Sharing taxis

This post on the sharing solution caught my eye: New App for Cab Sharing Could Help Travelers Share and Save.

I’m reminded of a time many years ago (long before yours2share time) when I used to stagger back on Friday night to south west London after a night out in town.  I often caught the last train to Surbiton, which arrived about 1am, the last train to the place I actually lived left ridiculously early in the evening.  Then I had to take a cab the last four miles.  It cost about £5, but that didn’t bother me much, the main problem was most of south west London also used this train. It was the best way of getting back late at night to that part of the capital.  So at 1am, there would often be a queue of a 100 people, and although the taxi drivers knew there were rich pickings to be had, there were never enough.

After spending an hour or so waiting a couple of times, there came a time when, fueled by a particularly large helping of wine, I shouted from the back of a very long queue, “is anyone going to Thames Ditton or beyond?”  Suddenly sense prevailed.  I joined up with two or three other people and I was in a cab a few minutes later.  Behind me, I could hear “anyone going to Esher?” “I’m going to Weybridge..”  “Walton anyone?”.  From then on, whenever I arrived at this queue, I just asked the question and each time it would start the same chain reaction.

As far as the taxi driver was concerned, they always seemed to do well.  Everyone was expecting to pay the fare themselves, so any reduction was good news, so often people would put far more in than the actual proportion of the fare required.  Tips were always substantial. What I call a win, win, win!

So the question is, how to get people to think about sharing?