Going my way?

Dueling app companies Lyft and Uber have announced this week that they are expanding their taxi-alternative business models to include carpooling options. Lyft’s is called Lyft Line, and the company describes the new addition as an entirely new category of transportation: personal transit. “We believe that modern cities should offer reliable, affordable transportation wherever you live,” Lyft writes in a blog post announcing the launch of Lyft Line. “We want to bring the best parts of Lyft — on-demand service, door-to-door trips, and community — to daily travel.”

Uber’s take on the service, meanwhile, is called UberPool, and it’s nearly identical to Lyft Line: share a ride and split the cost with another rider who happens to be requesting a ride along a similar route. For Uber, the move is just one step closer to a country in which no one owns cars anymore. “This is also a bold social experiment,” Uber writes on their blog.

The concept that both companies are pitching is that their infrastructure will be built by riders requesting daily rides. The transportation is then flexible and ever-shifting according to the riding population’s needs. Their concept material shows subway- or bus-like routes laid over an image of city streets, but then those lines disappear when they’re not needed, reducing congestion and greenhouse gases. If nothing else, it’s smart marketing. Both companies are positioning their dueling approach as a subway-like service that could actually take you door to door.

However, the idea and use of carpooling basically peaked during the 1970s, as a result of the 1973 oil crisis. At that time, approximately 20 percent of commutes were carpools. Today, that figure hovers closer to 8 percent. And large-scale public transportation is inherently more popular than a random ride in a car with strangers. One quote outlined the basic skepticism of the planned services: “The very last thing I want to do in the morning on my way to work is talk to a stranger. Which is why I take the subway.”