#getaride

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

U • GetARide Bus

I just had the wildest dream that I feel compelled to write out as a story.

It had a similar vibe to some of the surreal webcomic posts I've on seen here, but it was about a bus.

Specifically, the U • GetARide Bus.

I'm not sure what possessed me to decide to drive it. I'd driven busses in the past, sure, but it's not like I was hired as a driver or given permission to drive the bus.

I just knew I needed a job, there were people who needed a ride, and I knew I could do it.

And that was enough.

---

When I got on the U bus, a young woman followed me. She needed a ride, and I told her I could help. She asked me where to pay.

Good question.

I looked around the driver's area, but there wasn't a till or scanner or anything.

I grabbed the manual and briefly flipped through it. Ads. Yearbook photos? More ads.

I closed the manual.

"Let's get going and we'll figure it out when we get there. Where are you headed?"

"To Hospitality House, Snyderville."

I'd never been there, but I knew it was a dorm, and that it was a ways away.

"We'd better get going then."

I started the bus. It was just like the campus busses I'd driven before - no keys, just a button and the knowledge of how to drive it.

It was a little smaller than those busses, though. The young woman sat down, I pulled up the GPS on my phone, and off we drove.

Partway of the way out of town, we stopped at another housing unit. Not sure how I knew to stop, but I could feel that there were passengers there.

I opened the doors.

Three more people got on.

"Snyderville?" I asked.

They nodded and got on.

"How do we pay?"

I glanced at the clock on the dash.

"We're late, we'll figure it out when we get there."

They shrugged and sat down.

Clock?

That clock was not there before.

Hmm.

I glanced at my directions again before checking my mirrors to pull out. The directions were no longer on my phone, but on a built-in GPS device.

Hmm.

I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up, but I swung out of the stop and kept going.

There were a couple more stops before we hit the country.

It had been late afternoon when we left.

Now the sun had gone down and it was getting dark.

There had been a small amount of talking and background babble, but as we turned to drive into the velvet dark of the country, a hush fell over the cab as the passengers turned to watch the quiet moonscape fly by.

We rode into the darkness of the country road in near silence.

With the city lights behind us, all the stars appeared as dusk turned into night.

In the driver's seat, I started to notice how little things had changed. Systems were more integrated. The controls felt more natural. And I - well I was now part of the bus, somehow, like we were one creature.

The lights of Snyderville appeared on the horizon, and the quiet spell of the country that had come over the passengers passed. Some, it seemed, started to wake up.

Wake up?

Last I knew, it was only twenty minutes to Snyderville.

I decided not to ask questions. Bit late for that now, wasn't it?

I pulled into the stop for Hospitality House and opened the doors. The passengers crowded around me with their phones, trying to pay. A flood of new passengers from Hospitality House came forward to get on the bus.

In the midst of the chaos, I noticed that Hospitality House was both like and unlike any dorm I'd ever seen, and the people there were from all generations - young college students, elders, children, their parents - it seemed like a whole village lived there. A sign for an attached Chabad house pointed around the corner of the hallway. Lovely smells from the cafeteria wafted my way.

What?

I grabbed the driver's manual and looked again for directions on how to pay.

Again, I just saw page after page of yearbook photos, although now that I was paying attention, they were all of - drivers? And groups of passengers? Posed, though, as if they were a class.

No one else could figure it out, either.

Finally, I suggested that we all pose for a photo.

Someone grabbed a staff member at Hospitality House to take our picture, who was more than happy to oblige.

"We'll figure it out when we get there," I said, this time with more confidence.

Before we were allowed to leave, we were fed a large and delicious meal by the Hospitality House, which was followed by entertainment, and then another meal. And then leftovers for the road.

(It was only right, that they should show us hospitality, no?)

We finally boarded the bus again and headed back to the city. The bus had expanded to larger than the campus busses to accommodate the number of passengers.

The sun was already starting to warm the countryside along the hills.

How long were we at the Hospitality House?

I knew it would be a long journey, and I made a calculated decision: we were going to take the rough road.

There were no directions for this road.

I hit a green button that had not been there before, and turned off the main highway into what looked like the grass.

But it opened up to being a gravel road that we somehow glided over, almost as if we were flying.

I slowed down as we passed through Hardnook, as small town on the way.

It was a very small and rough looking town.

Locals looked up from their drinks or labors or both to glare at the outsiders from the city who dared to roll through here.

I sped up.

However, I did not speed up fast enough, before a couple of particularly angry men started to approach the bus with a shovel and a gun.

