An excellant example of peer review can be found on commercial vehicles and the “How’s my Driving” sign on the back of many of them.  If you see someone driving erratic, you can call a number and report the offending driver.  The drivers know this, so they police themselves and are much more considerate to the other drivers. 

This could easily be applied to all drivers with a system that uses the same sort of feedback algorithms to establish a reputation tracking system.  Now before you accept a ride with a complete “stranger”, you could first see what others think of this individual.  Now millions of American drivers would be watching their fellow drivers and report anyone who is behaving badly.

Remember when you made that first eBay purchase?  The uncertainty of the seller and if they would really send the correct product.  Then you make a few more purchases and realized that the sellers are all rated and actually stand behind the products they are offering.  Gradually you grow more comfortable with the individual sellers and learn to trust their online reputations.

There is a very interesting idea attributed to eBay founder Pierre Omidyar in the story of eBay:

He quite simply believes that the human race is basically good. At the beginning, many prophesied that it could not work – complete strangers dealing with complete strangers. But it is now obvious that it does.

I believe the same can be true with Pay4Rides.

photo credit: Ryan Fanshaw Photography

Does the idea of accepting a ride from a stranger scare you?  If no, then Pay4Rides is for you.

If yes, then how do you feel about taxis?  Isn’t this the same thing?  Or does the fact that the driver has a cab license ease you concerns?  Then to make Pay4Rides a more acceptable way of ride sharing, we need to license both drivers and rides.  Peer ratings would help eliminate much of the uncertainty when dealing with “strangers”.
photo credit: dionhinchcliffe