NuRide for mobile devices?
Boingboing's current guestblogger Paul Spinrad is currently Projects Editor for MAKE magazine and the author of The VJ Book and The Re/Search Guide to Bodily Fluids. He lives in San Francisco.
I love the idea of NuRide, although I've never used it myself. Anyone have some first-hand experience? It's a ridesharing system that hooks up drivers with passengers via the web, and it's running now in a few cities. The way they get past the axe-murderer problem is by having participants sign up via their employers or schools. Maybe the reasoning there is that if employees or students do go psycho, at least they'll be traceable?
Two things that would help would be to put it on mobile devices and get rid of the requirements for joining. I expect that when API's for mobile phone services come out, which someone told me should happen within a couple of years, an open system like this will be written that anyone will be able to use. This would mean way more people using it, which means way more rides offered-- and at some point it would reach a tipping point where people use the service casually, without planning ahead, figuring that they'll be able to get a ride back from wherever they are pretty easily. You could just rely on it the way people in some cities rely on being able to catch a cab.
If so, some custom would likely bubble up to make it worthwhile for the person giving the ride, probably some system for estimating gas and toll expenses. As the classic 70's dashboard sticker warns, "Ass, Gas, or Grass: Nobody Rides for Free." (NuRide rewards drivers with gift cards from participating retailers-- maybe they get money or tax breaks for promoting clean air.)
As for the axe-murderer problem, I think it's less of a liability and insurance issue if it's freeware tapping into a publicly hosted database, rather than a single company owning and running the system. And on the user side, I think there are enough people out there who would trust their own judgment whether or not to get in the car. But I suspect that it might find trust and acceptance faster if it started out only running on Blackberries.
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I thought that said "nuderide" at first. That could be a successful business model.
you must commute to a modelling academy or something.
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/bud-light-superbowl-commercial-ax-and-chainsaw-hitchhiker/3091466791
paging the hillside strangler.
@1 I thought the same thing. It's only a matter of time before someone copies the "de" characters, colors them blue, and pastes them in to create the new logo.
Ah, someone appears to have done just that: http://zip.4chan.org/n/src/1236300261054.jpg
This sounds like a smartass question, but I don't mean it that way, I swear -- I'm really interested in people's thinking on this one: do you think that the use of technology will somehow make this more acceptable to people than plain old hitchiking is? Because what you describe -- rides freely offered, people relying casually on being able to get rides, a social code of remuneration -- sounds a lot like hitchiking, but with phones instead of thumbs. Will the use of technology be the factor that makes a person standing by the side of the road 'one of us' instead of 'potential slasher'?
Americans will have none of this 'sharing'.
Velomobiles!
Great question Cori-- I'm totally wondering the same thing!
One thing about technology is that it can link to your police record etc., although there will always be some way around it.
Arthur Dent: All right...how did we get here?
Ford Prefect: We hitched a lift.
Arthur Dent: Excuse me? Are you trying to tell me that we just stuck out our thumbs and some bug-eyed monster stuck his head out and said: 'Hi fellows, hop right in, I can take you as far as the Basingstoke roundabout'?
Ford Prefect: Well, the thumb's an electronic sub-ether device, the roundabout's at Barnard's Star, six light years away, but otherwise that's more or less right.
I remember reading an article many years ago about some Iron Curtain country which had a system something like this decades ago.
People were licensed by the state, so there was some control and regulation so riders and hitchhikers has some assurance against the Hillside Strangler effect.
A person would hitch a ride, displaying their license, and accept a ride from a driver who also had a license on display. The hitcher also had a booklet to tally how far they rode, and with whom. Driver had a similar book.
They would fill the booklets up, and submit them to whatever government agency was in charge of it. Both riders and drivers were rewarded based on their respective miles, as that reduced the load on the infrastructure. Presumably rider and driver booklets were correlated to reduce fraud.
You say:
"As for the axe-murderer problem, I think it's less of a liability and insurance issue if it's freeware tapping into a publicly hosted database, rather than a single company owning and running the system."
What do you base this on? freeware open systems are a lot better at many things I will admit, but I don't see how this is one. I feel like when for example you look at dating sites the ones that charge and screen customers have much more consistent (e.g. non-married, non-creepy) than the ones that allow anyone to join. Nuride by using employers/schools at least makes it harder for people to drop one identity and create a new one whenever it becomes clear they are not trustworthy. An ebay style ratings system might work to guage overall trustworthiness, but I think this would require some sort of overseeing body to settle disputes who has an incentive to make the list as accurate as possible.
With a freeware system it seems that it would be too easy for people to create new identities/lie/cheat without anyone with an incentive to crack down on it.
Funny enough in Canada the Greyhound bus co is trying to stomp out any ride share type programs,as it infringes upon an agreement(s) that the company has with various provinces on their continued delivery of service to small populated areas. I believe As It Happens (cbc) had a segment on this a few months back.
I am an American student studying in Germany for the year, and I have heard of a similar system that has been in place for quite a while, with great success! While I can't remember the name (I'll try to add it later if I can), I have had many friends who have used this site to connect with drivers from all over Germany heading through the country or even to Italy or the Czech Republic. The basic premise is that you will split the cost of gas with the driver, and you can get on and off at any point on his trip. Its setup similar to a couch surfing model I believe, although I haven't used it yet (my German language skills are so bad I'm kind of afraid to!). To my knowledge, no one has been hacked to tiny little bloody pieces and grilled up like chicken fried steak, then served with french fries and coleslaw and a coke. Also, a lot of students at my university apparently use it!
