Mt. Lebanon couple develop app to help with transportation challenges
An incident that occurred for Heather Wechter in February 2016 sparked what just might be a consequential answer to cooperative carpooling.
That’s when her brother-in-law stood in the hallway of her Mt. Lebanon home with a vexing problem. His wife just texted him from work to remind him that he was scheduled for an exercise class the same time that one son had hockey practice and another had a swim class, all at different locations.
The incident jogged Heather’s memory of the time when her three sons were doing extracurricular activities in three separate places
“I felt like I was living my life in the car driving them to different events,” she said.
Trying to find a fix to transportation issues shared by many others, she and her husband, Dave, came up with the idea of tribepool, an app designed to help neighbors, families and friends better manage their transportation needs by creating free shared rides.
App members set up personal tribepools for various activities, such as evening outings, classes, church happenings, work obligations and even larger events like the Pittsburgh Marathon, Great Race and Three Rivers Arts Festival. By carpooling with others, traffic congestion lightens, carbon emissions are reduced and parking fees either are shrunken or totally eliminated.
Tribepools are formed when a member identifies a friend, neighbor or relative with similar interests by name and/or telephone number, to which the app subsequently sends an invitation.
”In our app, we want to provide transparency and safety for all users,” Heather said. “The tribepool provides visibility (who the driver is), who’s in the carpool and where they’re going. While the story of the app might seem complicated, its use is really simple.”
When the Wechters talked to other about the app, they heard feedback about why a tribepool driver might not be able to make the scheduled pickup time.
“Emergencies like flat tires, dead batteries, traffic jams, illness and car breakdowns do happen,” Heather acknowledged.
In response to those possibilities, the Wechters created a feature that allows users to create an “SOS tribepool” of people they trust most who can be notified when help is nececssary
“In my case, for instance, I’d create an SOS tribepool of my two sisters, two brothers-in-law and a couple of my friends,” Heather said. “If I were indisposed as the driver, I’d send a text message that would have the time, location and a description of the emergency scenario. When they responded, I would get a text saying what action they’ve taken.”
On June 1, the Wechters made available a free download of the app. Currently, downloads are available at the cost of a one-time fee of $1.99 in the Apple Store and GooglePlay. To help build the tribepool volume, the couple plan to schedule several promotions throughout the summer, when they’ll talk about the app at events and provide free download codes.
One unexpected outcome of the free download offer was the number of 18- to 24-year-olds who responded.
“We thought the greatest response might come from parents and families, but it actually came from a younger demographic,” Heather said.
In the future, the couple plan to release advanced versions of the app to increase its effectiveness and options based on feedback from users. Because the app is available for download nationwide, it can eventually be used to carpool to concerts, sporting events and other activities in distant locations.
In developing the app, it helped that Dave is a computer science graduate of Allegheny College in Meadville, with additional experience as an entrepreneur, while Heather has a degree from Pratt University in Brooklyn, N.Y., with a background in merchandising. She also said that as a mother of three sons, she gained a lot of valuable personal insight into transportation issues.
“I recognize the transportation challenges experienced by many people,” she said, “and like to think of the app as neighbor helping neighbors get to different events more easily.”
Visit www.f6s.com/tribepoolllc.