This week's Philly EDGE cover story - ED

Date while you wait
New Web site gives the option to flirt in traffic

By Joe Student
Philly EDGE Editor

Most people find frustration while sitting gridlocked in Delaware Valley traffic.
Ben Phillips found a beautiful woman- and a business opportunity.
The Conshohocken resident was stuck in a slow-moving line of cars outside the Exton Mall in the fall of 2004 when he glanced over at the next lane.
“There was this hot blonde in a Jaguar. We made eye contact and spent the rest of the time (in the traffic jam) flirting,” Phillips said. “But I wasn’t able to get her number, or give her mine. It was really frustrating because I would have made conversation (with her) if I could have, but it was impossible.”
The encounter gave Phillips the idea to start Flirting in Traffic (www.flirtingintraffic.com), a Web site that allows users to register in order to obtain an alpha-numeric oval sticker much like those that represent various destinations (i.e. LBI- for Long Beach Island), except that in this case the sticker is the driver’s Flirting ID.
Once a driver has been spotted, other users can go back to the Flirting Web site to check his or her profile and see if the two are compatible. If so, an interested party can then send an email to try to further the conversation – merge, if you will.
“It’s a great way to follow up on missed connections,” Phillips said. “Everybody does it. People admit to (flirting in traffic), so why not take it a step further?”
He said that some of his users have found the service more likeable than online dating.
“You’ve already met the person, and flirted with them, so the pressure is off. I feel it’s a great bridge between real-life dating and ’Net dating,” Phillips said, indicating that he thought his service might be safer as well.
Though interested drivers can currently join Flirting in Traffic for free, Phillips has not ruled out charging a nominal subscription fee.
“A few dollars maybe, but it would come with other benefits,” he said.
After founding the service, which Phillips said now has more than 500 users, he slowly pulled away from his job as a contract programmer to dedicate his time to the site. He mentioned plans for subsequent Flirting on Campus and Flirting at a Bar services using the sticker concept on backpacks and business cards respectively. While he is still pursuing sponsorships to underwrite his still-fledgling enterprise, Phillips believes that it will work.
The only drawback so far: road rage. “The worst thing that could happen to you is that you cut someone off, they see your sticker and send you a nasty email,” he said.
While he is not currently in a relationship, Phillips says he is no longer truly single. In a way, he found his current “mate” via the service.
“I tell my friends I am married to the business. It’s all that I think about. With all that’s been happening with it, it’s been hard to concentrate on a social life,” Phillips said.
And while the woman in the Jag revved him up enough to start Flirting in Traffic, he never has been able to meet her.
“It wasn’t meant to be. I’d still like to meet her, and now I have quite a story to tell her.”