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What is Ridesharing?

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Nowadays, one can very often hear the expression “real-time” ridesharing, instant or dynamic ridesharing, related to tech startup companies, who offer the public an opportunity to connect with ordinary drivers in real-time for ride arrangements through online platforms using mobile apps. The emergence of this new trend was possible due to the revolution in social networking and development and introduction of new technologies. However, according to the traditional definition, ridesharing is an activity of sharing a car journey to the driver’s destination through organized carpool and vanpool programs, when all travelers typically share the costs of those rides. Public and non-profit ridesharing or commuter-service programs have been part of the national transportation program for several decades, and typically depend on federal and local funding . According to the information from “’Real-Time’ Rideshare Research” conducted by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the major difficulty of describing the ridesharing activities is the lack of a common widely-accepted definition , which very often leads to confusion between distinguishing ridesharing activities from other transportation services. According to the description proposed in the research ridesharing is “the transportation of two or more individuals in a motor vehicle with a capacity not exceeding 15 passengers, when such transportation is incidental to

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