries and trips. As long as you make sure you’re going with the most reliable Tennessee ridesharing and food delivery company around, you’re guaranteed to have a great experience saving the environment!
