Pitchfork Music Festival Adds Free Ridesharing App

How are you getting to Pitchfork this year? The Pitchfork Festival is cutting its greenhouse gas emissions this year by partnering with online ridesharing network Amovens.com to provide festival-goers with an affordable, sustainable transportation alternative.

Pitchfork 2010: Raekwon (Photo credit: kate.gardiner)

Using Amoven‘s network, you can post and find rides to the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago. The idea is to help drivers split the cost of travel, and sell (or trade, or just give) unoccupied seats in their cars to other Pitchfork attendees. Amovens thinks this will cut down on travel costs such as gas, tolls and parking, and reduce the festival’s carbon footprint at the same time. Imagine, higher festival attendance but fewer cars and fewer emissions.

With more than 50,000 registered users, Amovens has helped eliminate more than 3.5 million pounds of carbon emissions and saved passengers and drivers more than $2 million.

Diego Hidalgo, CEO of Amovens noted that, “Not only does implementing a rideshare program help cut Pitchfork’s carbon footprint, it also reduces parking needs and traffic congestion during the festival.”

Does it sound too good to be true? Where’s the catch? Who pays for the Amovens ridesharing application?

Jef Cozza, Director Amovens USA, explained the two revenue models the pay for Amovens service.

Screen shot 2012-07-05 at 4.49.10 PM — Ridesharing is smart in lots of ways.

The public platform that riders and drivers see and use is supported by corporate sponsorships but is free to the end user. The company offers customized platforms, designed specifically for corporate clients like Ford, Ericsson, and Banco Sabadell with additional tools to make carpooling easier for corporate employees through single sign-on, incentive programs, vanpool programs and leader boards to see which employees are carpooling the most. There’s an annual usage fee for those platforms.

This summer, the ridesharing app company is partnering with some of the bigger music festivals as part of its broader promotional push to introduce the public platform to the U.S. market, so this platform is free of charge to Pitchfork.

Amovens can estimate carbon savings generated through the use of its service and according to Cozza, that’s another reason corporations pay for a private platform. By looking at the distance driven and number of passengers in the vehicle they can calculate a emissions-saved rating.

Chicagotalks will check back with Jeff Cozza and Amovens after Pitchfork and report on Pitchfork’s performance in the ridesharing department.

Pitchfork fans can access the ridesharing platform via Amovens ridershare site or via the widget on the Pitchfork site.

2012 Pitchfork tickets are on sale now. This year features Feist, Vampire Weekend, Grimes, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and more. The festival kicks off July 13th in Union Square, located at Ashland Avenue and Lake Street. Complete details are available at http://pitchfork.com/festivals/chicago/2012/.