Viadedo

Launched in spring, 2013, Viadedo is the first carpooling platform in Paraguay that offers car owners with a spare seat a place to post their planned routes, so that passengers can join them. People gain another means of transportation and car owners save money on fuel.

Considered to be dangerous, carpooling was once a controversial topic in Paraguay. To overcome this perception, Vialedo targeted safety as the major priority in the project’s development, allowing users to check drivers’ credentials on Facebook. Car owners can alsopost a route that is only visible to their Facebook friends or friends of friends. In the context of South America, especially Paraguay, with poor public transportation systems, cities have neither planned for the skyrocketing number of cars, nor for any real control of growing CO² emissions. With carpooling, Viadedo not only makes it easier for people to be a part of a viable solution, but also teaches them that taking care of the environment is a win/win situation for all.

"Living in Paraguay I’m confronted with problems that the MDGs are trying to solve each day. My team and I chose to do “Viadedo”, the first carpooling platform in Paraguay, because we were tired of depending on a corrupt and deficient public transportation system and were worried about the increasing traffic and CO2 emissions in our city.” (Philipp Alexander Wenger)