Zimride is no more. At least for those who aren't part of a university or business network affiliated with the company, anyways. I guess that's where they were probably making the most money.
Honestly, it's a bit of a shame because it was such a great resource (and a great part of Lyft history) for when you spontaneously decide to road-trip it down for the holidays. At least for me, anyways. Who doesn't want to do Uber but for long-distance treks? It's basically how I stay up to date with what all the college students are listening to these days.
Zimride sent out a message last Tuesday that the company would officially shut its doors to the general public as part of a core business strategic decision. Its existing organizational networks will remain open. In what seemed like a really swift move, they gave users pretty much mere days to give them the boot. Starting this month, it's no more.
The other competitor in the space that I know of is Ridejoy, which I suspect will see an upsurge in traffic from the Zimride closure to the general public. I haven't used them but it will be interesting to see if they can make the most of recent events. I just hope previous Zimride users know Ridejoy exists. There is also Coride, which I've never heard of before until I went to the Google.
It's also worth checking out Tripda, which just raised $11 million in Series A financing. Which hopefully means they'll be around for some time before they go bust or finally manage to make long-distance carpooling fashionable. I even managed to pick up this cool deal from them at The New York Times Travel Show two weeks ago.
.@tripdausa is offering $20 off rides for passengers or an extra $20 pay for drivers. Use promo code NYTTS20. Offer expires 4/30.
— Map Happy (@map_happy) January 26, 2015
(I post all the deals I find on our Twitter. Dance with us, tweet with us.)
