Former University of Cape Town (UCT) students and roommates, Gugulethu Mhlanga and Simphiwe Kuse, have launched a new ride-sharing app called City One to encourage more South Africans who use the same daily routes to commute together.
Mhlanga and Kuse first met when they became roommates while studying at UCT, with Mhlanga pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering. Kuse studied Philosophy, Public Policy and Policy.
Inspiration struck while Mhlanga was doing his morning commute from Athlone, sparking the thought that it would reduce the heavy flow of traffic if South Africans travelled together each day.
He would watch people drive alone in their cars while sitting in congested traffic, but understood that it would be challenging to motivate people to put strangers in touch with one another to commute together. Mhlanga’s passion for improving the standards of living in Africa inspired him to come up with innovative ways to use technology to achieve this.
The primary market for the app is those who live and work in the same area, and commuters will share a minimum fee of R20 along with an added charge of R2.50 per kilometre.
The app is currently only available for Apple devices, and can be downloaded from the iStore. An Android-compatible app will be launched in March, and will cater to commuters in Cape Town and Johannesburg only.
For more information visit the City One website or visit their Facebook page.
Picture: Pexels