GoManitoba revs up with retooled carpooling platform, incentives to create networks

The Green Action Centre is hoping its new, refined and streamlined carpooling platform will encourage more people to hop in.

First launched in 2017 as a free ride-sharing app, GoManitoba matchesup commuters, while also offering walking and biking routes along with public transit options.

It was relaunched Thursday as a onlinesitethat is much more user-friendly than the app was, saidMel Marginet,Green Action Centre's workplace commuter options program co-ordinator.

The hope is the new site will be more appealing to those who are lessadroit with navigating technology.

The site will have plenty oftutorials and webinars to explain how to use, saidGreen Action Centre executive director Josep Seras Gubert, "because of course, new tools are challenging."

Marginet also said the old app was introduced prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, "which helped people think differently about how they get around" and ushered in a cycling boom.

"So we thought this was a really good time to do a relaunch," she said during a news conference at the Seeltransit station, located along the southwest rapid transitway and active transportation path.

Theupdated technology and redesign got $30,000 in fundingfromthe provincial government, some of which is also being used to encourageorganizations and businesses to create carpooling networkson the platform.

The funding will help those organizations build their own network pages and give them a six-monthfree subscription.

Trip-planning feature

Users, meanwhile, can create a free account which can be used to enter a trip profile point of departure, destinationand time of daythe trip would take place to find rides.

"Finding greener transportation options is critical to reduce our GHG[greenhouse gas] emissions,"Minister of Environment and Climate Change Tracy Schmidtsaid at Thursday's news conference.

Carpooling also saves people money by cutting down on fuel and parking costs, she said.As well, not everyone can afford a single-use vehicle, Schmidtadded.

"This is really going to increase accessibility, affordability and help us green our community."

There are about 1,500 current users registered with GoManitoba, most of whom are based in Winnipeg, according to the Green Action Centre. It hopes the improved tool, as well as involvement of organizations, will help expand that beyond the city to communities where there may be dormant demand because of a"less robust" transit system.

"A target threshold where I think this could really make a substantial difference would probably be 5,000 people. So we are looking to do a really big push," Marginet said.

Travelling is an essential part of everyday life,said Seras Gubert,sohaving access to transportation is a basic need.

But there should be options that arehealthy for the individual, are not harmful to the environmentand create connections and build communities, he said.

The University of Manitoba has been a founding partner in GoManitoba since it first launched and would like to see it help ease some of the congestion and emissions at its Fort Garry campus,saidWhitney Crooks, the university's climate action plan project manager.

A survey the U of M conducted last year showed about 11 per cent of students and staff carpooled to campus.

"We want to see that number go up," saidCrooks.

Winnipeg, however, does not have dedicated carpool lanes, soSchmidtwas asked if the province was looking at ways to make it more enticing.

She deferred toSeras Gubert, who said the way to persuade people to adopt carpooling is not through lane-building as much as environmental education.

"When people know, people can care. And when you care, you act," he said. "I know that can sound just a little idealistic, but I see that as a holistic approach. We believe these changes will happen."