Popaletter – October 2023
In light of his recent TEDx talk, we asked our CEO, Flo Devellennes, to take over our semi-regular round-up of all the happenings in our carpooling community.
Dear fellow Popariders,
This summer has been a period of growth with the number of people joining our community climbing to 1,000 a day – that’s over 100,000 of you who have joined us just in the last three months! We are humbled by your willingness to share rides together and help fulfill our mission of making travel more social, affordable, and sustainable for everyone in Canada.
This period has also been filled with uncertainty due to unpredictable economic conditions and worsening weather events, bringing heat waves and record wildfires across the country. For those of you affected, whether directly or through family or friends, we send you our warmest thoughts and wish you resilience to heal and rebuild.
Now more than ever, we are reminded of our responsibility to take decisive action to help preserve our planet and the humans who live on it.
Here is how our team at Poparide is making a difference.
Carpooling is for everyone
Our community is as multifaceted as it can be, coming from all sorts and going to all sorts. We are creating endless opportunities as indicated by the 100,000 data points we collected in our recent member survey.
We were surprised to find out how common it is for members to switch from the driver’s seat into being a passenger or the other way around. We also learned that many of you joined us as students to later branch out into other shapes and forms of carpooling, such as commuting to work, visiting family and friends, and getting to the outdoors.
But that’s just the beginning. We will share more soon as we recently span up a data science kitchen and are cooking up many more insights from our member survey. So, get ready for your spoon of data on the state of long-distance travel and commuting.
With a great community comes great responsibility.
Our objective is to fill empty seats in cars and help people travel together. To do this, we need to make it as easy as possible to get a ride while ensuring everyone’s safety.
Safety starts with support@poparide.com.
In the next few months, we will be doubling down on our commitment to safety. We have already implemented anti-phishing measures and we will soon introduce an improved driver verification system along with new reporting tools to empower you to tell us when something isn’t quite right.
The hitchhiker’s guide to saving the planet
Beyond Poparide, I invite you to think about your own contributions to how you can have a positive impact on the planet. It’s the small steps that can make a difference in your community and compound to massive changes globally.
If you’re interested to learn more about how your individual impact can make a big difference, I invite you to watch the TEDx talk I recently gave in Whistler, BC, where I shared my personal journey of building Poparide from a small, community-driven hitch-hiking website into an impact-driven platform where people have shared over 100 million km together since 2015 and in the process reduced their costs, made new connections, and offset their carbon footprint.
Sharing and caring at large
Beyond Poparide, there are many other ways to share that we vouch for that you could use to save money, reduce emissions and waste, and connect with other fellow humans.
- WWOOF Canada, where you can help at organic farms and become part of a community conscious of ecological farming practices.
- Modo, BC’s first carsharing coop, that has recently reached the milestone of 1,000 cars in their fleet.
- Communauto, Canada’s biggest carshare offers cars in Alberta, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Québec.
- Public bikeshare systems like Mobi bikes in Vancouver, Bike share in Toronto, and Bixi in Montreal.
We hope to leave you inspired after reading this latest Popaletter, and we look forward to seeing you on the road soon!
Flo Devellennes
Poparide CEO & Co-founder
In other news at Poparide…
New Partnership: Busbud + Poparide
Our 3,000+ active routes covering almost 500 cities in Canada are now bookable through BusBud, Canada’s largest intercity bus aggregator.
Our partnership takes long-distance route planning to a whole new level. Together, we unlock carpooling as part of a chain of trips, making it easy to combine modes and helping you travel the fastest and cheapest from A to B.
Thanks for being a part of our community!
Happy travels,
The Poparide team
P.S. Get your trips posted and booked – Thanksgiving is coming up quick!