In two days, the newly created Facebook group for shared travel in Sofia due to the lack of public transport has gained nearly 5,500 members.
A few people every hour publish their usual route to and from work and announce how many passengers they can take. The wave of solidarity does not surprise one of the group administrators, Filip Dudin.
"In the beginning, there were more people searching, but they had no choice of routes offered". Now people are offering transportation: "They have already learned it and started finding each other and traveling together".
And as can be expected, there have also been attempts at abuse by people who see this as a chance for profit:
"But we cut it off very quickly, we specifically introduced a rule in the group that this cannot be allowed for commercial purposes". Whoever wants to drive for money should become a taxi driver, says Dudin, quoted by BNR.
Tanya Boyadzhieva is a young retiree and does not want to become a taxi driver. She offers to drive elderly and sick people to the doctor's office, hospital and physiotherapy for free, if necessary:
"Anyway, between 11:00 and 15:00, I decided that I was free and that I could help some people who were in a difficult situation because of the situation that had arisen. I don't have a big luxury car, but it has 3 seats, I can transport people in it".