hitchin’ home for the holidays
photo by mercybell/creative commons
Transportation ranks high among the excesses that seem to mark the winter holiday season, as highways and flyways clog like turkey-stuffed arteries with holiday travelers. Will you be traveling to celebrate with family and friends this year? AAA bets you are: they estimate that 63.50 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home this holiday, a 1.7 percent increase from last year’s 62.42 million travelers.
Ah, but this golden age of communication offers a simple, viable option for us responsible travelers! Consider ride sharing for your holiday travels this year.
The internet is full of fabulous tools to connect drivers and passengers all over the country. In this equation, everyone wins: gas expenses are shared (making it cheaper for all) and with each additional person who buddies-up in a carpool, the collective greenhouse gas emissions are halved. Bonus points for the meeting new people and the intriguing conversations that may develop en route…
Here are a few ride sharing sites to start with:
www.craigslist.org
The ubiquitous craigslist offers a rideshare board in it’s community pages. Craigslist is one of the most popular places to seek or offer a ride with about 20,000 ride-share posts a month, and up to 30,000 listings at peak travel times like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
www.ridecheck.com
Ridecheck covers the U.S. and Canada and allows you to search by gender-specific carpools if you choose—a good option for some women traveling solo.
www.ridester.com
This “feedback-rated community” boasts the fastest route-matching technology available and the first web payment system to help riders securely pay drivers before each trip.
www.erideshare.com
Proudly reducing dependancy on foreign oil as one of the benefits of participating! These guys also facilitate regular working carpools and network local people to carshare for errands and shorter rides.
