•  
• origin
• the team
•  
• how it works
• why use us
•  
• faq

RideSpotter started on a blackboard at Stanford University the week before Winter Break 2006. Students in Larkin House, a freshman dorm, were frantically sending emails to find out who else in the dorm might be flying out at similar times to them so that they could all pool together and split the cost of transportation.

Eventually, someone pulled out a blackboard and wrote a time table on it showing local airports. People could simply write their names on the time table and, just by walking past, see who they might be able to ride with. This simple system helped many people save money on their ride to the airport and significantly cut email list traffic.

A few weeks later, the soon-to-be creator of RideSpotter was struck by the idea that it would be easier for people to share rides if there was a single place they could go to see who else they knew might be going the same way. Work commenced on a ride sharing website, but quickly subsided when school resumed. The site remained on hiatus until Spring Quarter 2008, when it was revived as a project for Stanford's CS73N Introductory Seminar.

The entirety of RideSpotter was laid out, designed, and coded by Alan Viverette, a current undergraduate student at Stanford University. He is also the current owner and operator of the site.