The man with a gun pointed it at the bus, and I slammed a white button that had not been there a moment beforehand.

The bus screamed as shots ricocheted against the side.

With a burst of bright light, so much so that the men covered their faces from it, the bus burst from the ground and leapt into the air.

We were now flying across the countryside.

The passengers gasped in delight and relief. In my exhilaration, I barely noticed how I now had extra limbs that fed into the mechanics of the bus.

We were flying!

We landed back into the city a full loop and a full day after we had first departed.

I opened the doors, and the passengers scanned a QR code that had not been there before on their way out.

To pay?

"No charge," I told them, to their silent question.

They filed out, satisfied.

I unhooked my seatbelt, then unhooked my extra limbs, which disappeared into the driver's seat.

The white and green buttons were gone.

The GPS system was gone.

The controls looked just as they had when I started.

"Hmm," I said.

I scanned the QR code on my way out, and firmly shut the doors.

When I looked at my phone, the site pulled up a page of the driver's manual.

Ours.

Our class picture, just like the others, was now memorialized in the driver's manual.

A second later, a notification for an online deposit came through.

It was exactly enough to pay my bills.

[flynfish777crew]

Put a smile on your face with our friends @haircuttery today. 293 E International Speedway Blvd (386)-774-5070 #haircuttery #hairstyles #getaride #transportation #taxi #jimishometowntaxillc #girls #guys A huge thank you to our friend Veronica @ohveehave for the #milesofsmiles (at Hair Cuttery) https://www.instagram.com/p/Byfn38MAiFO/?igshid=oke9h6jzocqu

[m-a-e-x]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Iliana Maximova (@iliana.vision)

#getaride #insects #friends #carryme #howhumanisch #nature #inthecity

[amranichauffeur-blog]

Have you ever parked your car at Boston Logan airport or any other garage and wonder what happens to it if your’re gone for too long? Many people would immediately snap, and claim, “why would anyone abandon their own car?”.. but it happens- life happens. Sometimes, your stolen vehicle is put in a garage to hide from the police, then left there to hide from patrolling cars. Other times, people don’t make it home for the infinite reasons why. So what happens when that is the case? Do you think they give you a courtesy call, inquiring about your whereabouts and intentions with the car? Or, do they just take your money, and let you deal with the extra fees, and possibility of not coming back to your car only to claim it was your fault?

When you travel or leave your car in a garage for any reason, you are expected to pay good money for a sense of security. Especially in a city like Boston, NYC, or LA, where parking can be well over $300 a month, sometimes even $500 a month!! That is higher than the payments for my brand new Toyota Avalon! At that rate, you would expect a high-end service, even a regular hand car wash!  The reality unfortunately, contradicts your expectations exponentially. In fact, in Massachusetts, if your car is in the same spot for more then 30 days, they’ll consider it suspicious and move to have it towed or inspected! What is even worse, some have certain policies to auction your car off after a certain time frame! So, I would think twice before leaving your car at an airport parking lot, or any garage for that matter! The costs could add up, and the frustration would be through the roof!

[vegasismycity]

If you drink, please DO NOT drive. Please ask for a ride from someone you know or call this number. Some cab companies are offering rides too. Better safe, than DEAD. #NYE #GetARide #StayAlive #FreeRides #NewYears #VEGAS #LASVEGAS #SaveLives #VegasStrip #VegasIsMyCity #702 #VegasOrNowhere #CityOfParadise #StayingAlive #HappyNewYear #VisitVegas #FREE #EnjoyVegasLikeMe #LoveVegas #HNY #VegasIsWaiting #MyVegas #AdventuresInVegas #AAA (at Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign) https://www.instagram.com/p/BsBl7u7nK56/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=gluo87pza08t

[simplysardinia]

Looking for a taxi? 🚕 #taxi #getaride #yellow #eltaxi #miami #airport #florida #packed #organised (at Miami, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/BpuLOOFnw9C/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1mgcos119vhb

[scentsthemoment]

Get to any of our events with @Lyft using code VINEVENDOR to take $10 off your ride. #getaride #rideinstyle #lyft #nometrocardsneeded #discount #vinevendornetwork

[filippotumainiph]

#GetARide (presso Parma, Italy)

[damnairfresh]

Looking for a new certificated used car? 100% Approved #stopintoday Houston Auto Spot #houstonautospot #allgasnobrakes⛽️🏈🚴 #usedcarsforsale 🚙🚘#badcreditnoproblem #weapproveeveryone #damnsoldhere🍃🍃 #carsandtrucks #suvandminivans #damnpromo #yourjobisyourcredit #stopintoday😁 #getaride 🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁

