LiftBoard

Kootenay drivers, people are literally looking for you.

Over the last 3 months, folks searched LiftBoard for rides nearly 5,000 times. Here’s what your neighbours are actually looking for:

The big runs:
📍 Nelson ⇄ Vancouver, about 480 searches
📍 Castlegar → Kelowna, 154 searches
📍 Nelson → Kelowna, 109 searches

Closer to home:
📍 Nelson → Cranbrook, 52 searches
📍 Nelson ⇄ Castlegar, about 38 searches
📍 Rossland → Castlegar and Trail → Cranbrook, steady weekly demand

And here’s the part that matters: a lot of these searches came up empty. Someone needed a ride, and there was no driver posted.

🔸 Kelowna → Nelson, 27 searches with no driver
🔸 Calgary → Nelson, 24
🔸 Rossland → Castlegar, 9
🔸 Trail → Cranbrook, 9

If you’re already making one of these drives, that could be a passenger, and a gas split, waiting on the other end.

That empty seat is the easiest climate win there is. And when people use paid LiftBoard features, 3% of what LiftBoard earns goes toward pulling CO₂ back out of the air. 🌍

No catch either. LiftBoard is free to use for regular rides, always. No surge pricing. No cut from your gas split. Just a local ride board built right here in the Kootenays, for the Kootenays.

Got a trip coming up? Post it in under a minute 👉 liftboard.ca

Recently had brought to our attention that our Reserved Rides guide didn't land for everyone, so here it is again. If you've read the guide you already know all this — feel free to skip.

First, the important bit: **LiftBoard is free to use, always.** Posting a ride, finding a ride, messaging a driver, agreeing on a cash contribution at the gas pump — all free, all still works the way it always has. Reserved Rides are an *optional* layer for people who want a confirmed seat with the contribution held in advance. If casual works for your trip, casual still works.

Also: 3% of every Reserved Rides contribution goes toward removing CO₂ from the atmosphere. So when you reserve a seat, you're also pulling a bit of carbon out of the air. Not bad for a tap of a button. 🌿

Step 1 - Reserve a seat
You find a ride that has reserved seats enabled — you'll know because it has an emerald "Reservable seat" 🎟️ badge on the listing card. Tap into the ride, hit **Reserve Seat** and enter your card. Your card only gets *authorized* for the contribution amount, but no money moves yet. Think of it like checking into a hotel — they put a hold on the card, nothing actually charges until you're actually staying.

Step 2 - Driver approves you
Driver gets a notification and taps approve on the passenger's reservation.
The driver gets pinged that someone reserved. They tap **Approve** (or pass, if the seat doesn't work for them — no hard feelings, the hold drops off automatically). Once approved, your seat is locked in. The driver knows you're actually showing up. You know the driver is actually going.

This is the part that fixes the biggest old-school carpool problem: nobody knows for sure if the other person is going to flake.

Step 3 - Pickup day, you swap a code
Driver holds the 4-digit pickup code on their phone; passenger reads it and enters it in their own app to complete the trip.
You meet up. The **driver** has a 4-digit pickup code on their phone — the passenger reads it and types it into their own app. That's the trigger that marks the trip complete and releases the contribution to the driver. No code entered = no payout. It's how we make sure nobody's getting paid for a ride that didn't happen.

There's a 24-hour window after pickup where either side can dispute if something went wrong. After that, the driver gets paid out automatically.

A few things worth knowing

- **You set the price, driver.** It's your seat, your trip, your call. Suggested ranges are based on distance, but you can go lower if you want.

- **No-shows are protected.** If the driver bails, you don't pay. If you bail outside the cancellation window, the hold may convert — exact rules are in the guide.

- **It's not Uber.** Nobody's dispatching you. You're still meeting a neighbour who happened to be going your way. We're just making sure the handshake actually holds.

That's the whole thing. If something's still confusing, the full Reserved Rides guide has every edge case spelled out.

Last week, 52 different people in the Kootenays searched LiftBoard for a ride — 83 trips they were trying to take.

Nelson to Vancouver was the biggest one: 17 different people trying to get to the coast.

You know how many rides got posted in the same window?

Ten.

That’s the gap.

Students trying to get home for the weekend. People heading to a show, a market, an appointment, the airport, the next town over. Real trips, real people, no driver on the other end.

And most of the missing rides aren’t extra trips.

Someone is already driving Nelson → Vancouver this weekend. Someone is already doing Castlegar → Trail. Someone is already heading to Kelowna, Cranbrook, Calgary, Spokane, wherever.

The only difference between an empty seat and a shared one is about 30 seconds on a phone.

So if you’ve got a trip coming up — a weekend run, a commute, a one-off, anything — please post it.

LiftBoard is free to use.
Posting is free. Searching is free. Messaging is free.

If money changes hands, it’s between driver and passenger as a gas contribution. No surge pricing. No weird app nonsense. Just neighbours helping neighbours get where they’re going.

And for the paid features that do exist, 3% goes toward permanent CO₂ removal. Small thing, but it matters.

This is a Kootenay project. Built here, run here, for people who actually live here.

Drivers: post your next trip.
liftboard.ca/drive

Passengers: search before you assume nobody’s going.
liftboard.ca

Everyone else: share this with one person who drives a lot.

That’s the whole ask.

Thanks for keeping this thing breathing.

