For the past several years, the I-70 Coalition has worked closely to support TreadShare, a new carpool app tailored to the I-70 Mountain Corridor. It was founded by locals Erwin Germain and Justin Kurtz, who, like many of us have acute I-70 driving knowledge and experience.
According to Germain, the app works as follows. “You say, oh tomorrow I’m going to go skiing, I live in Denver, and I’m going to A-Basin. I’m going to post my ride on the app, saying I’m going to leave from this place, at this time, and I’m going to A-Basin. I have three seats left in my car. So then passengers who are interested in going to A-Basin tomorrow can just navigate the app and can find a driver that matches their schedule.”
Unlike ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft, the driver does not make a profit. Drivers simply offer up extra seats in their cars to share the costs of their trip with strangers and new friends (rather than bearing the costs alone). In doing this, it is also a mode of social networking and friendship building – an unintended consequence which per the I-70 Coalition’s, 2019 I-70 User Study, is actually the second most commonly cited reason that I-70 users choose to carpool (behind ‘saving on gas’ and in front of ‘reducing environmental impact’).
Germain, a French expatriate who moved to Colorado in 2015, got the idea from the French-based BlaBlaCar, which serves as an ‘online marketplace’ to connect drivers and passengers heading to and from certain destinations. After years of app development and other hard work that included a legislative fix via the introduction of a new bill HB21-1076 (with the support of CDOT, I-70 Coalition, and State Legislators), the TreadShare app is finally live and launching in the Google Play and Apple App stores!! While the pandemic (and public health recommendations) continue to fluctuate, this app should be around for many seasons to come, and we encourage you to try it out and make some new friends in the process!