The New York Times’s city critic just published a rather humorous look at the whole initiative.  Check it out!

The New York Times noted that few people took advantage of the service on its inaugural day.  DNA reported the same.  (Incidentally, “the program allows up to four passengers to share cabs, car pool style, from designated stands along three set routes in Manhattan, for $4 each.”)

Yet rather than indicate that CabCorner.com could be DOA, these reports bolster our site’s value!  CabCorner was designed to solve a few problems, the most relevant of which were expensive cabs and congested streets.  Then the New York’s own cab sharing program rolled out… so our website was then geared to solve not only the overarching problems both initiatives sought to address, but it also positioned CabCorner to solve the problems in the city’s own program.

Unlike the city’s program, in which “cab share hubs” are immobile–essentially subway stations above ground–our service lets users tailor their rideshare, in terms of time/date, location, and cost.  Essentially, CabCorner turns EVERY intersection into a possible cab share hub, and guarantees that there will be a “Cab Companion” waiting when the user arrives at the meeting point (”cab corner”).

That said, Jon and I differ over the extent to which cab sharing is an idea that will prove MOST successful in NYC.  Personally, I think we’ll have better success almost anywhere else, as other markets both domestically and internationally view cabs as a luxury our site will make more accessible, rather than a birthright.

As the NYT put it:
“New York is not like Seoul, where sharing cabs is common.”

Instead of protesting the MTA by showing up at these open forums where, you the protester, are at risk to be arrested, why not protest with our collective will? Why not protest with our wallets? The hard truth is that these cuts are coming in one form or another. It is too late to expect that community unrest is going to change the numbers. The MTA has a multi-billion dollar budget gap and cuts will be made. We can begin to smarten up and help each other instead of pleading with an independent, non-publicly elected board of directors, who have no imperative to keep our best interest at the forefront of their decision making and we can undercut their power by not asking but by doing. By boycotting their services! Cab sharing can be enhanced and made very affordable and efficient if we choose to take a stand as a community. See Cabcorner.com. We can fight back with actions more effectively than pleading a case that has no fair arbitrator to objectively side with one group or the other. Less talk more action!

Taxi commission announces start of ‘group rides’

Sir, we commend you, and look forward to building on your legacy.  You introduced the concept of cab sharing to the world’s greatest city, and now we pledge to bring it forth into the deepest realms of cyberspace.

Save that cash.  Save that planet.
Let them sparks fly with them strangers in that back seat.

CHECK OUT THE LINKS BELOW reporting the official launch of NYC’s cab sharing program.  I’m sure they could use a web-based companion….

• New York City: Share a Cab with a Stranger to Save Emission
  
• New Yorkers skeptical over cab-sharing (NPR report)
• The Performance Art of Cab Sharing (NY Mag)

Back in 2003, David Yassky took up the campaign to green up the New City Taxi fleet. He proposed presenting legislation that would require a certain percentage of the NYC taxi fleet to use hybrid vehicles by a certain date and for that number to increase over time until the entire fleet had been upgraded to all hybrid vehicles. Needless to say, perseverance and determination (and Bloomberg’s endorsement of the plan) were instrumental in finalizing the legislation and implementation of this project. It is worth mentioning Jack Hidary and his instrumental participation in helping Yassky to lobby against archaic laws that stood in the way of presenting legislation that would ultimately force the TLC to accept the amendments to their modus operandi.

Yassky has also been side by side with Mayor Bloomberg from day one on a number of issues, including his decision to support a rewriting of term limits , which paved the way for Bloomberg’s third term. So it is not hard to believe that the Mayor would have a personal interest in appointing Yassky to the position of Commissioner for the TLC as recognition for Yassky’s loyalty to his political positions.

After electing to not defend his council seat, which would open up what became a crowded 2009 race for the city council seat in the 33rd district, a district in which a relatively unknown, Stephen Levin, would win in commanding fashion, Yassky went after the Comptroller seat. He lost that race pretty handily to John Liu, the former chairman of the Transportation Committee. All of which sets the stage for Yassky to become the next commissioner of the TLC; It is a position for which he is well qualified to lead, he has a track record of working in concert with the goals of the Mayor as well as for issues that seem to line up quite nicely with Bloomberg’s greater vision for the future of New York City, see plaNYC 2030 as a great example of this vision, and it is a high profile position in which he can be seen getting things done that directly impact New Yorkers. Generally, the commissioner position is held by aspirational people who are seeking a high profile place to park themselves for a relatively short stay, while readying themselves for bigger and better things.

This changing of the guard is a great opportunity for Cabcorner to offer its services to the TLC at a time when action will have to be taken, if only to demonstrate a show of creativity and effectiveness on the part of the new commissioner. About a year ago, we approached Yassky’s office (when he we still a member of the City Council)  with a proposal to build a cab sharing system for the city, but little was to be done at the time. Well, here goes round two. It is no accident we approached Yassky with our project in the first place, he is/ was the perfect politician to head up a campaign that would seek to take advantage of our platform and it is through prescient foresight that the city as well as Cabcorner will be granted a second chance to help bring change to the taxi cab industry. Of course, this is all contingent on David Yassky being appointed to the position by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but if I were a betting man, my money would be on Yassky.