🎤 OOTS Open Mic Night — Sunday May 24, 5:30pm
Ootischenia Hall, Castlegar. Feature performer Aaron Pasacreta, plus the open list. All ages, by donation.

Full details + find a ride from your town 👉 https://liftboard.ca/events/oots-open-mic-night

If you're already driving in for it from Nelson, Trail, Castlegar, Slocan — anywhere — post your ride on LiftBoard. Takes 30 seconds. Every empty seat is someone who wanted to be at this and couldn't get there.

No ride? Don't skip it. Hit the event page above and search — drivers heading near Castlegar that day will show up too, not just ones who tagged the event directly. If nobody's posted your route yet, you can drop a trip request so drivers get a heads-up.

LiftBoard is free to use, always. We donate 3% of all purchases to removing CO₂ from the atmosphere — fewer empty seats on the highway means less carbon, more music. 🌿

🎶 Castlegar SunFest is back June 5–7, and the Festival in the Park lineup is stacked.

Friday: JT & The Diesels → Kolar Flare → Eagle Eyes
Saturday: KNS tunz → Diamond Willow → Baker St. Blues → Gin Road → Drew Story → The Hip Replacements
Then the $10,000 SunFest 50/50 draw and fireworks over the river to close out Saturday night. 🎆
Sunday: Ira Pettle → Steve Marc → Supercats Studios

Coming from Nelson, Trail, Rossland, or anywhere in the West Kootenays? Don't drive alone — and don't miss the show because you couldn't find a ride.

🚗 Post your seat or grab a ride on LiftBoard — the community ride board for the Kootenays. Free to use, always. 3% of every paid feature funds CO₂ removal.

There’s a lot going on around the Kootenays this weekend.

Markets, live music, Spring Fling in Castlegar, events in Nelson, Trail, and everywhere in between.

If you’re trying to get somewhere, it might be worth checking if someone’s already heading that way.

Or posting a ride yourself.

👉

Events | LiftBoard Upcoming events in the Kootenays and British Columbia. Find rides to festivals, concerts, markets and more on LiftBoard.

Need to get to Kelowna?

It’s a trip a lot of people end up making — appointments, flights, school, or just getting into the city.

Most people just figure it out last minute.

But there are already rides being posted between the Kootenays and Kelowna pretty regularly, both directions.

If you’ve got something coming up, it’s worth a quick look first.

👉 liftboard.ca

Reserved Rides are now live on LiftBoard.

I teased this a little while back — it’s ready.

If you’ve ever lined up a ride and thought
“okay… I think this is happening?”
this is for those trips where it actually matters.

What it actually is

Drivers can now offer reservable seats on a ride.
Passengers can reserve one and know it’s theirs.

You still chat.
Drivers still approve every passenger.
Nothing becomes automatic or impersonal.

It just adds a bit more certainty when you want it.

The parts I cared about getting right

• Your card is held, not charged — nothing moves unless the ride actually happens
• A pickup code confirms the ride actually happened
• A short dispute window after the trip if something goes sideways

LiftBoard is still free. That hasn’t changed.

This just sits alongside it for the trips where
“we’ll figure it out” isn’t quite enough.

3% of every contribution still goes toward removing CO₂ —
because if we’re sharing rides anyway, we might as well do it right.

If you want to see how it works:

👉 liftboard.ca/reserved-rides-guide

I’ve been quiet about this one while I worked through the details, but I’m finally close enough to say it:

**Reserved Rides are coming to LiftBoard.**

Some trips need a stronger commitment than a casual message and a “maybe.” Drivers get tired of no-shows. Passengers get tired of “we’ll see.” Both sides want to know the ride is actually going to happen.

Here’s how it works:

A driver posts a ride and chooses to offer reservable seats. A passenger can then request one through LiftBoard and place a payment hold up front. The driver decides whether to accept or decline. If they decline, the hold is released and there’s no charge. If they accept, the payment is captured and the seat is locked in.

On the day of the trip, a quick pickup code helps confirm that the ride actually happened and closes the loop.

So no, it’s not instant booking. The driver still stays in control. But once both sides agree, it’s a much stronger commitment than a casual message thread and a lot less “we’ll see.”

Free community rides aren’t going anywhere. Reserved Rides are just an option for the trips where reliability matters most.

Still local. Still community-first. Still built for the Kootenays.

Coming soon. And more👀

Three months ago, LiftBoard was just an idea.

Today, we’ve grown to 165 people signed up, 104 rides posted, and a growing list of trips that actually happened between people who had never met.

Those numbers might not sound massive, and I’m not pretending they are. But or a small regional app covering a handful of mountain towns, that feels like something.

People want this.

They want a simpler, more local way to find rides, share trips, and make getting around the Kootenays a little easier and a little more affordable.

We’re still early. Really early. And building something like this is a grind — especially because ridesharing only gets better as more people use it. But that’s exactly why every signup, every posted ride, every share, and every bit of support matters right now.

We're still figuring out what this community actually needs from us. But the core idea — that people in the Kootenays want to share rides and just needed a simple way to do it — that part seems to be true.

So if you’ve joined, posted a ride, shared the page, or even just followed along while I build this thing — thank you. Seriously.

LiftBoard is still small, but it’s real, it’s growing, and it’s only been 3 months.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, now’s a great time:
liftboard.ca