Scott Adams, the Dilbert guy, has been blogging about this for years. Here are two of his blog entries about it, from 2007 and 2009:
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/06/how_i_solved_th.html
http://www.dilbert.com/blog/entry/ridesharing_in_the_future/
Also see dynamicridesharing.org. I'd put in another link, but I don't want to get caught in the spam filter.
That's really neat about this working in Germany and about the Scott Adams posts and the Dynamic Ridesharing site! If something like this becomes available here, I think I'd use it all the time.
The not-an-axe-murderer problem is why we need Whuffie
Like any Angeleno, I've put in a lot of time, while stuck in traffic, trying to figure out ways to improve traffic in L.A.. One idea that I've thought about a lot, and talked to a few people about, but nobody, including myself, could figure out some of the obvious problems with it. It's something like this site, a way to make "hitchhiking" a viable way of getting around.
The driver and hitchhiker confirm identities by taking pictures of each other with their cellphone cameras before the hitchhiker gets in the car. The pictures get sent up to the site, which confirms the identities with facial recognition software. (OK, stop laughing.) The system then sends back a text letting you know if the identity matches.
do they make `Not an Axe-Murderer` T-shirts
why not just GPS trackers with alarms? The axe comes out, you trigger the beacon.
Cori
This is more like the ride-sharing notice-board systems in US colleges, than hitchhiking. Eg, going home for the summer, check the board for a ride, split the gas money.
Yeah, this has been done in Germany for a couple of years now. Check http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de/ if you're interested. Another one which I don't know as well apparently alread offers a mobile service: http://www.mitfahrzentrale.de/mobile-center.
I've been taking and offering rides this way many times by now since many of my friends and family that live in far-away places (by German standards...). People usually charge 5€ per 100 km (that comes to about 10 $ per 100 miles for you anachronistic, non-conformist American types ;) ), independently from how many passengers they actually get, so it's not really sharing the gas money. It still beats most other modes of transportation although low-cost airlines can actually be cheaper if you're going really far (say, from Hamburg to Munich) and are able to plan in advance.
I'm not quite sure how they solve the axe-murderer thing though. Never happened to me and I never murdered anyone either so am I just lucky? Seriously it's probably just a good idea to travel in pairs and be suspicious of people offering a ride with only one vacant seat in a station wagon...
Still a good way to get around,
AND ITZ TEH GRATE 4 TEH ENAVARONMUNTZ 2!!1
It's worth noting that the "Greyhound in Canada" issue should be "greyhound in Ontario", since transportation regulation is a provincial responsibility.
In addition, the problem only seems to occur if there is money exchanged between the rider and the driver - has anyone used nuride and can say if the exchange of money comes up *at all*? (It's the exchange of funds that matters, not why. Saying's 'its for gas' doesn't resolve the issue.)
That said, my objection to bus companies doing this is that although they may hold the monopoly licenses to service those small towns, in many cases, they no longer actually run buses there. Where I grew up in the 1970's, we were already down to only one or two runs per week - at this point, it is, as far as I can tell, no longer possible to get intercity buses there at all. And - for the record, this small town is at the crossroads of two provincial highways.
Finally - the provincial government is looking to address this, by changing the legislation to make clear that this should not be illegal. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately?) passing legislation takes a bit of time.
Even better, there's a system of vehicles that, for a nominal charge, will take you anywhere on their published route! They're called buses and they are excellent!
If I want to carpool with someone, I will ask them. If I want to hitchhike, I i'll hitchhike. I don't need a blackberry or an iphone. This is silly.
A better solution for the 99% of us that aren't gadget geeks is to walk, and for drivers to offer rides to people who are walking. At Roosevelt Roads Naval Station it was A VIOLATION OF REGULATIONS to pass a person who was walking if you were driving a government vehicle. Consequently, people walked, knowing full well they would soon have a ride.
Slugging, really hitchhiking, is a common way to get to Northern Virginia- you just drop by the commuter parking lots south of DC and wait for someone to pick you up so they can use the carpool lanes. There are designated lines for different destinations, though most people are going to the Pentagon.
Am I the only one fed up to the back teeth with people and organizations who can't spell "new"?
plain old vanilla hitchhiking is still common in a lot of places in Europe. A French roommate of mine in Dublin travels all over whatever country she is visiting that way. I'm currently in western Turkey and I've done it to get to nearby towns. I even know someone who gets to his University every day by hitchhiking. Most people who do it really don't believe it when I say it is extremely rare in America but used to be quite common.
This guy had quite an adventure hitch-hiking across the USA after graduating college, it's well worth the read:
http://www.codysmart.com/hitchhike/
Hasn't GoLoco had a service like this for some time? They also make it very easy for a passenger to pay for their fair share of a trip, and can do it directly online so no money has to actually change hands during the ride.
It sounds like it's a very good system.
There have been a number of articles and proposals about "smart jitneys". Here's one that proposes an open-source mobile phone-based solution:
http://www.communitysolution.org/transport.html
Chalk another one up for seeing "nuderide" - I thought that if no one had anywhere to hide an axe.... oh never mind.
I've been thinking of setting up a local rideboard like this in my rural town of Pittsboro NC (where there is currently no real bus service to anywhere, and most of the rides would probably just be 'to town', 16 miles up the road to Chapel Hill, where public transit can take you wherever you need to go).
I thought that one way around the 'axe murderer' fears would be to use cameraphones to email photos of the car, driver , and drivers' license to some central repository as the rider got into the vehicle, or vice versa. In our small community I don't think even this would be necessary, but this might be a useful technique to employ in similar efforts elsewhere.
Blackberry = trustworthy?
Carticipate is a social network app on the iPhone for ride sharing and carpooling.
http://www.carticipate.com
The network is also accessible via FaceBook for those who don't have an iPhone:
http://apps.facebook.com/carticipate