I believe it is wise to keep an eye and ear out for what vanguard companies are saying, especially when it comes to matters of the future. IBM has a view of the near future world as being one that will be driven by what we do in urban environments. I tend to agree on this front. In particular, if you read what the CEO of IBM, Samuel Palmisano, recently wrote in a Newsweek letter, one predominant theme rings true. Urban environments will become the locus of technological advances that will measurably influence the way the human race adapts to a more crowded and complicated planet. Through technology, particularly those that enhance the efficiency of transportation, energy and communications systems, we will make great strides towards realizing a fundamentally smarter, healthier and productive global population. And in my opinion, a leap that could best be compared to the one that we as humans made when Europe catapulted itself out of the Dark Ages and into the Age of Enlightenment.

A friend of mine just exposed me to a new website he recently uncovered.  In truth, we’d stumbled on Zimride before, but it’s easy to forget all the players in this sector as it evolves.  What began as “cab sharing” has expanded to “ride sharing,” and clearly the public understands the concept and its value.

That’s good news for us, IF we can capture the market before it’s saturated.

Zimride is dedicated to enabling private drivers to fill the empty seats in their cars with commuters headed in the same direction, and we commend the site’s founders for their focus on multi-purpose sustainability.  This time around, we’re taking greater notice of the operation, for two reasons:

FIRST, Zimride’s objective is one that our platform is perfectly positioned to accommodate already.  Although we seek to wield taxicabs as an urban-based  mass transit network, CabCorner’s real value is simply helping travelers meet up.  The particular mode of travel–notwithstanding our branding–is completely up to the users.  As such, our platform can similarly be used to put private drivers in touch with those who would make their commute a little less lonely….  The trick now comes down to a marketing strategy, and requires us to be more comprehensive in appreciating the many uses of our own product.

SECOND, Zimride’s success emphasizes the importance of partnerships.  The company has, through a Facebook application–clearly an add-on that we need to consider in addition to our mobile platforms–secured the financial support of that behemoth social network.  It’s also been able to sign up such corporate titans as WalMart and Cigna.  But it appears that their revenue and the majority of their relationships come in the form of technology leasing agreements with institutions who value their service… most notably college campuses.  For example, check out the University of Maryland’s ride share program, powered by Zimride UMD.

A word to the wise, for our team and theirs:

CabCorner is soon to offer a pretty competitive alternative, as our website is FREE and universally accessible.  It’s also centrally managed; that is, no setup is required by private operators.  This could make Zimride vulnerable to our offerings as they become known following the launch of our Beta in spring 2010.

Yet we would also be well-served to learn from their strategy, as many organizations might seek the closed-network service on which Zimride is founded.  Maybe this advanced cost premium servicing could be adapted as yet another stream of revenue?

Read more about Zimride and its founders in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

That’s a pretty staggering statistic, though a certainly understandable one, given the economic climate.  Fortunately, though, Cabcorner, LLC and CabCorner.com have been able to survive the downturn and reduced venture interest by pursuing a series of creative, low-cost strategies.  Necessity is the mother of invention.  And invention’s mother is sexy.

First, we’ve pursued a variety of industry consolidation initiatives to work with like-minded entrepreneurs in our sector to combine and leverage pooled resources.  (More information is soon to come regarding CabCorner’s merger with CabEasy.)

Second, we’ve relied heavily on offshore muscle to provide us with both the graphical design and hard coding demands of our website.  In our case, extreme attention to detail and exhaustive oversight have thoroughly mitigated the risks of offshore engagement.

Third, our team is comprised of individuals who have “bought into the project” in the form of cash or (wo)manpower.  In every case, though, our investors play the dual role of managers, making this a project in which all can take pride and are therefore more eager to successfully birth.

A shoestring budget has gotten us extremely far.  In fact, it will take us all the way to development of our second-generation platform.  It would appear, then, that when we finally approach these reluctant VCs, we’ll be doing so with a real product.  All we’ll require is capital for our marketing push.

However, this does not mean that one can’t find a seat, possibly a court side seat, from which to  watch this fast paced game unfold in all its glory. Cabcorner’s platform is currently putting down roots in a garden that is not yet quite  ripe for large-scale picking. That’s not to say there aren’t already luscious, full plump tomatoes, or rows of seeded cauliflower patches that are ready or soon to be ready for harvesting, there are. But the size and scope of this garden has yet to be understood and next year’s harvest will certainly be more plentiful than this years and the year after will exceed that of the one that came before it and so on and so forth. Simply being a farmer in this garden now is enough to be giddy about the variety, size and appeal of the crops our wheel barrel will carry back to the cottage in the days, months and years to come. For us, we believe Cabcorner is a wonderful wheel barrel and we are going to be very successful farmers, if only because each harvest from this day to a long time from now will always be bigger than the last. Take a minute to read this article on the usage of the mobile web and mobile web devices by the tween market and you will begin to see that a major shift has already occurred, and in five years time we will begin to see the significant effects of that shift in our young adult population.  Let us be your George Washington Carver and tell you all about the miracles of the soy bean, I mean the endless potential of the mobile web and what that will mean for so many, including cab sharing networks.