Introducing Wheelie
The shortest bridge between passengers and drivers.
What is Wheelie?
The first thing you probably wondered about when you visited Wheelie was what it actually is. You might also be interested in who is Wheelie for? Should you use it? Then, you most likely took a look at other pages to gain a better understanding.
Let me answer your questions in the easiest way possible:
- If you have a car you can use Wheelie as a driver to reduce your usual travel expenses.. It could be either your daily trip to college or the trips you plan once a year. There are many people who are looking for you as a driver. Find them, meet new people and make your trip more enjoyable.
- If you don’t have a car you can be a passenger trying to find drivers who will give you a ride. It’s up to you to decide what you want to offer them. As an initial help, Wheelie suggests three options: gas split, lunch or coffee.
That’s it. Wasn’t it simple to understand whether you need Wheelie or not?
That’s why Wheelie is the shortest bridge between you and your road friends. It brings up fun, friendship and of course financial benefits, mostly everything what we students need.
Carpooling allows you to share the cost of gas and parking, cutting your expenses by nearly 50%. The more occupants in your carpool, the more you save.
Current version
If you sign up to Wheelie you will see that the current version is enough for you to start using Wheelie. The goal of this minimal version (MVP) is to figure out what you guys actually need; the thing that you really want. It will definitely help us discuss which parts of our plans work greatly and which are misguided so we can adapt our strategies accordingly. Day by day we will start understanding you better and thus we will be able to improve our product. With this beginning I really hope that we will continue the process of improvement adding more and better solutions. And that is exactly the main reason why I didn’t add any feature that doesn’t directly contribute to our learning.
How everything started
The idea of creating Wheelie came to my mind when I started using public transportation to get to my workplace. I didn’t have a car so I had to figure out a way to get there every single day. The bus system in Rochester isn’t reliable at all. Cabs are very expensive so you cannot afford taking a cab every day. You will go broke very soon. So, for the first couple of weeks I asked my friends for a ride. I knew I couldn’t do it every time. I also noticed that some of my friends faced the same problem and complained about buses and transportation in general. I saw many of them posting statuses on Facebook asking for a ride.
Therefore, I wanted Wheelie to help us find drivers who can give us a ride. On the other hand, as passengers we could share the trip expenses or offer the drivers something back so it would be both cooperative and mutually beneficial. I liked the idea of having such a bridge, which can connect us. Wheelie is that very bridge for me and for all of you.
Having fewer cars on the road means reduced gas emissions and improved air quality. Doesn’t this mean that Wheelie is a direct contributor to the Green World?
Is it only for RIT?
Right now our initial target is the RIT community helping them find and share rides. We truly believe that if we start our journey from a small number of people we can understand the needs of our users easier and faster. Accordingly, we can improve Wheelie based on all the feedback we get from the users
I’m so excited about the idea that Wheelie can be an inevitable part of our daily routine and I’m super motivated that you can find it useful.
Thank You,
Tigran
