The US city has identified that a lack of reliable and affordable transportation is a primary barrier to finding - and maintaining – a job for approximately 10,000 residents.
Hytch says its mobile app will verify shared rides in real time and allow users to earn up to 50 cents per mile when car-pooling with friends or co-workers who are involved in the Commuters Trust transportation initiative.
This public-private venture offers free or discounted transport options in and around South Bend. The city is funding the project via a $1 million grant through the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge.
Aaron Steiner, programme director for Commuters Trust, says: “The lack of dependable transportation – or no vehicle at all – makes it difficult for some people to consistently get to work on time, or forces them to turn down work opportunities when public transit options aren’t available."
"Our programme solves a specific problem around access to employment. Ultimately, we think Hytch Rewards will become an important piece of the puzzle, to provide local workers more options to commute to work and reduce transportation as a barrier to employment.”
Mark A. Cleveland, co-founder of Hytch, says: “By directly rewarding people for networking within their most familiar communities, we inspire car-pooling at scale, avoid the fixed costs of mass transit and carve out the venture-capital-funded middleman.”