[johnandkira-blog]

undefined

[mrfinesse718]

2011 Honda Accord all black, exterior, power windows, power locks, power breaks, 4 cylinder, 78k miles, asking 10K. Call 347.915.3365. Get your new car now. #car #getaride, #drive, #license #honda

[vegasismycity]

If you drink, please DO NOT drive. Please ask for a ride from someone you know or call this number. Some cab companies are offering ride too. Better safe, than DEAD. #NYE #GetARide #StayAlive #FreeRides #NewYears #VEGAS #LASVEGAS #VegasStrip (at Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign)

[anuragkapur-blog]

AT&T Mobile App Hackathon - Project: GetARide

A couple of weeks back, I attended a hackathon sponsored by AT&T.

http://www.meetup.com/UK-Hackathons-and-Jams/events/83484372/

Our Hack - @GetARideHack

Ever worked till very late in office, or had a blast at a late night party and then struggled to get back home? The late night buses across London can be a real pain and hiring a taxi by yourself can be quite expensive. This is precisely the business problem we decided to solve with our service.

Our idea was to create a service that creates matches between people who are looking to travel from A to B at a similar time. We initially thought of creating mobile apps to provide this service. However, soon realised, for the service to be successful, we will need a lot of people using it. Else, there would not be many matches to make! So the first problem to solve was - How do we make access to the service easy enough to encourage very large scale adoption?

Thus, we decided to tap into the enormous reach that a social network like Twitter already has. This meant, the mobile app took a back seat and became the secondary way of accessing the service. The primary way became Tweeting! You can tweet from virtually any device that is connected to the internet, via your browser, via twitter's native apps, or via other third party apps over twitter.

So what would be the easiest to use the service? Simple - Tweet something like the following:

How would matches be made?

We will process all requests being made via twitter, and in near real time match requests for travel "from" and "to" locations within a 1KM radius in a similar time, say within 15 minutes.

So how did we do it?

The request gathering process

A server side process, continuously listens to all tweets being made mentioning the @GetARideHack twitter handle and dumps them into a NoSQL database in real time. Key information captured would be user data, source, destination and intended time of travel. And hey, if we want to capture more info in the future, No problem, we are using a NoSQL DB, so don't need to define the schema upfront.

Tech Stack

Java 1.6

Twitter streaming API

Scribe.org - OAuth signing

MongoDB

The request processor

Another server side process, parses all unprocessed requests in the database, filters them into matchable time windows and then uses Google Maps API to find source and destination locations within acceptable range. Once such a match is found, it tweets back, mentioning users identified as matches to share a ride together.. Simple!

Tech Stack

Java 1.6

Google Maps API for location and proximity detection

MongoDB

The iOS App

A user requesting a ride via our app

So with the basics covered, we then began work on an iOS app, that provides extra features and also opens doors to some ways of monetizing the use of the service. Frequent users can access the service via the iOS app in a more convenient manner as compared to those tweets with hash tags you saw above. The app essentially sends the same tweet on the user's behalf. The app also provides notifications when matches are found. Features like history of previous bookings, current outstanding requests by other users in the city, user ratings for travel companions can be added. All possible and doable when we get some more time after the hackathon to build on our idea.

Second user tweeting directly and matches being made in real time

Tech Stack

Objective C (duh! Its an iOS app)

Twitter iOS SDK

Twitter Streaming API

NSURLConnection

Enhancements in the backlog

Improve the location detection algorithm

iOS app - Integrate with location service to automatically obtain current location as source unless user overrides

Use twitter location data as journey start point if user does not supply a "from" location

iOS app - Implement user history and option to view active open requests by users in vicinity 

Implement user ratings module

Implement user registration module - required to unlock new features of the service

Provide taxi bookings to premium registered users

Many more -- won't disclose our entire plan ;)

Code Reference

All code developed during the hackathon can be found at the following repositories:

Server side processes

https://github.com/anuragkapur/getaride_hack

iOS App

https://github.com/anuragkapur/getaride_hack_ios

Tweet

// <![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=477602045622808"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>// <![CDATA[ !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs'); // ]]>// <![CDATA[ (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })(); // ]]>

[mrfinesse718]

2011 Honda Accord all black, exterior, power windows, power locks, power breaks, 4 cylinder, 78k miles, asking 10K. Call 347.915.3365. Get your new car now. #car #getaride, #drive, #license #honda