I ilke this article. It puts a little more perspective on the gripes and grumbles we all have been venting at the pumps. And it does lead in to the obvious: we might keep our wallets in our back pockets - but our wallets always end up pointing us down the path we'll take. Ridiculous prices aren't so ridiculous, but really, it's better that we all feel that way and try and find ways to use less gas.

And here's an idea that's rather idiotic in its naive ideology. Why don't we have more hitchhikers? I know, I know. We've all seen the cliched horror flick revolving around a well-meaning motorist and a serial killer. "You've got to be CrAZy to get into a car with a stranger, or, even worse, let some stranger into your car!!!" But really, I'm young and silly and lacking when it comes to any raw data on the probability of serial killers asking/offering rides.

Even if there were stats on it, the beauty of social statistics is that WE can change them. If MORE people were open to hitchhiking, using my also data-less assumption that a slight majority of people are well-meaning and harmless, then the numbers would steadily drop to a negligible risk in hitchhiking. Taking that further, we basically all have cell phones (that have or will have GPS standard) and we all have an ability to network "slightly" better than in the 70s. Why not have some sort of certifiable way of signing up to offer rides, or solicit rides, and have those "members" go through a little background, making it even less likely that crimes occur? Talk about the opportunity for public transportation! You probably could find a way to incentivize those who offer rides, whether through tax deferrals or individual logging of miles from a pot of certification fees.

And really, imagine actually taking a car ride and talking with a stranger. Learning about them and their similarities and differences with you. Maybe they work near you and you'll end up carpooling. Maybe they know someone you know. Maybe they have a face and a family and opinions and much more than a target on their back for your middle finger as you lay on your horn in rush hour traffic.....

I really just think it's silly seeing thousands of 4-seater cars, carrying, one-by-one, pissed of and socially isolated drivers. And I never understood the fear of the fellow American.

Mass/Public transit does this already... you can talk to people or you can put on headphones and wait till you get to work.

Or try searching for "ridesharing" via craigslist or google. This is already happening all around you, Einstien.

But that doesn't sell cars, car parts, car insurance or gas. So hammering the message "independence/freedom" of personal transportation will continue, now with its new spin, "hey $4/gallon gas isn't so bad". The "only *those people* ride the bus" fear mongering will also continue.

I grew up in Vermont where the hitchiking culture was still going at least until I moved out of state 10 years ago. I hitched all over, met plenty of interesting people from farmers to world travelers and had a great time. When I was old enough to drive myself, I picked up anyone I saw. I never had a problem.

I like the core of your idea. You could add in the Twitter technology so you can broadcast into an embedded map system, and also use an ebay like feedback system.

ncwwebguy, there are still places in this country without public transit systems or extensive craigslist coverage.

Amazing I know. Some people even live in these godsforsken places.

I'm in Chicago, and I use mass trans whenever I can, including to and from work. But our mass transit system is a bit of clusterf**k. It's crowded, it's slow, it's limited in destinations, and it isn't even cheap (as it used to be). I personally don't like that it strangles our state budget every year, threatening to shut down until they inevitably cave, and another year of mismanagement and fiscal irresponsibility can continue.

I am also aware of "ridesharing" from craigslist, but I am not aware of anyone doing it.

I appreciate the back Blueshift, and the more I think about it, the more I would like to do some hitchhiking.

Yeah the CTA is an embarrassment, and it doesn't help that our governor is a hack and our mayor a dictator.

I know people that have tried hitching around here, and it'll be hours to get a ride anywhere in the city limits or suburbs. However, head to a truckers station and you can get a ride pretty quick. They also will get on the radio and set up your next ride.

Hitching around in the city would be great. I say we get a programmer and set up a new social networking site for this.

hey, guess what? in order to hitchhike...you need someone that's driving to pick you up! Holy shit what a concept! Latest news, people still need rides!

True hitchhiking would never work as a general principle because most people don't make random, ambling, long distance trips where they can afford to get stranded somewhere, taken off their path or just not find a ride going their way for a while.

Most people need dependable transportation along relatively fixed routes on a daily basis supplemented by the occaisional heavy haul of groceries or building supplies, the periodic emergency run to the hospital, and sometimes a long trip like a vacation. The only way to get away from a culture of car ownership is to have reliable, reasonably priced access to all of those kinds of transportation for most people.

What we do now is find the kind we need most often, add the second, and buy a vehicle to handle it. The minivan is great for cargo and small families. The SUV is also good for vacations, small families, or cargo. People drive it to work because they also drive it to the store. The fools who think that everybody should drive a one-seat vehicle to work are solving one tiny problem - gas consumption of commuters - at the cost of many others. They aren't including the need to move groceries a couple times a week, or transport kids. So do they think we should all own different kinds of vehicles? Have a huge garage of perfectly tuned vehicles for each job? Or maybe make everything modular (great - that would be really safe - to build your car each time you go out).

It's much more reasonable to provide a service that hauls everybodies groceries and such on a schedule that fits into people's lives - not like Peapod, with 2 hour delivery windows - so that people can then commute in smaller, cheaper cars.

I agree Ben, but this is more of "ride-sharing" idea than true hitchhiking. In most urban areas (an important caveat), no matter where you are going, there is likely to be someone else going there as well. Would everyone be hooked in? Ideally, but unlikely. Would there be liabilities to consider? Of course, and yes, some are bad. Would this be an end-all, be-all system? No, and those other solutions you mention aren't mutually exclusive.

In fact, commercial applications may become even more useful (especially if the "carbon-credit" system keeps bafflingly gaining credence). If a system could manage routing these ride-sharers, it would have to know how to accurately discern the proper pick-up and drop-off points for both parties (the hitcher and the gracious driver). So already, the system has the distance and, with some given averages of consumption, how much fuel was saved by this collaboration. If that gracious driver happens to be a Peapod driver, or a more precise grocery deliverer (as you posited), that company has just netted carbon credits at the expense of nothing to their normal operations.