My wife’s car was in for repair’s this week, so we were down to just one car.  On Tuesday, we both needed to go to the office, so I made arrangements with my neighbor John for a ride in the morning to my parent’s house.  He works in the same town where I use to live and from there I could borrow my Mom’s car for the rest of the day.

Well, it could not have gone better.  John picked me up at 6:30 in the morning, in a nice warm car on a cold morning.  We had a great conversation during the ride and the 45 minute trip passed very quickly.  It was too bad I could not pick up another ride for the second half of my trip or found a ride for my trip back home.

Now, I did not pay John for the ride, but I gladly would have.  He didn’t mind giving me a ride since he was just making his normal every day commute anyway.  So it did not cost him anything and he enjoyed having the company.

While we were driving north on Route 9, we could see that the majority of the cars were single passenger vehicles.  All this unused capacity is just going to waste.  I think the bulk of our daily trips are on major highways and we would need to provide our own transportation for the first and last 10% of the commute.  Imagine driving your car to a commuter lot where you could get a ride or pick up some paying passengers.  If you then were dropped off near your work place, could you text a coworker for a ride the rest of the way?  What if you sent out a tweet?

It seems like I never have enough time.  What about you?  Think of all the things you could do while some else did the driving.  Think of the money you could save.  Think about how sharing rides could help the economy, transportation and the environment.  Now do you think you would try an organized paid ride system?

photo credit: Axel-D

Slugging – impromptu ride sharing

Slugging is a combination of ride-share commuting and hitchhiking.  It is believed to have started in the congested Washington, D.C. area as the practice of forming informal or ad-hoc carpools for the daily commute of workers.  The term “slugs” began when bus drivers would attempt to pick-up these riders only to find out they were not waiting for the bus like a “real” passenger. 

• Sluggers get a ride
• Drivers gain access to HOV lanes
• Traffic is reduced
• Environment benefits

This proves that the Passenger Energy concept can work, we just need to develop a more formalized system to allow paid ride sharing to spread.  Any ideas on how to get started?

photo credit: geishaboy500

This idea will not work unless both drivers and riders feel safe.  Here are some ideas that could make us more comfortable when providing or accepting a ride:

• when you accept a ride, use camara phone to take picture of the driver
• email picture with make/model/year and license plate of the car
• send text message with time/place you were picked up
• call a friend and let them know when/where you expect to be dropped off

photo credit: Nesster

A driver could do similar things when picking up any rider.  Some anxiety could also be reduced by picking up multiple passengers. 

Many cell phones now have built in GPS technology to identify a persons location.  What else could we do to improve safety?

Exchange points for drivers and riders

A transportation hub is defined as a location where traffic is exchanged across several modes of transport.  In our current environment passengers will switch between bus, railway and metro stations.  If every town were to establish a Passenger Energy Hub, it could greatly enhance the ability to share rides.

As a test, we could use exiting parking lots at malls and large shopping centers.  They typically have reserve parking area which is crowded on weekends, but not as heavily used during working hours.  Riders could be matched up with drivers if the parking lot was split into 4 quadrants (NW, NE, SE, SW).  First you would drive to the mall and park to get a ride or remain as a driver and pick up passengers.  Drivers could then drop you off at another hub that is closer to your destination.  A web site like this could be developed to allow people to gather and exchange daily commuting habits to organize groups for specific destinations.

As an example, if I am heading north on Route 95 and you are getting off at an earlier exit, I will stop at another hub on the way.  If you are going further than I am, I will drop you off at a hub near my exit and you can continue on.  There could be shuttles between hubs and from hubs to local stops.