Great idea, patents filed, now how do I gain traction?

Try pitching your idea to students at a local college. See what they think. Cheaper service should appeal to students.

Also, this is not the kind of business that is well suited to bootstrapping. It takes a lot of money to grow quickly and to clear the regulatory hurdles.

The biggest hurdle is not the cost, its getting past the chicken and egg problem. Nobody is going to sign up to get a ride from your app if there's no drivers available to pick them up. No driver is going to use your app if nobody is on it.

That's why Uber and Lyft spend millions on customer acquisition efforts including giving away $30 - $40 for signing up. Can you afford to do that?

Basically once there's an incumbent in a "marketplace" its extremely hard to unseat them regardless of your offer.

Eons ago, Yahoo! tried to take on eBay by allowing people to complete auctions without fees. Guess how that went? Yup Yahoo! isn't doing auctions anymore.

I appreciate the replies so far, but I feel that it's missing the actual question. I'm wondering what the best way to put the message in front of the right people and the most cost effective way at that.

By gaining early interest (just signing up for updates not actually applying to drive) it will validate the idea and allow it to be modified as needed.

Plus it will allow me to use those metrics towards some small level funding to begin my push and growth. (so don't worry it won't (and couldn't be) bootstrapped the whole way through.

I appreciate each of you bringing up a few great points, I'm sorry I didn't explain it further. But I do hope there might be another answer or two I haven't gotten yet that will spark a new idea on how to gain basic traction faster.

How you gonna make money (?) Advertising ?

Compliance in this space is a nightmare ---correct ?

Go from house to house and spam people with leaflets. Start with your local village/area/town and then go from there.

http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-reportedly-operating-at-a-470-million-loss-2015-6

Uber sunk half a BILLION dollars in user acquisition. Not a good idea to go up against a competitor who is willing to lose a ton of money to gain customers as even if you have a better product, you'd have to be willing to take the hit profit-wise until they turn off the spigot.

100% control by driver of receiving the fare in a ride sharing service without paying anything to a company sounds like hitch-hiking.

What kind of drivers are you attracting that get 100% of the fare? How do you control drivers from charging as much as Uber anyway? Or afford to put measures in place for accountability to limit things going wrong during the ride experience? Or arguments about the fare after they drive the person, because different drivers are setting different rates for the same route 'because they can'.

No fee. Sounds like it will attract even less quality drivers that are less committed to the business of being a legit, respectful driver = more dangerous rides. Plus with a 20% cut, drivers will make some effort toward a positive experience of the ride. What if they dump the rider somewhere because they suddenly dont need the fare and there's a delay like traffic.

Part of the fee to the company is that it gives perception to a rider of a legit service with certain level of standards. As a female with little funds, I'd think I'd rather pay a bit more for a ride in a stranger's car, with a company, knowing the driver and company are sharing the fare coming out of my pocket so both are mutually invested that the experience and service is decent and safe. When the driver has full control of the service its unsettling. If you've ever taken rides in foreign countries where many cabs are full 'independents' you'll know what I mean.

100% free sounds good for some businesses but not in a service where a person's safety and well-being is involved.

When a driver thinks about gouging a captive rider into paying a higher fare, they'll have some hesitation knowing a percentage of the fare charged is going to corporate. When none of it is going to corporate, whats stopping them from hard nose re-negotiating during the ride and if you dont agree they dump you on the side of the road causing you to be late or a-- out on some back street.